Columbia Deferred You: Now What?

Submit a letter of continued interest by Friday, December 19th, and afterward, have your guidance counselor call or at least email the admissions office to update them concerning all of your awards, publications, accomplishments, and grades since you applied. They should affirm that no matter what other admission decisions you receive, you will choose to attend Columbia if offered a spot.

But not just any letter of continued interest. This letter should be one of the most inspired pieces of writing you've ever composed. In it, you need to let your heart write a love song for Columbia and translate that into giving the reader a concrete picture of exactly who you will be as a person on their campus. This includes demonstrating how you will contribute to spaces and organizations on campus and reminding the reader of your academic hook.

In reintroducing your hook, the academic niche you spent time and effort carving out in high school to distinguish yourself from others, you want to remind the reader of this unique positioning. Ensure the letter is addressed to your regional admissions officer. You can find your regional admissions officer here.

When it comes to bragging about grades, prizes, or publications, please save it. If you made it this far in the admissions process at an elite school like Columbia, then you already have enough academic credentials to be a strong candidate. If you did not, then you wouldn't be deferred and reevaluated in the regular decision round, you would have been rejected.

Your guidance counselor should be the one bragging on your behalf. When they do it, it carries much more weight and shows the colleges that there is something beyond those accomplishments to consider. By your guidance counselor going out of their way to share your accomplishments with the admissions officer, it demonstrates to them that there is something compelling enough about your personhood for them to be doing this.

Given how accomplished you must be to be even deferred from an Ivy League school in 2025, this intangible quality they can infer is what will distinguish you from other overachievers.

I personally recommend starting the letter of continued interest with something funny or lighthearted. It is naturally awkward reading something from someone whom you, in a sense, rejected. To make the experience as cringe-free as possible for the admissions officer, I wouldn't reference the rejection explicitly or convey any feelings of disappointment.  

After a lighthearted and positive introduction, I would then proceed to talk to the reader about something related to your niche, such as a new cutting-edge development or something new that you learned. I would then connect this new piece of information regarding your niche to something currently going on at Columbia and explain how, by leveraging certain opportunities there, you can achieve some goal, and make the reader understand how achieving this goal can change the world.

Columbia offers incredible opportunities to weave into your narrative. Perhaps you're drawn to the Core Curriculum's emphasis on intellectual exploration across Literature Humanities, Contemporary Civilization, or Art Humanities. Maybe you've identified specific research centers like the Data Science Institute, the Earth Institute, or cutting-edge work happening with particular faculty members whose publications have shaped your thinking.

Don't overlook the unique advantage of Columbia's location in New York City. Being in Morningside Heights means unparalleled access to internships, cultural institutions, and professional networks that simply don't exist anywhere else. Show how you'll leverage the Columbia Arts Initiative for free museum access, or how proximity to Wall Street, Silicon Alley, or world-class hospitals aligns with your career aspirations.

Afterward, I would paint them a picture of you on their campus. Have fun here. Feel free to write a hypothetical scenario of you making some of the best memories of your life there. You want the reader to feel like by not admitting you, they will be denying you the opportunity to live your best life for four years.

Imagine yourself lounging on Low Steps on a sunny afternoon between classes, or studying late in Butler Library surrounded by fellow students equally passionate about their pursuits. Picture yourself at Bacchanal in the spring, or cheering on the Lions at homecoming. Show them you participating in one of Columbia's 500+ student organizations, whether that's the Spectator, the Society of Women Engineers, an a cappella group, or a cultural organization that resonates with your identity.

Show them you doing activities that have garnered you friends in high school on their campus. Make the admissions officer feel your presence at Columbia before you've even enrolled.

If you'd like help writing your letter of continued interest for Columbia or any other school, please schedule a free consultation with us below.