UChicago Deferred You: Now What?

Submit a letter of continued interest as soon as possible, ideally within a few days of receiving your deferral, and no later than Friday, January 17th. Send it to your regional admissions counselor and upload it through your UChicago Account. 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 UChicago 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 UChicago 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 that you are, in fact, one of the intellectually curious and unconventional thinkers UChicago seeks.

Let Your Guidance Counselor Do the Bragging

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 UChicago, then you already have enough academic credentials to be a strong candidate for UChicago. 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 UChicago in 2025, where the overall acceptance rate hovers around 4.5%, 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 UChicago 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.

UChicago is defined by its commitment to rigorous inquiry and the "life of the mind." If your goals align with this ethos, if you are the kind of person who genuinely enjoys grappling with difficult questions and following ideas wherever they lead, weave that in. Explain how leveraging specific opportunities at UChicago, whether it's undergraduate research through programs like the College Research Fellows, specific courses in the Core Curriculum that excite you, particular faculty whose work intersects with your interests, or the College's unique RSOs, will help you achieve your goals and create meaningful impact.

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. Maybe you're debating in a Sosc discussion section, grabbing a late-night bite at Hallowed Grounds, or watching the sunrise from the Point after pulling an all-nighter at the Reg.

Consider Converting to ED II

Unlike most schools, UChicago allows deferred students to convert their application to Early Decision II, a binding commitment. If UChicago is genuinely your first choice and you can make that commitment, this is worth serious consideration. Applicants who apply binding demonstrate their love for UChicago, and the admissions committee rewards that commitment. Students who previously applied ED I do not need to resubmit the ED agreement form if electing to be considered in the ED II round.

That said, we do not recommend this for everyone. The UChicago student is very distinct, and unless you have something new and compelling to add, such as a significant improvement in test scores or a meaningful new achievement, this may not be your best option, especially since you will not be submitting new essays. Consult with your family and school counselor to determine if this is a good fit for you.

What NOT to Do

UChicago explicitly states: Do not worry about meeting them. They do not make decisions based on whether or not a student has visited or engaged with their virtual programming. Following the steps above is all that's needed to indicate your continued interest. And do not start writing all-new essays, they have determined that the application you sent them originally is a strong one. They just need a little more time and context to make a final decision.

The Bottom Line

A deferral is a pause, not a rejection. UChicago wants to see your application in the context of the full applicant pool. Your most important task now is to submit a letter of continued interest that shows, not tells, why you belong at UChicago. Make them feel the intellectual energy you'll bring to Hyde Park. Make them see you thriving in the Core. And let your guidance counselor handle the bragging.

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