A few notes on Early Notification decisions

With Early Notification decisions recently released, I thought it would be helpful to offer a few contextual notes on the various decisions applicants have received, and their implications for the future. For those of you who were admitted, a simple congratulations is in order! We’re happy to provide you with some good news as we enter the holiday season, and we’ll look forward to being in touch with you frequently in the coming months. You still have quite a while until you need to make an enrollment decision, but we’re already hoping we’ll be seeing you in the Hall of Flags before long.

Others of you may be dealing with disappointment, frustration, or even a bit of confusion, and for all of that I’m roundly sorry. One of the unavoidable downsides of admissions is having to decline some candidates, and we do so with sincere appreciation for your interest in Fletcher and the effort you put into preparing your application. We’ll hope you’ll consider reapplying in a future term.

Some of you have learned that we’re holding on to your application to review it further in the context of the larger application pool that will arrive in the new year. The main reason we do this is to give ourselves a bit of extra time to get more information that can strengthen or clarify your case for admission. This might mean an additional letter of recommendation, a set of test scores, a new professional role, or an updated transcript, any of which may be available within the next few months. Many candidates deferred for further review will ultimately be admitted; if you’re one of them, feel free to be in touch with our office at any point with questions, and to submit anything further you’d like added to your application in the meantime.

We’re always excited to begin a new reading season, and we’re particularly happy to have several new application readers join our process this year. Once again, thank you to everyone for the work you put into your applications!