If you get deferred from your early school there are a few things you should do. Don’t miss a step

1. Like many things in life, you need to assume the worst in all things and hope for the best. College admissions is no place for delusional self confidence. Assume you will get rejected from your early school!

2. Now you have that mental barrier out of the way, it’s time to take action!

3. Type an update email for your early school. This update should include end of year academic performance (where positive) as well as any interesting leadership or extra curriculars you are doing that have taken place post your last application. You should re-state your excitement for the school offering a few new reasons why it is the best place for you. You can also let them know what you plan on doing in the time you have before you begin studying in the US (2 months for those in the Northern Hemisphere and approximately 8 months for those in the Southern Hemisphere). Do not re-state things you have previously mentioned. It was evidently not good enough to get you accepted so simply regurgitating all material is useless.

4. Apply broadly in the regular round! I applied to more than 25 universities around the world including everything from University of Otago and University of Auckland to top Australian universities to top Singaporean and Middle Eastern Universities to top US and UK universities.

5. Don’t make excuses. If your family cannot actually afford the application fee to universities apply for a fee waiver but the cost of applying to a few more universities is trivial compared to the cost of actually paying for university so apply to lots of schools! Get writing! A marginally better ranked university will pay dividends over an inferior one over the course of your career so don’t be complacent and settle for mediocrity.

6. Apply to top local university options, apply to more universities in the US.

7. If you’re reading this now and haven’t applied to many more schools, turn off your PlayStation, tell your friends you can’t see them for 2 weeks, sit down and write more applications - many schools like University of Pennsylvania have deadlines on January 5th onwards so you can keep applying to more schools.

8. Apply to a few schools you currently think you would never go to. Why? Because situations change and if your applications don’t go as well as you hoped, you need options.

Hope that helps! Contact me at j.beaton@crimsoneducation.org or direct message me here if you want to give me some more personal context.