Send letters of continued interest

Letters of continued interest

Why February is the right month

If you were deferred in December, your file moves into the regular round and will be read again. February is the strongest moment to write: first-semester grades are final, and committees have not yet made their decisions.

Deferred applicants are admitted at meaningfully higher rates than waitlisted ones — roughly 5 to 20 percent at highly selective schools, against 3 to 10 percent from a waitlist. The letter still changes a committee re-read. This is worth an evening.

What a good letter contains

One page. Four short paragraphs.

1. You remain interested. If this is genuinely your first choice, say so plainly — and only say it to one school.
2. What is new since you applied. First-semester grades, a new award, a competition result, a research placement, a leadership role, a completed project. Concrete and specific.
3. Why this school. One or two details that could not be written about anywhere else — a named course, a lab, a professor's work, a programme you would join. Not the ranking, not the campus.
4. Thank you. Brief.

What to avoid

• Sending it to every deferred school as one template with the name swapped
• Restating what was already in the application
• Anything resembling pleading or negotiation
• More than one page
• Sending it weekly. One good letter, plus one short update if something genuinely significant happens later

How to send it

Through the applicant portal if there is an update form — several schools require that channel and ignore email. Otherwise email your regional admissions officer, who is listed on the admissions site by territory.

If your grades slipped

Do not skip the letter. Acknowledge it in one sentence, without excuses, and say what you have changed. Silence after a visible drop is worse than an honest sentence.