It’s always the case with every college admissions season that students will face deferrals and rejections. Even the student who has straight As and top test scores is no longer immune to this reality.

For students who were deferred from the Hamilton College Class of 2030, they’ll now hear back about their application by late March, with the rest of the Regular Decision applicants. 

That can feel like a long time to wait, especially for students who eagerly applied early on with the intention of enjoying the rest of their senior year. It may be surprising to learn that there are still steps forward that students can be taking to put themselves in a good spot for the rest of the college admissions process. 

What Percentage of Early Decision I and Early Decision II Applicants Does Hamilton College Typically Defer?

Hamilton College doesn’t release information about how many students from the Early Decision pool they defer each year, whether that’s through ED I or ED II. 

Hamilton EDI, EDII & RD Acceptance Rate

Hamilton College’s acceptance rate for both the Class of 2028 and the Class of 2029 was 13.6%. We checked and double checked. 

Admissions Cycle	Hamilton College Class Year	Early Decision I and Early Decision II Admission Rate	Regular Decision Admission Rate
2025-2026	Class of 2030	Not Reported	Not Reported
2024-2025	Class of 2029	Not Reported	13.6%
2023-2024	Class of 2028	29.4%	13.6%
2022-2023	Class of 2027	30.2%	11.8%
2021-2022	Class of 2026	32.4%	14.1%
2020-2021	Class of 2025	41.0%	18.4%
2019-2020	Class of 2024	45.8%	18.4%
2018-2019	Class of 2023	41.4%	16.4%
2017-2018	Class of 2022	42.0%	21.3%
2016-2017	Class of 2021	40.6%	24.2%
2015-2016	Class of 2020	41.5%	26.1%
2014-2015	Class of 2019	38.3%	24.8%
2013-2014	Class of 2018	36.2%	26.3%
2012-2013	Class of 2017	38.8%	27.2%
2011-2012	Class of 2016	39.2%	27.2%
2010-2011	Class of 2015	41.6%	27.4%
2009-2010	Class of 2014	43.6%	29.4%
2008-2009	Class of 2013	42.1%	29.8%
2007-2008	Class of 2012	36.4%	28.1%
2006-2007	Class of 2011	36.3%	27.7%
2005-2006	Class of 2010	48.0%	33.4%
2004-2005	Class of 2009	55.4%	35.9%

What Percentage of Early Decision I and Early Decision II Applicants Does Hamilton College Typically Accept?

For the Class of 2028, which is the most recent Common Data Set year available for Hamilton College, they listed that 247 out of 839 students who applied for both Early Decision I and Early Decision II were granted acceptance. That’s a 29.4% acceptance rate, more than double their Regular Decision acceptance rate.  

What Should Applicants Do After Being Deferred by Hamilton College

PostMortem Application Review

After being deferred from Hamilton College, the best next step is to set up Ivy Coach’s PostMortem application review. 

During the PostMortem session, Ivy Coach’s counselor, a former elite college admissions officer, will:

• Provide in-depth feedback on up to three college applications. Ivy Coach’s counselor will review both essay and non-essay sections of each application.
• Brainstorm a powerful extracurricular hook to place a student in the most advantageous spot for their admissions case. That hook will thread through the rest of a student’s application, providing them a unique perspective to showcase to admissions officers that helps differentiate them from every other student that they’re competing against in the admissions process. The reality is, even friends become frenemies in college admissions. 
• Fix mistakes that we catch. We promise, no student’s application is completely mistake-free, even if they think it is. In fact, most applications contain a number of errors. Even something small can have a negative effect on the admissions game, especially the lower a school’s acceptance rate drops.
• Craft a new and improved Regular Decision school list. We’re very good at noticing missing schools from a student’s list that we know they would be a competitive applicant to, so we add them for the Regular Decision round. 

Common Mistakes Caught During Ivy Coach’s PostMortem

Students typically make the same mistakes in their applications. We’ve looked at a lot of applications over the past 30 years, so we would know. And we know how to correct them. The list below isn’t exhaustive, but these are some of the most common ones we catch over and over again. Check out your child’s application and make sure they didn’t include any of these.

• A Personal Statement focusing on sports, music, community service, grandparents, or travel. These are our five off-limits topics; we never allow students to write about these subjects.
• A Why College essay that’s an identical copy of their Why College essay for a different school. Even if a student swapped out the names of classes and professors, admissions officers can tell. They’re not dumb, so don’t act like they are. They want to hear specifics about what makes their school special. 
• A student included a dollar amount that they fundraised for a charitable cause. Dollar signs make the student come across as unlikable to admissions officers.
• They made it a point to include every single activity, honor, and community service hour they’ve ever done all in one essay. This comes off as trying to impress admissions officers. Ivy Coach’s students don’t have to try to impress admissions officers. They just naturally do.
• They came across as well-rounded in the application. In fact, that’s quite an outdated strategy. A successful application possesses uniqueness and singularity in that hook.
• They applied for a school that they just weren’t a strong competitor for. At Ivy Coach, we tell it like it is. We’ll let a student know if their Early Action or Early Decision choice wasn’t the right one, and if they’re coming to us after a deferral or rejection, we can bet they already have a hint.

Write a Letter of Continued Interest

The Letter of Continued Interest is what can help turn that deferral into an offer of admission in the next few months. So, we want to be certain your child is only writing a letter that will help their case, not hinder them in some way.

We like to call the Letter of Continued Interest a love letter to the university, wooing the admissions officer into rooting for a student and wanting to offer them a place on campus. Admissions officers want to read a letter filled to the brim with details that show a student is really excited about contributing to the school via their singular hook. They should be learning something new about their own institution from that letter!

The Letter of Continued Interest also needs to be creative enough to catch the admissions officer’s attention. When we say creative, we don’t mean include a link to a funny YouTube video. Instead, we want a student’s hook to be present throughout the letter, demonstrating how they’re in a unique position to benefit the school.

What a Letter of Continued Interest Should Not Do

Obviously, there are also things the Letter of Continued Interest should never do. We never want to see academic updates included. We don’t care if your child got an A+ on their AP Physics C Midterm. Admissions officers won’t care either. It sounds like bragging. And what is bragging? Unlikable. 

The Letter of Continued Interest has to keep an admissions officer engaged beyond just that first sentence. Here’s a clue on how to do this: it shouldn’t start with their name. As we mentioned above, it should paint a clear picture of that singular unique hook, showcasing how they’ll contribute their hook to the specific aspects of the school, like its programs, institutes, culture, traditions, and activities.

If this advice is different from anything else you’ve heard, we’re sorry about that. We know there are some bad recommendations out there with regards to this type of letter. Hopefully, there’s still time to correct those mistakes before your child submits a letter which would hurt their case for admission.

When Applicants Should Submit Their Letters of Continued Interest

At Icy Coach, we recommend students submit their Letter of Continued Interest ASAP, ideally within a few days of receiving a deferral. For example, if a student hears that they are deferred on December 15th, we like students to send in their Letters of Continued Interest before December 20th.

However, the one time we will tell a student to definitely NOT send that letter is if it’s the day or two before Christmas or between Christmas and New Year’s. Admissions officers deserve a holiday, too, right? Then we’ll have students wait to send the letter in until a few days into the New Year. 

Now, it’s important to note that we only said wait to send, NOT wait to write. That letter is going to be exactly how we’d encourage a student to reposition their Regular Decision applications, many of which will be due in the first few weeks of January. They can draft that letter early and then use it as a guide moving forward.

Chances of Getting into Hamilton After Being Deferred

Hamilton College doesn’t give the exact percentage of students who are accepted after receiving a deferral, like many other schools. However, we find that a pretty universal statistic is that about 10% of deferred candidates ultimately earn admission to the school that kicked the can on their acceptance decision. Although the percentage can vary year to year and school to school, it serves as a fairly consistent overall benchmark.  

For students who want better chances, that 10% rate rises to about 40% when they come Ivy Coach after being deferred. We work closely with a student to pen an engaging Letter of Interest and boost their chances of admission after a deferral, as well as greatly improve their odds in the Regular Decision round.

A Deferred Student’s Chances Improve Dramatically with Ivy Coach

If they play their cards right, students who come to work with Ivy Coach right after being deferred still do have a shot at admission. 

However, we’re also very realistic at Ivy Coach. Honesty is the best policy, after all, and it’s our policy. Because of this, we can only take on students after a deferral if they fully understand that their chances simply aren’t as strong as when they first applied. All we do is give them the best possible shot. If quadrupling a student’s chances post-deferral is not enough, happy applying!

What To Do After Being Rejected By Hamilton

Hamilton College has a selective application process, with an acceptance rate that means almost 90% of students who apply are ultimately rejected. If your child received a rejection from Hamilton College, we want them to know they’re not alone.

Despite that rejection, there is time for a student to move forward and achieve success in the admissions process. All they have to do is be willing to fix initial mistakes and reframe their application narrative in the way that we suggest, surrounding that singular extracurricular hook that we determine.

Are you and your child ready to move forward and take the next step? Then sign up for Ivy Coach’s PostMortem. One of our former elite university admissions officers will work with you to develop a competitive strategy for Regular Decision admission.

Students flock to Ivy Coach after rejection because they know we’ll ensure that they don’t make any of the same mistakes over and over again in their Regular Decision applications. We like to say we dare admissions officers not to give a student a spot at their school, and that’s what we do even for students who have already faced an early rejection.

Getting Started with Ivy Coach After a Hamilton Deferral or Rejection

If you’re interested in Ivy Coach’s plan to optimize your child’s Regular Decision case for admission to Hamilton College’s Class of 2030 in the event of a deferral, or if you need help planning for Regular Decision applications after a deferral or rejection, fill out our complimentary consultation form. We’ll reach out to let you know how to move forward.