Stanford Deferred You: Now What?

Complete Stanford's Deferral Form through your applicant portal promptly, and have your guidance counselor email the admissions office to update them on 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 Stanford if offered a spot.

But don't just fill in the blanks. Your responses to Stanford's Deferral Form should be among the most inspired pieces of writing you've ever composed. The form typically includes short-answer questions with 125-word limits each, asking about what you're excited to learn, something you're proud of since applying, how you've grown, and any new information you'd like to share. Use every response to give 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 at Stanford 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 how you can change the world for the better if you have the opportunity to leverage specific academic opportunities at Stanford.

I personally recommend approaching each short-answer response with something engaging or insightful. Here's a critical rule: there should be no negativity whatsoever in your responses. Do not use the word "deferred." Do not sound defeated or disappointed. Do not apologize, explain yourself, or suggest that something was lacking in your original application. The admissions officer already knows your situation, you don't need to remind them of it. Your job is to make them excited about you, not to process your emotions about the decision. Write as if you're simply sharing updates with someone who's already interested in admitting you, because in a sense, they are.

For the question about what you're excited to learn, talk to the reader about something related to your niche, perhaps a new cutting-edge development or something new that you discovered this semester. Connect this new piece of information regarding your niche to something currently happening at Stanford and explain how, by leveraging certain opportunities there, you can achieve some goal that changes the world.

For the question about something you're proud of, paint them a picture of your recent accomplishments in a way that shows personal growth, not just credential accumulation. Have fun here. You want the reader to feel that by not admitting you, they will be denying Stanford the opportunity to have you on their campus making meaningful contributions. Show them how your achievements reflect the person you're becoming.

For the growth question, demonstrate genuine self-reflection. Show them you engaging in activities that have garnered you friends in high school. Show them how your hobbies or talents will brighten up the days of your Stanford classmates. Present yourself as someone they want on their campus.

To conclude your responses, convey gratitude for the opportunity and add something to the effect of thanking them for the chance to share more about yourself. Make clear that no matter what other decisions you receive, you are absolutely resolute in attending Stanford, and that if you are offered a seat, you will immediately accept it.

When it comes to bragging about grades, prizes, or publications in the form itself, please save it. If you made it this far in the admissions process at an elite school like Stanford, which defers only a small percentage of its REA applicants, then you already have enough academic credentials to be a strong candidate. If you did not, you wouldn't have been 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 admissions office that there is something beyond those accomplishments to consider. By your guidance counselor going out of their way to share your accomplishments with admissions, it demonstrates 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 Stanford in 2024, this intangible quality they can infer is what will distinguish you from other overachievers.

If you'd like help completing your Stanford Deferral Form or crafting your letter of continued interest for any other school, please schedule a free consultation with us below.