How to Write a Boston College Waitlist or Appeal Letter

Extenuating Circumstances

The appeal or waitlist letter should also reveal important, personal situations and/or conditions that you didn't feel comfortable sharing earlier. Such information discloses circumstances that impacted your grades and extracurricular performance. Most students avoid such topics because they fear giving admissions officers a sob story. However, appropriately addressing such experiences can powerfully extenuate low grades and diminished extracurricular involvement. 

Patch Your Application's Holes, Then Go Farther

In the process of patching your application's deficiencies, don't forget that Boston College is still seeking to admit applicants who add the most value to their admitted class. So, patching holes in half the battle. The other half is showing that you're a more compelling candidate than other applicants on the waitlist or in the appellant pool. Most students automatically assume this means they need tangible achievements to flex. However, painting a more compelling portrait of your intangibles can be just as compelling, if not more.

Write for Your Audience, Not Your English Teacher 

It's important to understand that your audience consists of admissions officers who are worn and tired at this point in the season. Further, they continue to be overwhelmed with work until the class is finally filled. Nevertheless, they're still intelligent speed readers who are very capable of connecting dots. To write effectively for tired, speed reading eyes, it's important to understand that creative writing is for expression but admissions writing is for a goal.

How Long Should It Be?

While there is no word limit, the admissions officers are not required to read every word or paragraph you write. Most waitlist and appeal letters tend to lose their impact and their reader's attention once they exceed 1 to 1¼ pages in length. Letters can be longer, but their substance needs to warrant additional length.

Edit, Edit, Edit

Tip: Avoid generalized declarative statements like "X demonstrates my commitment to [buzz word quality from Boston College's website]." The details you shared should speak for themselves without such overt statements spoon feeding the conclusion to your readers. While general declarative statements feel good to include because they make writers feel seen, readers are likely to skip over them and, perhaps, the key information you actually wanted them to see. Skimming eyes are more prone to miss important details given the pressures that they are reading under.  

Make Every Line Intentional

The difference between a good letter and a great one, from your admissions audience's point of view, is meticulous editing. Careful attention to diction, sentence structure, and specificity will grab your reader’s attention while making your argument more concise, potent, and digestible for your reader. The more digestible your message is, the more memorable it is. The more unnecessary statements your letter includes, the more smoke you're adding that obscures the flame in your message.

Who to Send Your Letter To:

Visit this webpage from Boston College to discover who your regional admissions officer is and get that person's email.

We Can Help!

A College Zoom appeal specialist can walk you step-by-step through articulating your strongest deferral or waitlist letter.