Creative writing isn’t the most popular major, but those who pursue it are uniquely passionate. In a world where the written word seems to be declining in importance, the decision to commit four years to studying a craft that some feel to be an artifact takes commitment, drive, and a sense of purpose that is rare anywhere, let alone among teenagers.

If you’re reading this, you’re in a frustrating boat. It’s fair to feel confused, angry, annoyed, whatever. For a lot of students, deferral can be more confusing than straight-up rejection, because the definition of deferral means that the college’s decision has been pushed off to a later date. Then it can be hard not to feel like you’re being dragged along and, likewise, don’t know how to feel or what decision to make next. We’ve created this post to offer a few simple guidelines about how to proceed once you’ve heard back from your first choice ED school that you’ve been deferred.

There are several reasons you may need to email a professor or other instructor at a college or university you are considering applying to. The most common reason potential applicants need to email a professor is to request a class visit. Other reasons include having a question about a department, desiring more information about an academic program, or following up after meeting them during a visit, event, or through another connection.  

We get a fair amount of questions about the activities section of the common app. Our first piece of advice is to start a running log (on a google document and a saved word file) of all of your extracurricular activities starting freshman year. If you’re reading this as a junior and missed the boat, it’s not too late. Think back and type out everything that you’ve done in order. This will be especially helpful when you start writing a resume.

Creating a resume is always a good idea. It’s a way to keep your accomplishments organized and most colleges allow students the option of uploading a resume with their application. It’s also great practice for the future.

It’s no secret that acceptance rates at competitive colleges are decreasing every year. And when colleges put out articles detailing their stats for their incoming class, they ensure that the takeaway is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get in, but YOU can probably get in so you should apply. More applicants than ever! Students from all over the globe! 

Have you been working on your Common App essay for weeks or months now? Are you feeling stuck, like you’ve written everything you’ve wanted to say but there’s no way to wrap it all up, or are you freaking out because it’s 1000 words and you need to get it down to 650? Whatever boat you’re in, don’t fear. Below you’ll find our basic guide to helping you out of a writing and editing rut so that you can finish your essay and send it off feeling confident it is polished and finally done. 

If you’re reading this in the fall, before you’ve heard back from your ED/EA school:

This is a great place to be in. It’s not too late for anything. Start your other supplements today and put just as much work into them as you have into your ED/EA school. Work equally on the array of schools on your list––safeties, targets, and reaches. To find guidance about how to write the supplements for your schools, poke around the blog. We have dozens of detailed blog posts for supplements (like this one, this one, or this one). 

The trees are yellow. Leaves are falling. Temperatures are dropping. Winter is coming… 

Okay, okay, depending on where you live, none of this may be true––and even if this is supposed to be true, it might not actually be (shout out to the hottest October 1st on record in NYC!). Our general point remains, however: it’s October, ED/EA deadlines are approaching rapidly, and even the once-far off regular decision January deadlines which seem like they’ll never come are coming up, too. 

Based on conversations that we’ve had with our clients and email submissions from our blog readers, there seems to be some confusion about the intended use of the additional information section on the common app website. Let us start by saying that this blog post will give you guidelines as to what should and should not be included in this section, but we don’t know your life. You should use your best judgment, but before you start writing make sure you’re not just capitalizing on the extra space because you ran out of words elsewhere.