BU has become crazy competitive in the last few years – for the 2024 admissions cycle, they had an 11% acceptance rate. They, like many other schools, have kept their test-optional policy, which in turn has increased the number of students applying. Their ED acceptance is a little higher, at 26%, but that still left a little over 5k students with either a deferral or a rejection. And if you’re here, you’re a part of the deferred camp. We have some good news for you: you get another shot.
The next two weeks might come with a lot of work and challenges, but we can guarantee that you will go to college, and we can help. We have high success rates with deferred students – whether that be getting into your ED school in RD or finding a better fit at an ED2 or RD school.
We know getting deferred by your ED school is hard, so, take a moment to have whatever feelings you need to have. But, once you’ve gotten to the bargaining stage of grief (optimal grief stage for what we’re going to recommend you do next), it’s time to jump into action. We don’t know exactly how many students got deferred from BU, and we don’t know how many deferred students were eventually accepted (most schools refuse to share this data) (booooooo), but our experience does grant us the wisdom to know exactly what to do. Let’s get into it.
Step One: Check Your College List
If you’re a frequent reader of the blog and made a balanced college list with a healthy mix of safeties, targets, and reaches, already sent those apps in by December 1st, and have an ED2 school on deck, skip to step four. Everyone else, we gotta talk.
If you went all go-for-broke and only applied to BU ED (we hope you did not!), you’re going to be busy the next few weeks. If you have only applied to 2-3 schools besides BU, you also will have some work to do. Take a moment to review your college list—if it’s balanced with a good mix of reach, target, and safety schools, you’re likely in a solid spot. However, if your list is skewed too much towards reach or target schools, it’s time to reconsider and add some more realistic options. And if you’re working with just a couple of other schools or none at all, we suggest aiming for a list of around 8-12 schools. When determining whether a school is a reach, target, or safety, consider things like acceptance rates, how your stats stack up against their middle 50% data, and the strength of your courses and extracurriculars.
Your college list needs to be filled with schools you can actually see yourself at—because if you apply to schools you hate and then you get into those schools, you’re not going to be happy. The first, and most important, thing to think about is academics. It is a school, after all, and you need to focus on where you’re going to get the best education. So if you were drawn to BU to study something STEM-y and have access to resources at other elite schools, you need to find similar programs (lots of liberal arts schools in the NE, the Research Triangle in NC, the Claremont Colleges all come to mind). After that, consider factors like size, culture, location, and even weather, though it’s unlikely that all 8-12 schools will check every box.
Once you’ve locked in your list, it’s time to dive into the supplemental essays for each school. This is your top priority! Don’t worry, though—we’ve got your back with detailed guides on writing killer supplements for tons of schools over on our blog. If you have a bunch of supplements to write and feel overwhelmed, reach out to us for help.
Step Two: Revisit Your Common App
This may be controversial to some of you, or you might just be going “absolutely not, I am not writing the Common App again,” but you probably should at least revisit your Common App essay. We help countless students rewrite their Common App essays in those last two weeks, and we usually write something stronger, better, and more attention-grabbing.
We highly recommend taking a look at our advice for the Common App essay and see how your current essay does (or does not) line up with it. We’re not claiming to have all the answers (but we do have a lot of them!), and sure, plenty of students get accepted with cliched essays about lessons learned or scoring the big goal or whatever. But our students don’t write those, our long-term clients write creative essays and get into at least one of their top three schools. Plus, we’ve seen some pretty amazing results with ED2 and RD applications, too.
While we’re big fans of Prompt 7, the truth is you can write a standout Common App essay for almost any prompt. The common pitfalls we notice in essays submitted during the December crunch? They tend to focus too much on something already highlighted in your activities, lack a cohesive story, fail to showcase who you are as a person, or simply miss that spark—the thing that makes you memorable and likeable.
If you’re starting over from scratch on your Common App, or if you feel good about your topic but want to overhaul how you wrote it, we have some advice for you, but also reach out to us.
Step Three: Submit Those Apps
Chances are, you’re in that crunch time between ED results and the looming RD deadlines, which means there’s no time to lose! After polishing off your Common App essay (and maybe tweaking your activities section if there are any updates), hit submit as soon as possible. Do not wait until the last minute.
Once you’ve submitted, it’s time to focus on the deferral itself. Up next: your final appeal to BU.
Step Four: Updates
BU has very little info on their website about deferrals:
“If you are an Early Decision applicant who is not admitted, your application may be deferred for consideration during the regular admissions cycle. In that case, you will be considered for admission only after submitting your mid-year grades. You will be notified of a final admission decision in late March.”
Annoying! We want the deets! But, our experience tells us you may need to gather some stuff:
Mid-year grades
Your counselor should automatically send these, but follow up with them
Update letter
We will get to that shortly
Any other general updates
This might include new awards, better test scores, etc.
Additonal recommendation letter (optional)
Only do this if the recommender knows you crazy well and can speak to something new about you
Step Four and a Half: Deferral Letter
Your deferral letter, sometimes called a letter of continued interest, is your second chance to make an impression on the fair and just admissions officers of BU. The goal? Show them you’re incredibly serious about attending if admitted, while also updating them on any new achievements or experiences that make you an even stronger candidate. Essentially, remind them why you're a great fit for them and why they’re a great fit for you.
This letter will either be emailed directly to admissions or uploaded to BU’s admissions portal, so it should have the tone of a professional email. Keep it concise—this isn’t the place for a lengthy narrative. Aim for 300 words, max 400 if you’ve had a huge accomplishment (we’re talking Nobel prize level!). And yes, we know, "That’s not a lot of space!"—but trust us, that’s all you need. Honestly, probably more than you need! We want to be direct. The tone should be clear, polite, confident, and to the point. Avoid sounding desperate or overly eager. You want to come across as composed and self-assured, showing them you’re the right choice without going overboard.
Start with a polite greeting, addressing your regional counselor by name if possible, especially if you met with them on a college tour, a visit to your school, or a college fair. To start the actual content, open with a clear, straightforward statement affirming that BU remains your top choice and that if accepted, you will absolutely attend. Since the binding ED agreement is no longer in play, it's important to let them know you’re committed and that they can count on you to boost their yield rate.
In the next section, focus on providing significant updates since you first applied. These updates should reflect your continued growth or commitment to your academic passions. Have you earned an award? Taken on a new leadership role? Landed a job or internship? Maybe you completed some research or finished an online course? Highlight these accomplishments in about 200 words to show how you've stayed engaged and productive.
Wrap up with another reaffirmation of your commitment to BU, and make sure to sign off professionally. Send the letter to the admissions office (or your regional counselor’s email if you know it) and CC the main admissions email. You can also ask if there’s a more appropriate place to submit the letter for consideration. If BU has you upload it to a portal, you should upload that directly, and if (and ONLY if) you have that regional counselor’s email, you can send a light follow-up telling them you sent in that deferral letter.
Step Five: Wait
Sorry!!!!! We know this sucks!!! Try to hold back from sending any more updates, making phone calls, or dropping by campus. At this point, you've done everything you can. You’ve built a solid list, applied to a range of schools, polished your application, and sent in your letter of continued interest (LOCI) to BU. Now, it’s just a waiting game until RD decisions roll in around April. Hang in there, and best of luck!
We can help you bounce back from a deferral or rejection. Reach out to us today to learn more.