If you applied early to colleges, you may soon be very familiar with the word deferral. While most of the nation’s colleges noted a decrease in early applicants this year, early applications to the elite schools actually increased significantly. Some schools such as Duke, Yale and Dartmouth actually received historical high numbers. As these numbers of applications rose this year, so did the number of deferrals. Getting deferred is unfortunately quite common and this year even more so.

What does it mean? Being deferred basically means the school wants to reconsider you along with the next pool of candidates in regular decision. It is not a denial. They will take into context the profiles of the regular decision applicants along with any additional information you send about yourself and make their final decision in the next round. While the regular decision pool is typically not quite as strong as that of early application, there are many more applications to consider. Many colleges typically defer around half of their early applications to the regular decision pool. Some such as Georgetown actually defer all students who were not accepted in the early application period (nearly 90% of their early applicants this year). Statistics on the percentage of students deferred and then eventually accepted are hard to come by, but in general, the numbers are not high.

What should you do? Many schools will give you specific requests for more information such as updated grades, additional letters of recommendation or details on activities. Whatever they ask, make sure you follow. If they do not make any requests, you should be certain to maintain or improve your grades and submit any new materials which would enhance your application along with a letter to admissions reaffirming your interest.

Keep in mind that if you are deferred, you are no longer required to attend that college if eventually accepted. You can continue to apply to other colleges of via regular decision. If you no longer wish to be considered, inform the college of your decision and free up that space for another student. Remember, being deferred is basically a second chance for consideration, but you should definitely give yourself other options.