Updated December 2023

Summary: Getting deferred means you’ve got about a 10% chance of getting in, so you should do everything you can to improve your odds, but also look at alternatives.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The great thing about applying early to college — whether it’s Early Decision, Early Action, or one of the other variations like Single-Choice Early Action — is that you get a decision back in the winter (sometimes as early as mid-December) rather than waiting until March or April. If you’re lucky, you get accepted early, which means you get to go to your top school. If you’re unlucky, you get rejected: which means you have to go somewhere else. But then there’s this ugly middle ground called a deferral. What the heck is that? And should you feel good about it or not?

What is a deferral?

Generally speaking, a deferral means that the college really likes your application, and they don’t want to reject you at the moment, but they’re not ready to offer you a spot either. Instead they want to wait and compare you against all of the other Regular Decision applications that they get in the spring. In other words, they want to buy themselves some time before they make a final decision about you. The vast majority of students apply Regular Decision (about 90%), so the college wants to see how you stack up against the larger applicant pool.

Should I be flattered or depressed?

Maybe both. Let’s look at the numbers. At the most competitive universities like Brown and Yale (see chart), they basically break the early applicant pool into thirds: the top third gets accepted or deferred, and the bottom two-thirds get rejected. The breakdown is similar at other universities. Out-of-state (OOS) students applying Early Decision to University of Virginia (a Top 25 school) have a 17% chance of getting accepted, a 26% chance of getting deferred, and a 57% chance of getting rejected. What this all means is that if you get deferred from a competitive college, they basically consider your application to be in the top-third of all early application candidates. And on some level, that should be flattering.

Bear in mind, however, that some schools like USC and Georgetown, don’t reject any applicants in the early round. All students are either accepted or deferred. So if you get deferred from one of these schools, you have no idea if they liked your application or not.

What are my odds of getting in if I’m deferred?

This is the million-dollar question. The honest answer is only about 5-10%, which unfortunately is not terribly promising. Most universities don’t make this information public, but we know that in general only a small percentage of students who get deferred will ultimately be admitted. At some schools, some years, it might be a little better: UPenn last reported accepting 16% of deferrals, and Georgetown reported 15%. But at other schools it’s worse: Williams and MIT reportedly only accept about 2% of deferrals.

Typically, getting deferred is not a very promising prospect: only about 1 in 10 students will get in, if that. Still, that lucky person might be you. So if you get deferred, it’s important to do everything you can to improve your chances. Okay, like what?

#1. Apply Early Decision II somewhere else

Applying Early Decision improves your admissions odds considerably. (You can read about that here.) If you apply Early Decision to your top school and get deferred, you are now permitted to apply Early Decision II to another school, and boost your admissions odds there instead. Bear in mind, however, that if you get accepted into your ED II school, you have to enroll there, even if your original school later accepts you. Also, not many colleges offer an ED II option. But some do, including: Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Tufts, Tulane, UChicago, Boston College, Vanderbilt, and Washington Univ. of St. Louis.

#2. Write the school a Letter of Continued Interest

Colleges want to know that if they accept you, you’ll enroll there. And most colleges invite you to submit a brief letter outlining all of the notable academic and personal achievements you’ve made since submitting your application back in November in the early application round (including updated scores and transcripts), and reiterating why you specifically want to go to that school. That means that you have to keep your grades up throughout the school year; you can’t start slacking off once you've sent in your early applications.

Note that some schools like USC specifically instruct you not to send additional information, so follow their rules. Also, it’s not a good idea to pester schools with phone calls or emails to their admissions office.

#3. Prepare yourself to go somewhere else

Since you’ve only got a 10% chance of getting accepted once you’ve been deferred, it’s best to hedge you bets and focus your attention on alternative schools. If it’s before January and you haven’t submitted your applications yet for Regular Decision, put a lot of effort into those other applications, particularly the all-important essays. Your essays can be a real difference-maker in your application. For expert advice on how to craft winning essays, read here.

Final thoughts.

Getting deferred is not the worst possible news, but it’s also not terribly promising. Still, since about 1 in 10 students get accepted after they’ve been deferred, you should do everything you can to follow up with an impressive Letter of Continued Interest, and then hope for the best.

Getting deferred can be really frustrating, especially when you have no idea what it actually means: Is it good or bad?

Elite universities like Yale basically accept the top 10% of early applicants, defer the next 20%, and reject the bottom two-thirds.

At the end of the day, only about 10% of deferrals get accepted. At some schools like UPenn, it’s a little better at 16%, but not much.

Many students who get deferred from their top school decide to apply ED II somewhere else (like Johns Hopkins) to improve their odds there.

A strong Letter of Continued Interest is your chance to brag about any new accomplishments and reiterate why it’s the perfect school for you.

Deferrals: the Good, the Bag, the Ugly