Deferral Continued Letter of Interest Timeline

I got deferred from my ED this year and I was wondering about writing the letter of deferral. Since the RD deadline for my college is Jan 1st WHEN should I send in my deferral letter? I heard somewhere that now (end of January) is a good time to send it in since it would fully reflect Semester 1 updates, but other institutions like MIT have a February Notes and Updates form that should be submitted in February.

Therefore, when should my letter of continued interest be submitted if my college has a RD deadline of January 1st and a notification date of late March / early April. Thanks for the help!!

I do not know what college you are referring to (MIT does not have ED), but generally when you are deferred ED, you are simply put into the regular admission group and do not have to submit anything new, although if there is something special, like a much higher test score, you should send it. Most do not want further letters of interest.

Sending first semester grades for RA is another issue and it depends on college. Many want a mid-year report (the updates and notes form at MIT), usually about late Jan or first part of February, providing first semester grades, and many of those want that report to come from your school/counselor rather than being self-reported, and you need to request your school to provide it. However, there are a lot of colleges that do not want any mid-year report and make regular admission decisions based on grades through junior year.

So what you have to send to your ED school depends on what that college actually wants. and you need to determine exactly what is needed (colleges put that information on their sites) because, likely, the last thing your ED college wants is another letter of interest.

People usually use a letter of continuing interest when they are put on a waitlisted after the regular round decisions are out. They hope to get an edge by assuring in the college that if they are taken off the waiting list they are likely to enroll. I don’t see any reason to send such a letter if you are deferred. Applying early decision is a pretty strong indication of interest and I can’t imagine any school thinking that those applicants would not come if taken in the regular round .