What to Do If You Got Deferred

• Don't panic. These admission results are preliminary and often appear random. Highly qualified applicants, including national and international competition winners, frequently get deferred before eventual acceptance.

• Submit supplementary materials when appropriate. Many selective colleges including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Duke, and Caltech accept additional letters of recommendation. Strong candidates include:

  • Non-teacher/counselor mentors (research project supervisors, employers, community leaders)
  • Award-winning research papers or writing samples
  • Reports on recent significant achievements
  • Extensions of items already listed in your application