Deferred Harvard Early Action Applicants

Harvard College notified their Early Action applicants of their admissions decisions yesterday (photo credit: Chensiyuan).

It’s December 11th. Yesterday, Harvard notifed its Early Action applicants of their fates. Some students earned admission. Some students were denied admissions. And still other students were deferred admission. For this latter group, their fate at Harvard will be decided during the Regular Decision round. And for the vast majority of these deferred students, they will not earn admission in the Regular Decision round either.

Deferred at Harvard? Ivy Coach can help. But when students (not ours) come to us and we ask them what they’ve done since first getting deferred and they recite a laundry list of things, there isn’t much we can do. So do absolutely nothing and only then can we help.

But for students who’ve never worked with us before who come to us after they’ve been deferred, we’ve had great success with helping them turn their deferrals into offers of admission months later. The quick instinct for deferred applicants is to let Harvard know everything they’ve accomplished since first applying. Because Harvard really cares that you have now built sixteen houses for Habitat for Humanity rather than the fourteen you built prior to applying. Yes, this is sarcasm. The fact is that bragging about all one’s accomplished since applying just a month and a half ago is going to have a net negative impact on one’s candidacy.

But submitting a powerful Letter of Enthusiasm sure can help one’s case. And students who come to us for the first time after being deferred have found great success in the Regular Decision round because of the unique Letters of Enthusiasm we help our students craft. And everything you think should be in this letter — realize it’s likely the opposite. But we won’t give away our secrets on the pages of our college admissions blog. Our secret sauce is expressly reserved for our clients. And, no, we make no apologies for this.

In the meantime, feel free to peruse Harvard’s Early Action statistics from last year if you want to check them out. And be sure to check out Harvard’s statistics last year for Regular Decision too while you’re at it.

Interested in help with crafting a persuasive Letter of Enthusiasm? Fill out our form and we’ll be in touch via email within the day. Indicate Letter of Enthusiasm. But if you’re looking for free information on what should be included in this letter, you’ve come to the wrong place. We’ve got tight lips and have a famous no tolerance policy within our industry for brain-picking.