Deferrals can happen, even for the student with straight As. Perfect grades and test scores are no longer enough in the elite college admissions game. 

Students who were deferred from Pitzer College will hear back about their application by April 1st, along with all the other Regular Decision applicants. That can feel like a long time away for those who applied Early Decision I, hoping to get the admissions process over and done with. In the meantime, though, there is plenty students can be doing to put themselves in a good spot for the rest of the elite college admissions process. 

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

Though Pitzer College offers both Early Decision I and Early Decision II, they do not release the statistics for students whose admission they kicked the can on. Note that the college only offers Early Decision I and II, both of which are binding options. Luckily, once a student is deferred, they are released from their Early Decision contract with the school.

Pitzer College Acceptance Rate

Pitzer College’s acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was 26.8%. They have not yet released their statistics on Early Decision I and II admitted students. 

Admissions Cycle	Pitzer College Class Year	Early Decision I and II Admission Rate	Regular Decision Admission Rate
2025-2026	Class of 2030	Not Reported	Not Reported
2024-2025	Class of 2029	Not Reported	26.8%
2023-2024	Class of 2028	42.2%	25.2%
2022-2023	Class of 2027	33.4%	16.7%
2021-2022	Class of 2026	40.2%	18.4%
2020-2021	Class of 2025	47.4%	18.3%
2019-2020	Class of 2024	36.8%	16.6%
2018-2019	Class of 2023	33.8%	13.7%
2017-2018	Class of 2022	29.6%	13.3%
2016-2017	Class of 2021	32.3%	16.2%
2015-2016	Class of 2020	30.3%	13.7%
2014-2015	Class of 2019	29.1%	13.5%
2013-2014	Class of 2018	Not Reported	13.0%
2012-2013	Class of 2017	Not Reported	14.5%
2011-2012	Class of 2016	Not Reported	15.7%

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

Across both their Early Decision I and Early Decision II rounds, last year, Pitzer College had an acceptance rate of 42.2%. 177 out of the 419 students who submitted applications were offered a spot in the Class of 2028.

What Should Applicants Do After Being Deferred by Pitzer College?

PostMortem Application Review

After being deferred from Pitzer 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:

• Give thorough feedback on up to three college applications. Ivy Coach’s counselor will review both essay and non-essay portions of the applications.
• Brainstorm a powerful extracurricular hook to place a student in the most advantageous spot for admission. That hook will be a crucial part of their application, differentiating your child from every other student they’re competing against (both frenemies and the student from across the sea).
• Fix mistakes we notice throughout the application. No application is perfect. In fact, most contain a multitude of errors. Even something seemingly totally insignificant can have a huge impact on the admissions game.
• Complete your child’s Regular Decision school list. We’re great at spotting missing schools from a student’s list that they would be a strong competitive fit for. We make sure those are added for the Regular Decision round. 

Common Mistakes Caught During Ivy Coach’s PostMortem

A lot of the same mistakes show up time and time again. Of course, what’s listed below isn’t anywhere near exhaustive, but these are just some of the common errors we see. We advise looking through your child’s application before submitting it elsewhere and seeing if you can get mistake BINGO. 

• Your child wrote a Personal Statement about sports, music, community service, grandparents, or travel. These are our five no-no topics.
• Your child turned in a Why College essay that was an identical copy of another school’s essay. Even if they swapped out the names of classes and professors, admissions officers can tell when a student is genuinely excited about attending the school versus when they were just playing Mad Libs.
• Listing a dollar amount that was fundraised for a charitable cause. Admissions officers see dollar signs and it makes the student instantly come across as unlikable.
• Including every single activity, honor, and community service hour under the sun all into one essay. That comes across as bragging. It also looks like a student is trying to impress admissions officers. Ivy Coach’s students don’t have to try to impress admissions officers. They just do. 
• Sending in a well-rounded application. When we say singular hook, we mean it. A hook has one point, and that point should be like a needle threading together their entire application.
• Applying to a school that they weren’t a competitive enough student for in the Early round. At Ivy Coach, we tell it like it is. We’re not known for sugarcoating. If a student’s Early Action or Early Decision choice wasn’t the right one, we’ll say as much.

Write a Letter of Continued Interest

The Letter of Continued Interest is a paramount part of turning a deferral into an offer of admission. That’s why it’s crucial to ensure your child includes only what will help their case, not hinder their case for admission in that letter.

Your child’s Letter of Continued Interest needs to be a love letter to the university. And that doesn’t mean serenading the admissions office with a college-specific rendition of “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, but rather, a letter that explains exactly how your child will utilize their singular hook to contribute to a school’s atmosphere and be a positive addition to the campus.

From the very first sentence, that letter needs to grip the admissions officer and make clear what your child can bring to the table. How will their unique hook put them in a position to benefit the school? They need to stand out from not only the many deferred students but also the rest of the Regular Decision pool of applicants. 

What a Letter of Continued Interest Should Not Do

There’s a lot of pretty bad advice about what a student should put in their Letter of Continued Interest. We sure do hope we’re getting to you before your child submits a letter full of don’ts.

The Letter of Continued Interest should not contain any academic updates. After all, that’s not a very wise way to utilize the limited approximate 650-words at all. The academic updates also render a student less likable. That’s the opposite of what your child should endeavor to do.

A Letter of Continued Interest also needs to keep an admissions officer engaged. Here’s a hint: it doesn’t need to start with their name (oy vey!). The path to crafting a clear picture of that singular unique hook comes from displaying how they’ll contribute their hook to the specific aspects of the school, including programs, institutes, culture, traditions, and activities.

This may be in opposition to other advice you and your child have heard about the Letter of Continued Interest. If it is, we’re sorry! We sure do love when our students compete against those students, because our students will beat them just about every time. Hopefully, there’s still time for your child to hit delete and redraft a much more compelling letter.

When Applicants Should Submit Letters of Continued Interest

We recommend students submit their Letter of Continued Interest as soon as possible. This would ideally happen within a few days of receiving a deferral. For example, if a student learns 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 not to send that letter is immediately before Christmas or between Christmas and New Year’s. Admissions officers need a break, too! In that case, we recommend waiting to send the letter in until a few days into the New Year. 

Note that we said waiting to send, not waiting to write. That letter is going to be the crux of how we’d encourage a student to reposition their Regular Decision applications, so they should draft that letter and then use it as a foundation for their Regular Decision repositioning before they send off anything for that January application deadline.

Chances of Getting into Pitzer College After Being Deferred

Pitzer College does not release the acceptance statistics for students who are admitted after being deferred. However, a pretty universal statistic we use at Ivy Coach 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 yearly and from school to school, it serves as a generally consistent threshold.  

That rate jumps up to about 40% on average for students who first come to Ivy Coach after being deferred. We work closely with a student to create a compelling Letter of Interest and boost their chances of admission after a deferral, to quadruple the likelihood. 

A Deferred Student’s Chances Improve Dramatically with Ivy Coach

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

We’re also very realistic at Ivy Coach, though. And we tell it like it is, as we mentioned above. 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 chance to gain admissions. And if quadrupling a student’s chances post-deferral is not enough, godspeed to them!

What To Do After Being Rejected By Pitzer College

Pitzer College rejected over 70% of the students who sought admission to the Class of 2029. So if your child was rejected from Pitzer, they’re not alone. 

Although a rejection can feel like the end of the world, don’t let that get in the way of the rest of your child’s successful admissions process. As long as a student is willing to fix their initial mistakes and reframe their application narrative the way that we at Ivy Coach suggest, a rejection from one school doesn’t mean a rejection from another.

Ready to move forward and take the next step in the admissions journey? 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 come to Ivy Coach after a rejection because we guide them throughout their Regular Decision process, ensuring they don’t make the same mistakes over and over again. We like to say that we offer a dare to an admissions officer not to give a student a spot at their school.

Getting Started with Ivy Coach After a Pitzer College Deferral or Rejection

If you’re interested in Ivy Coach’s plan to optimize your child’s Regular Decision case for admission to the Class of 2030 at Pitzer College (in the event of a deferral) or if you need help planning for Regular Decision applications (in the event of a deferral or rejection), fill out our complimentary consultation form. We’ll then be in touch to outline how to move forward with our college counseling services.