Dear Student: How college deferrals are affecting seniors and their plans for next year

Crushed. 

That was the only word to express how senior Cameron Hughes felt after opening her application status portal to Boston College. 

Since the summer before her senior year, Boston College had been Hughes’ clear top choice. Between her strong academic record and her college counselor’s assurance of her acceptance, she felt confident in her chances of getting in. But she was deferred. 

According to Forbes, the decision for a college to defer an applicant has become a more common option, especially this year due to the uncertainties of the admission process created by COVID-19. Some colleges were battling through a lower number of applicants than years past, but most top universities were faced with such a large volume of applicants after switching to test-optional that they had to postpone admissions decisions and increase the number of deferrals.

Although a deferral isn’t a a concrete acceptance or rejection, the uncertainty has led seniors, such as Hughes, to look into different options come August. 

Hughes couldn’t wait three months for an answer. Instead, she took the Boston College deferral to regular decision as a flat-out no, and looked to her next options. 

“After my deferral, I really had to haul and work hard to get all of my other applications in,” Hughes said. “I decided to apply early decision to my second choice school, Boston University, as a shot in the dark to see if I could get in — and I got in.” 

Though the deferral left Hughes scrambling in-between application submissions, she feels satisfied now that her decision is secured. With deposits down and enrollment complete, she’s done with the process, just like she was ready to be from the beginning. 

But it wasn’t that easy for everyone.

The University of Michigan faced the problem of an unexpected applicant increase, leaving all of East’s portion of applicants with deferrals from the school. 

With an already low 2019 out-of-state acceptance rate of 19.4%, seniors like Caroline Kuhlman had to work much harder on the application and supplemental essay this year, in fear of getting rejected or deferred from the school. 

Kuhlman hoped to get in, considering her dad and older sister had both attended the university, but didn’t feel defeated when she received the deferral.

“I still have hopes for getting in,” Kuhlman said. “I understand the volume of applicants this year was exponentially higher than usual, and they didn’t accept as many students. I applied early action and I don’t know a single person who got accepted, so I still have hope.”

After realizing she lacked the sense of familiarity she felt with the University of Michigan with the other schools she was accepted into, Kuhlman found herself indulging in research — learning everything she could about the environments, scholarships and potential visits — to prepare herself for backup options. 

“In a way, the University of Michigan was my top choice before my deferral,” Kuhlman said. “But isn’t my top choice right now. If I got in, I don’t know if I would go there. It’s just all so up in the air right now.”

While the deferral process left seniors like Kuhlman in a state of uncertainty, it made the process of narrowing down college choices easier for seniors like Zoe Hartman. Being deferred from both the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin-Madison didn’t come as a shock, leaving Hartman to eliminate her choices to two potential schools for next year: the University of Kansas or the University of Arizona. 

“I was expecting it honestly,” Hartman said. “Everyone I talked to got deferred from Michigan and I had friends who were deferred from Wisconsin as well.”

Similar to Kuhlman, Hartman had family who previously attended the University of Michigan and had interest in the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but was still considering other options, before ruling them both out following her deferral.

“Neither school was ever really a top choice for me, and I knew I would want to decide sooner rather than waiting longer for a decision,” Hartman said. “I wanted to choose a school that would offer me the most scholarship money and was one that I really wanted to go to.”

As schools continue to send out acceptance letters and decisions for their applicants, it’s difficult to accurately predict how colleges and universities will approach their student numbers for the college class of 2025, according to Forbes.

Whether students are met with a rejection, waitlist, acceptance or a deferral, it brings different mindsets and opportunities for each individual. 

“It was definitely stressful in between the deferral and the new applications I submitted because Boston College was my dream,” Hughes said. “I was really disappointed, but I really, really like the school I’m going to.”