Cornell Deferred You: Now What?

Submit a letter of continued interest by Monday, December 22nd, 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 Cornell 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 Cornell 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 admissions officer why you would make an irreplaceable addition to the incoming class.

Ensure the letter is addressed to your regional admissions officer. 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 Cornell, then you already have enough academic credentials to be a strong candidate for Cornell. 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, where the Early Decision acceptance rate for the Class of 2030 is expected to hover around 18–20% from a highly self-selected applicant pool, this intangible quality they can infer is what will distinguish you from other overachievers.

How to Structure Your Letter of Continued Interest

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 Cornell 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.

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. Show them you doing activities that have garnered you friends in high school on their campus.

To close out, I would reaffirm to them that Cornell is your first choice and that you will enroll if admitted. This is critical because it reassures the admissions committee that offering you a spot won't be wasted, you will absolutely say yes.

What Happens Next

Cornell allows deferred applicants to submit supplemental materials through the online application portal. This could include information on coursework changes, updates on recent honors or awards, or an additional letter of recommendation from a non-academic individual who can speak to your successes and future potential. However, I recommend wrapping all of your updates into one cohesive Letter of Continued Interest rather than sending piecemeal updates.

Your school counselor should also ensure that your mid-year grades are submitted promptly, Cornell will want to see that you've maintained (or improved) your academic standing. If you've taken the SAT or ACT again since applying and improved your scores, consider submitting those as well. Starting with this cycle (Fall 2026 enrollment), Cornell has reinstated its standardized testing requirement, so strong scores can meaningfully bolster your application.

The Advocacy Call

In the new year, after submitting your letter of continued interest, bring it to your guidance counselor and ask them to make an advocacy call to Cornell on your behalf. This way, they'll present you as you presented yourself in your letter. While some school counselors are hesitant to make advocacy calls, good counselors understand that it's their job to champion your case for admission. The call humanizes your application and signals to Cornell that your school community believes in you.

Keep Perspective

Cornell tends to defer fewer applicants than many of its peer institutions, which means being deferred is actually a meaningful signal, you weren't rejected outright. Deferred applicants do have a genuine shot at earning admission in the Regular Decision round. However, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Use the time between now and the Regular Decision deadline to strengthen your applications to other schools, refine your essays, and ensure you have a balanced college list.

A deferral is not the end of your journey. It's an invitation to make your case even stronger. With a compelling letter of continued interest, strategic support from your guidance counselor, and continued academic excellence, you can maximize your chances of hearing good news in the spring.

If you'd like help crafting your Letter of Continued Interest for Cornell or any other school, please schedule a free consultation with us.