Deferred in December? A Week-by-Week Plan From Deferral to March

By Dr. Lee, international college admissions advisor · Updated November 6, 2026

A deferral leaves you with about fourteen weeks of uncertainty and a surprising amount to do. In those weeks you will submit your Regular Decision applications, possibly make a binding Early Decision II choice, send midyear grades, and decide whether and when to write to the school that deferred you. This plan puts those steps on a calendar so you can do each one at the right time instead of all at once.

First, what a deferral tells you

Deferral is less common than many students assume. For the Class of 2030, Yale deferred about 18% of its 7,140 early applicants, roughly 1,285 students, and denied about 70%.^[1] A deferral means your application was competitive enough that the committee wanted to see it against the full pool.

It is not a promise. Yale's deferred applicants were reviewed alongside about 47,800 Regular Decision applicants, and the combined regular round admitted about 2.9%.^[2] No restrictive-early school publishes how many deferred students it eventually admits. Plan as if the deferral is a maybe, because it is.

Days 1–3: read, then decide on ED II

• Read the deferral letter twice. Note whether the school invites updates, asks for specific documents, or asks you not to send more.
• Check what your early plan now allows. Harvard, Stanford and Caltech explicitly let deferred applicants apply Early Decision II elsewhere. Yale permits Round 2 programs that notify after January 1. Notre Dame has allowed ED II all along.^[3]
• Make the ED II decision now. If another school has become your clear first choice, ED II is binding, and the deadlines are only two to three weeks away. Our ED II guide walks through the choice.

Weeks 1–3 (mid-December to January 5): submit everything

This is the most important stretch, and it has nothing to do with the school that deferred you. Your Regular Decision list is now your plan A. Published deadlines cluster tightly:^[3][4][5][8]

• January 1: Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Columbia, Georgetown; Vanderbilt RD and ED II.
• January 2: Yale, Cornell; Johns Hopkins RD and ED II.
• January 4: MIT, Northwestern, Duke, Carnegie Mellon; Rice and UChicago RD and ED II; WashU ED II.
• January 5: Stanford, Penn, Brown.

Submit at least two days before each deadline. If you are applying ED II, also file that school's aid forms on its ED II schedule: Johns Hopkins wants them by January 15 and WashU by January 11.^[3] Our full January 2027 deadline calendar has more.

Weeks 4–6 (January): finish the semester strong

Your first-semester grades will be the most important new information the deferring school sees. Many schools require a midyear report from deferred applicants: Penn's deferral FAQ says deferred ED applicants will be required to submit one,^[6] and Michigan requires it for postponed early applicants when grades are available before mid-February.^[7] Ask your counselor when your school's semester grades post and when they will send the report.

If you applied test-optional and have since earned a strong score, check whether you can add it. Duke, for example, lets deferred ED applicants who applied without scores change that choice before its February 13 cutoff.^[3]

Weeks 6–8 (late January to mid-February): send one strong update

If the school accepts updates, this is usually the best time to send one: your midyear grades are in, and winter results such as competitions or publications are known. Keep it to one page, lead with your most important new fact, and say whether the school remains your first choice only if it does. Our Letter of Continued Interest guide has the structure and a template.

One letter is enough unless something major happens later. Repeated emails do not help and may irritate a reader working through tens of thousands of files.

Mid-February: ED II results arrive

If you applied ED II, results come before the deferring school decides. Rice notifies by late January; Johns Hopkins and WashU by February 12; UChicago and Vanderbilt in mid-February.^[3] If you are admitted ED II, you are committed: withdraw your deferred application and every other pending application promptly. Caltech and Notre Dame both ask for this explicitly.^[3]

March: final decisions

• Mid-March: Caltech (admit or deny, no waitlist for deferred applicants) and MIT.
• Mid- to late March: Notre Dame.
• By late March: Harvard and Yale.
• By April 1: Columbia and Georgetown.

Some deferred applicants are placed on the waitlist in March rather than admitted or denied. A waitlist is a separate process, with its own reply form; respond by the date in the letter if you want to stay on it. (Caltech is an exception: it has no waitlist for deferred applicants.)

What not to do while you are deferred

• Do not hold back your Regular Decision applications in the hope of good news. The deferring school will not decide before your January deadlines.
• Do not send extra recommendation letters, résumés or portfolios the school did not ask for.
• Do not ask a well-connected family friend to call the admissions office on your behalf.
• Do not apply ED II to a school you are not sure about just to have an answer sooner.

When March arrives, read the decision as you did in December: completely, and with your other results beside it. By then you should have Regular Decision answers coming in, which is exactly why the January applications mattered.

Deferral calendar checklist

• [ ] Days 1–3: read the letter; decide on ED II.
• [ ] By January 5: submit all Regular Decision and ED II applications and aid forms.
• [ ] January: confirm when your counselor will send the midyear report.
• [ ] Late January to mid-February: send one concise update, if the school accepts them.
• [ ] February: if admitted ED II, withdraw all other applications.
• [ ] March: respond to any waitlist offer by its deadline.