by Ian Fisher, former admissions officer at Reed College

Earlier this month, the team at Bright Horizons College Coach® partnered with the Studio Institute in New York City to bring college admissions and finance expertise to a group of talented high school students. These students are participants in the Bloomberg Arts Internship, which aims to provide meaningful professional experience, increase students’ exposure to the arts, improve their communication skills, and assist with the college application process. That’s where College Coach stepped in.

So You’ve Been Deferred… Now What?

Whether you were deferred from your first choice school or one of your safeties, receiving a deferral can feel worse than an outright rejection. You want to hold out hope that you’ll be accepted come spring, but you can’t help but feel you should simply move on and accept the inevitable. In a few days’ time, when your feelings aren’t so raw and you can think about your remaining college options with a bit more clarity, follow the steps below to improve your chances of acceptance after being deferred.

Step 1: Reevaluate Your College List

Some years ago on a soccer sideline somewhere, or maybe in the chatty pre-show moments of a high school theatre performance, a mom or dad started the dreadful rumor that one must complete hundreds of hours of community service in order to even be considered for admission to the top colleges and universities in the country. Since that day, this misinformation has been taken as gospel by college-bound high school students and their parents. But they’re wrong.

Let’s all pause for a moment and say this together: there is nothing extra special about community service.

For four days in August, I had the opportunity to volunteer at a PeerForward workshop with two other College Coach admissions experts, Sally Ganga and Sai Somboon.

At College Coach, we spend a lot time thinking about your children. Can I help her improve her activities descriptions? How is his freshman year going? Are they frustrated that we sent them back to the drawing board on that last essay? But we’re human, and we also spend a good deal of time thinking about them outside of their college admissions process. Did she seem extra anxious the last time we spoke? Is he getting enough sleep? How could I have helped them better prepare for that disappointment?

Each spring, College Coach surveys the high school seniors that we’ve worked with through our private college counseling service to garner their insights on the college application process. We’ve just synthesized the results of our 2019 Senior Survey, and wanted to share the good news with our readers.

If you would consider yourself “not-rich” and are headed to a campus that could very well be filled with lots of students who are, don’t miss today’s show. We’re welcoming Lauren Schandevel, who encountered this challenge at the University of Michigan and created a guide to help other not-rich students survive and thrive at the university. Perhaps her advice will be useful to you. We’ll also cover next steps for students who have made their final college choice and sent in their deposit. And last but certainly not least, we’ll take a look at the question, “Do colleges care if you are kind?” and try to offer some answers.

On the latest episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, host Elizabeth Heaton talks with her guests about admitted student days, how and when to arrange financing for college, and what to look for when hiring an independent counselor.

We’re bringing back our popular series, Meet an Admissions Counselor, where we introduce students and families to a different member of the College Coach admissions team. Drop in to see what we’re reading, where we went to school, and our strategies for beginning the college essay. As you work with us to find an educational consultant who best fits your needs or the needs of your child, we will help you consider the personality and working styles that will bring out the best in you or your student. Today we introduce Jennifer Simons.

We’re bringing back our popular series, Meet an Admissions Counselor, where we introduce students and families to a different member of the College Coach admissions team. Drop in to see what we’re reading, where we went to school, and our strategies for beginning the college essay. As you work with us to find an educational consultant who best fits your needs or the needs of your child, we will help you consider the personality and working styles that will bring out the best in you or your student. Today we introduce Joy Biscornet.