This week we welcome Assistant Director of Admission, Ashley Brookshire, to the blog. Welcome, Ashley!
If you were with us for last month’s blog, then hopefully you are aware of (and perhaps even embracing?) the gray-area that is college admission. In keeping with that theme, let’s venture to a topic that some of you may find highly relevant as college admission decisions are being released: deferrals.
There are few things more anti clear-cut than decisions like defer and waitlist.
Our most viewed blog of 2020 was What does being deferred mean? I’m sure some of those views were heightened by the pandemic and the uncertainty surrounding college enrollment at the time. Even without that context, I feel certain this still would have been one of the most viewed blogs of the year. So, let’s take another stab at this with the pandemic-aspect removed and a bit more stability in the college enrollment world.
What does being deferred mean?
Students who apply as part of an early action plan may receive a deferred decision. This means that we, as an admission office, are not ready to make a final admission decision for that student. There are a wide range of reasons why this might be the case, but they mainly fall into two categories:
- We would like to see more information from the student. If you applied by a mid-October or early-November deadline, we know that by late January you’ve had updates to your academic, extracurricular, and personal records. For many students, that can include fall semester grades, spring schedule updates, elected leadership roles, increased responsibility at home, and more. Deferring a student allows a college to collect that additional insight – insight that we feel could have a bearing on the admission decision that you may receive.
- We would like to have more information about the current year’s full applicant pool. Colleges are making early decision round assessments with a big unknown in the background: who has yet to apply, and what will that pool of applicants look like? Will more students choose to apply in our regular decision round than early? Will those later applicants have stronger academic records? Weaker? Nearly identical? To account for the unknowns related to regular decision volume and strength, colleges tend to lean on the “we’re not ready to make the final call” option of deferring students. This allows us to keep strong early round candidates in our applicant pool while not over-admitting too early (and therefore having to turn away comparable strong applicants who for any number of reasons chose to apply a little later).
The specific reason that your application has been deferred and will be reviewed again during the Regular Decision round may never be shared with you. And that’s often because there isn’t “just one reason.” Most of the time, there are a variety of micro-reasons – some within your control and presented in your application, some outside of your control and dependent on the overall applicant pool – that have led to the decision you’ve received. After all, if the formula for who is admitted, deferred, denied, etc. is clear-cut, then admission offices wouldn’t spend months and tremendous labor holistically reviewing (and re-reviewing, and re-re-reviewing) applications.
What should you do?
After decision release, admission offices will communicate your next steps. There are likely hundreds (or thousands) of students who have been deferred, and we want to get ahead of that group with information about next steps and how best to approach this phase of the process (it’s much more efficient to update websites and craft email campaigns than to expect students to call or email our office for guidance on this topic!).
You’ll likely be asked to submit some type of deferred supplemental form, which will allow you to relay any extracurricular or personal updates that you’d like to share with the admission office. You can also expect a request for fall grades, so be prepared to take appropriate action with your high school to get that information submitted.
Some colleges may have you write an additional essay, give you the option of submitting an additional letter of recommendation, offer a virtual interview, etc. Key takeaway here: if you are deferred, and you’re still interested in pursuing admission at that college, then be sure to pay attention to the information they provide about the process and take care of any applicable action items. That’s about as clear-cut as it gets in the college admission world!
What does being deferred NOT mean?
I think our 2020 blog from Rick Clark says it best: It does not mean they are questioning your ability, talent, intelligence, or potential match for their school.
Building a first-year class on a college campus is not clear-cut. As we discussed last month , a lot of factors play a role in making this process particularly murky. Using a “deferred” decision option helps colleges create a buffer around the vagueness of admission and building an incoming class, while also raising new questions for students who find themselves in this temporary decision status.
Deferred is not a “soft deny.” Colleges will not defer a student they believe has zero chance of being admitted and ask them to submit extra materials for review. That’s not an appropriate use of anyone’s time, energy, or effort.
And there are some students who – based on historically competitive statistics, capacity limitations, and the myriad of other things that affect a college’s selection process – colleges know will not be competitive in the current year’s applicant pool. That is a decision that we would rather the student receive as early in the process as possible, while other college applications are still open, and many (MANY) other opportunities are still accessible.
What should you NOT do?
Hopefully by now, some of these next points make sense to you. Because as we’ve seen, much of a deferred student’s final decision is dependent on how the full applicant pool shapes up. 
To that end, it is not helpful to submit documents that the college has not requested. For example, if the college says they do not offer an interview, then don’t waste your time trying to press them for an interview opportunity.
Additional signs of affection (which in my tenure have included boxes of candy, scrapbooks, original songs showcasing both talent and admission candidacy, and baby pictures in the college’s apparel, to name a few) won’t move the needle on your decision either (and if they do move the needle, most likely not in the direction you were intending…). Unlike most of what we’ve covered in this blog, this advice is very clear-cut: don’t do it!
I know you have much better things to do with your time and money than selecting and sending an edible arrangement to our office. While you’re waiting for a final admission decision, focus on your senior year, do the things that bring you joy, and strike “courting the admission office” off your to-do list.
While little in college admission may seem clear-cut, we do try our best on this blog to provide insight and authentic advice as best we can. If you’re looking for more words of wisdom on this topic, then I hope you’ll check out what my colleagues have shared:
2023: The Committees and Decisions of College Admission… And College Football
2021: Handling Admission Decisions — A Coach’s Guide
2020: What does being deferred mean?
2019: Turning a Loss into a Big Win
2018: Preparation Day
Ashley has worked in the Georgia Tech Office of Undergraduate Admission since graduating from the Institute in 2010 with a B.S. in History, Technology, and Society. In her time with Georgia Tech, she has worked within first-year admission recruitment and review, Women’s Recruitment, and Dual Enrollment initiatives. For 9 years, she served as Tech’s representative on the West Coast, and recently relocated back to the Atlanta campus. As a life-long Yellow Jacket, Ashley’s love for Georgia Tech runs deep and she is passionate about assisting students and families navigate the college admission process.