<p>Is there anything to do to increase a student's RD chances when deferred or must one just sit and wait? Thanks.</p>
<p>One can send information on new awards, latest grades, more recommendations, visit, and show 'em the love.</p>
<p>For example from the UChicago website:
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When you’re deferred, it means you’ve applied early action. Instead of receiving an offer of admission, the office has decided to put you in the pool with the applicants who are turning in their applications for regular notification on January 1 for freshman applicants and April 1 for transfer applicants. Deferral is not a rejection and it’s not being put on the wait list. If you’ve been deferred, it’s a good time to start talking to your admissions counselor about how awesome you are and how Chicago would be a good fit for you. Another good idea would be to schedule an interview, if you haven't already had one.
[/quote]
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<p>I would definitely not just passively "sit back and wait." In fact, I didn't. When I was deferred from Barnard two years ago, I wrote them a letter, got an extra recommendation, and let them know about a selective extracurricular I'd been admitted to. I got in RD, and I'm nearly certain I wouldn't have had I just sat back and waited. Why don't you call your school and see if they'll tell you why you were deferred, make sure to try to improve that area, and then try to also highlight your strengths?</p>
<p>A friend of my daughter was deferred from Boston College. She is waiting for reconsideration under RD. Is there anything she can do to increase her likelihood for admission? It's her first choice and she's a great student with great scores. It's a crap shoot on how some of these decisions are made. In any event, I told her I'd ask here since I have no experience or insight.</p>
<p>She should contact BC directly.</p>
<p>and say/do what? call the admissions office? thanks for your reply.</p>
<p>Call and ask what can be done to improve chances I guess they meant. There are a number of posts I've read here about this. Send any updates in activities, school awards, hobbies, volunteer work. If she is active in the volunteer community she might try to get an extra reference letter from an adult she works with, write a second short essay about further envolvement, even write an essay for a local paper about volunteer stuff, music activies at the h.s. etc then if published send it along. Mostly just keep them updated on her senior year.
I don't know about BC but over on the Fordham thread the admin rep noted that 6000 kids applied early. BIG pool, eh? When my older DD was still thinking of a "regular" college I read A is for Admissions, which helped me understand the process. Also mom and child should go look at the common data sets for each college. There are far more girls applying to some schools. This means that while there might be a 40% acceptance rate, it could be a 30% for girls and 50% for boys. This won't help her get into BC but it could help her be sure he other schools are a true match and to understand she did nothing wrong.</p>
<p>Here's a list of deferral suggestions from Dave Berry: Deferral</a> Advice.</p>
<p>I remember looking at BC's acceptance stats on CC last year. Alot of high applicants with high stats were rejected, while others with lower stats were accepted. In my mind, demonstrated interest might be important to BC.</p>
<p>I think what you need to do depends on the individual. Figure out what what the weak points were of the initial application.... and strengthen them. My daughter submitted humorous and kind of flippant essays and short answers when she applied to Chicago, and she was deferred. Her common app essay was more serious -- so I suggested that she should send Chicago a copy of the common app essay and a graded writing sample to show her more contemplative and academic side. She chose a paper written for a psych class that overlapped somewhat with the themes presented in her common app essay and her interest in languages & linguistics. She was accepted in the spring.</p>
<p>She didn't choose to ask her admissions rep for advice, and even though she had signed up for an interview it never happened (apparently there was a problem last year arranging with alumni interviews in our area) -- but either the ad com was waiting for midyear grades or else those extra submissions worked. The point is, the supplemented what was already there and provided some new information -- it wasn't just more of the same. (For example, a kid who has 9 awards for debate probably won't be helped by telling the college about a 10th -- they already know the kid is a good debater).</p>
<p>So -- look at the deferral as a do-over, and ask yourself how the initial application can be improved. For some kids that may mean another letter of recommendation; for others it might mean a letter from the student or g.c. explaining a weakness in the academic record.</p>