Deferred ... And wondering

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

I applied SCEA from Canada and was deferred. I’m thinking of writing a letter of continued interest and I have some concerns…

  1. Should I try to find out why I was deferred before writing? My public school has zero connections with Harvard and students aren’t as close with their counsellors here than at most other places. So I was wondering if I should call myself, but I don’t want to do anything unnecessary :confused:

  2. Send the letter via Applicant Portal or email it to a representative? Or mail to office?

  3. Is it ok to make the letter more personal/emotional, or is it safer to be more formal?

  4. What counts as a significant achievement update? Does what’s significant to me, personally, count? Or does it have to be some amazing national award? If you didn’t save the world between your deferral and now, is it even necessary to write a letter?

  5. When is the absolute latest to send a letter? When is preferred?

2

  1. You’ve missed the window on this one. The time to have your GC call was in mid-December to early January. At the moment, Admissions Officers are too busy reading applications to go through your file and have a conversation about what they saw lacking in your application.

  2. At this stage in the applications process, you should FAX your letter, as faxes spewing out of a fax machine demand immediate attention. Uploading the document to the portal, sending it by email, or snail mail will take too long.

  3. Sure it’s okay to make the letter more personal, but NOT emotional. Don’t give Admissions a sob story or tell them that your “dream” is going to Harvard, as that is so common place that it will be ignored.

  4. Winning an award at a national, state, or province level is a significant achievement. Something at a school level – like being nominated “best in chemistry at your high school” is NOT worth an update. If you don’t have any significant achievements to write about, a letter is unnecessary.

  5. A letter is preferred whenever you have a significant achievement. Intel winners don’t get notified until the first week of March, so it’s appropriate to fax an update letter at that time. Probably the latest date to FAX an update letter is mid-March, around the 15th of the month. By that time, almost all decisions have been made, and accepted students files have been sent to the financial aid offers to evaluate aid.

3

Thank you very much for your response! Since it’s not an “official” school document per se, I assume I don’t have to fax it through my school office…?

Enjoy your weekend