College Counseling at St. Margaret's

Students in the Class of 2010 submitted 171 “early” applications, including early action, restrictive early action, early decision and early decision round 2 applications.

It’s decision time. Despite the emotional preparation, getting an early denial or deferral is tough. There’s no way around in. It’s difficult receiving word from an admissions office that you didn’t quite make the cut.

Here are some tips for addressing next steps if you’ve received a deferral letter.

If you received a “deferred” decision from a college:

1)    Don’t panic. Your application will be considered in the regular application pool. And remember, this is not a decision denying your application to a college.

2)    Be sure to read (carefully) information the college sent along with the deferral decision. Share that information with your college counselor so that we know what the college expects you to do.

3)    Schedule an appointment with your college counselor to discuss a plan of action.

4)    Review your application with your college counselor so that you can look for “weak spots” in the application that might be strengthened.

5)    The admissions office wants  to hear from you. It is NOT appropriate to put on a full court press to get the attention of the admissions office. Colleges do NOT want to hear from your parents. And they don’t want you to gather an army of supporters who will appeal to the admissions office on your behalf. It is also inappropriate to flood the admissions office with phone calls and e-mails or strange gifts. Colleges want thoughtful communication from you that will enhance the  application file.  The college counselors can help you sort that out.

The college counseling office will send out updated transcripts when they’re available in early February. We do this automatically. You don’t have to make any new requests.