After being deferred SCEA from Yale a few weeks ago, I am looking for ways to maximize my chances as someone who applied early but must compete with regular decision applicants.
I was told by a current Yale student that sending a letter to Admissions, expressing my gratitude for their time and restating Yale as my top choice, could be helpful if admissions is deciding between a few candidates.
Please let me know if you all think this is appropriate, as Yale is not entirely specific about sending new items in the deferral decision letter.
In addition, though quite preliminary, I am planning on starting a nonprofit organization; ideally, the organization would be ready in a few months, but I am certainly not experienced with this process. Would this be something I could add in my letter to admissions or is it too early?
Yale deferred more students in the SCEA round than they have seats for in their freshman class. If every student – or even half of them – wrote a deferral letter like you described, do you think it would help their chances? Please use a little common sense here even when listening to Yale students and their advice.
A deferral letter is a only helpful when there are meaningful accomplishments, achievements or awards you’ve received since you pressed the submit button. Have you won any significant awards since applying? If so, then by all means write a deferral letter and update Admissions on those achievements. However, if you have nothing new to add, DON’T write a deferral letter. A better approach would be to send in an additional recommendation from someone who can add a different perspective to your file.
As to your planning on starting a nonprofit: please don’t mention it in a deferral letter as right now it’s a "pipe dream"and you can’t point to specific results or actions you’ve accomplished. As such, it will smell of desperation – and AO’s have a good nose for things like that.
@kpap - Sorry about the deferral, but I’m glad you remain hopeful.
I agree with everything @gibby says above, but want to add that it is common practice for a student’s GC to contact the admissions office at a school where a student has been deferred to confirm that it is the student’s “first choice,” and also for the student to send an email to their regional AO to say what you stated above. It would be more helpful to you however if you have some good news to share about awards, accomplishments, a supplementary letter of recommendation, etc., that you didn’t have when you submitted the Common App. Best of luck!
Thank you for the replies, I will obtain two new letters of recommendation and will have a business plan ready for the nonprofit within a couple weeks.
Is that enough new information and materials to send a letter to them?
I would not send more than one additional recommendation and only if it adds something new to your application.
I would not send a letter based on a business plan.
Noooooooo, please re-read post # 1. As per Yale’s instructions on their website, send only ONE additional recommendation letter, DO NOT mention your plans for a non-profit, and DO NOT send a business plan. Anything more than ONE additional letter of recommendation is overkill.
What would be considered “meaningful accomplishments, achievements or awards”? For instance, I received a Honorable Mention award (pretty much 3rd place) at a relatively difficult Model United Nations conference, which I have never received before. For context, I also applied as a STEM major.
I do not agree with @gibby at all. I believe that even if you don’t have an extremely significant achievement, I believe that it is still appropriate to send them a letter of continued interest with the achievements that you have received since submitting your application. Sure, there will be many individuals who would have sent deferral letters to Yale (or any school for that matter), but as long as you make yours unique towards that school and portray aspects of yourself about why attending that school matters to you, I believe that it can only have a positive impact on your application. There was an individual on YouTube who sent in a deferral letter/letter of continued interest to Princeton and they were admitted during regular round. He stated the achievements that he received since submitting his application, but he poured his heart and soul out into the “continued interest” part by really connecting his passions and the person he was to why he wanted to attend Princeton.
Yale is very specific: Go ahead and write ONE LETTER OF UPDATE, but do NOT send anything more. So the OP should NOT send Yale his business plan for his not yet up-and-running non-profit, and s/he should NOT send two extra letters of recommendation if they are sending an update letter.
FWIW: If you and I have watched that video, I guarantee you that Admissions Officers at Yale, Harvard and Princeton have as well. So AO’s are going to be on the look-out this year for update letters that are similarly done (emailing a professor in a field you are interested in to show your continued interest to the school and then using that professors’s name and the discussions you’ve had in your LoR) – so my guess is that what worked for one student last year IS NOT going to work again this year, especially as the video has already amassed 12,827 views!