College and Early Action/ Admission

It's been a few years, but I remember that my letter of deferral came with the early decision results (ie. one was either accepted, rejected, or deferred). The final decision came with the regular decision results, which was sometime in March/April. #3 is something I'm a little fuzzy about, but from all my obsessive researching back then, I don't remember finding much I could do about the deferral - some places said to send in an extra letter of recommendation or something and to make sure to do really well on your fall semester finals (as those grades get sent in), but I think that was pretty much it.

it all depends on the school. (I'm in college now.)

Just graduated from college, so this should be pretty up-to-date.

1) With ED/EA, all results -- acceptances, deferrals, and rejections -- come at the same time per college (my year, Dec. 15 was the big day for all the schools I can remember -- I didn't apply early).

2) Students who are deferred are put back into the application pool with everyone who applies regularly, e.g. not ED/EA. That means that they hear their results the same time that everyone else from the school hears, usually March or April.

3) Honestly, there isn't much. ED/EA results come out in mid-December; regular results come out in March or April. Unless you've discovered the cure for cancer in those intervening three months, you're pretty much stuck with what you've got. Of course, good fall semester grades, awards, etc. are nice, but once your application is in, it's in. While you can call to update your application with any new and pertinent info, there's only so much you can do to change a submitted application, and only so much those changes can help. I do have a friend who applied ED, was deferred, and proceeded to call and write the school to express just how much she wanted to go there, but as with agents, there is such a thing as going overboard, and doing so will only hurt your chances. (My friend did get in and did go there, but even she knew that she couldn't call so much as to be an annoyance -- and she didn't.)

My daughter is applying early decision (non-binding) to a fairly small university. The application is due Nov. 15, we are notified Dec. 15 and have until Jan. 15 to respond. The "letter" is actually a password-protected website. We will log in to the university's website on Dec. 15, enter our password, and hopefully see a "congratulations" notice posted.

Other schools may do it differently, but this is what will happen for us.

It has been a while, but I got early admission sometime in January. The regular admissions were sometime in March.