<p>Can/should we contact our admissions rep to talk about our deferral? Is that allowed, or encouraged? And where would we get contact information? Thanks.</p>
<p>I have the same question, lol.</p>
<p>Call 617-495-1551 and see if the admissions representative will put you through. If not, do it through your guidance counselor.</p>
<p>What do you plan on asking, though?</p>
<p>yeah, what can you ask?</p>
<p>You can ask your regional rep if the admissions committee had any specific questions/concerns about your application and if there is anything you can do to strengthen your application. You can also make sure they know that Harvard is still your number 1.</p>
<p>You can either email or call your regional rep or have your guidance counselor do it. Many times they won't give you anything concrete, but some kids have been known to have been helped by the regional rep.</p>
<p>what about trying to talk to your alumni interviewer, or someone from the admissions office with whom you've had an oncampus interview?</p>
<p>my GC said that his general impression was that most deferred students get discouraged and essentially stop pursuing the school after getting 'let down'. is this true? also, if you're one of those who is still in love with harvard and isn't the least bit discouraged, will that be recognized and taken into account as opposed to other deferrals who may not be as enthusiastic, maybe because they were pushed to apply early to harvard by parents or other influences that weren't of their own volition? thanks, sorry, i know it's disjointed.</p>
<p>Not really. As NSM said, Harvard does not take into account the fact you think it is your #1 choice in making admissions decisions. Remember, deferrals are considered together with the RD kids, so generally, this "strong demonstration of interest" would not be much of a factor.</p>
<p>okay, that's understandable. so what can we be expected to do then in hopes of boosting our chances in the RD pool? an extra, meaningful recommendation, an extra essay, what do you suggest?</p>
<p>All of the above. That's what I did and it worked for me. However, I can't emphasize this enough - MANY MANY students did what you suggested (and what I did as well) and got rejected in the end. I just happened to make the crapshoot.</p>
<p>I would recommend having your GC call. When S was deferred, his GC got in touch with his rep, who was very forthcoming about what the weaknesses were in his application. Perhaps he would not have been as frank with my son. He recommended that S send in a paper he had written about a summer research project, which he forwarded to the department my son was interested in and reveiwed by a faculty member. S also sent some work that was unrelated to his intended concentration, which helped round out his application.</p>