My son was deferred and he interpreted the instructions the same as your daughter. After weeks of nagging him to write a LOCI and sending him articles with tips, he finally wrote it, logged on, self-reported his grades and then felt like his letter didn’t fit the very narrow parameters they gave. It seemed to ask only about new extra-curriculars, activities or honors since he submitted his original application. He’s still in all his same activities and didn’t have any new honors to add so he opted to leave it blank and I agreed with him. We’ll see what happens! He was accepted to UIUC in EA which was a top choice for him so it will be okay either way. He was slightly annoyed that I made him write this letter that he ended up not using - lol. But I told him to revise it a little and use it for his Michigan deferral!
Ha’ I did the same thing, sending tips with articles on writing a letter of interest. In the end, she added a “statement” along with some progress updates. We will see………
These posts are great therapy because your stories so closely reflect my experience with my son. He really wants Wisconsin, but has good alternatives. Fingers crossed for all of your kids.
Just to give you all a timeline idea: Last year my older son, who is a current UW-Madison freshman, was deferred. On January 31st, he submitted his mid-year grades and filled the box with updated accomplishments. On March 24th (at just before 11pm) an email came in letting him know there is a decision in his portal. It was good news, obviously! He was invited to and applied and was accepted to the Honors College. He made the dean’s list… He’s doing an amazing job of balancing work and play… : ) ANYWAY. I would’ve liked this information last year at this time, so thought I’d share. As we now wait for a decision for my younger son, who was also deferred! Fingers crossed for us all!
That is very helpful, thank you. Is it me, or is it crazy that your son was deferred, but than invited to participate in Honors program? Things are sooo different from when I went to college a billion years ago.
Congratulations to your older son, sounds like he”s doing amazing and good luck to your younger son!
Yes - I’m glad you realized why I brought all that up - not to brag, but just to show that kids are not deferred due to lower stats or whatever. It’s literally a lack of spots (in my opinion). And you are right about how things have changed! I was accepted to UW and my GPA back then started with a 2 LOLOLOL!!! Crazy.
this is so helpful. Are you in state or OOO? Our kiddo was deferred, too, and has already submitted the grades/LOCI but given that we are OOO we’re quite worried about her odds. There are just too many applications, it seems!
We are in-state, and yeah, I’ve heard that gives us a bit of an advantage. Best of luck…
On honors in L&S, it’s my understanding that anyone coming into L&S can apply to honors. I don’t know if everyone is invited, but everyone defintiely can. I had a kid that was admitted EA with very high stats (4.0, 35+ DE credits w/a 4.0, 99% ACT score) but committed very late. We had a lot of balls in the air until the end so he didn’t apply to honors until very late. Like May. Well he got a letter that said basically, thanks for applying - you should be in honors but we are full. So they aren’t holding spots for high stat students.
My more general point is honors can and will fill up. So if your student is interested, encourage them to apply ASAP even if they are still making decisions, visiting again, etc.
I will also say, my kid that attended UW did 2 rigorous degrees. It was absolutely fine NOT being in honors and I’m not sure all that sequencing would have worked for him with the 2 degrees anyway. And he still “graduated w/honors” in the top 5%. There are still other ways to pursue honors designations without getting into honors out of the gate. The reason I wanted him to do it is I thought having some initial smaller classes of interest might be a good way to meet other students. But one of his majors had a small department w/small classes and he lived in an LLC. And it was great anyway.
I think their site says that decisions are based on essay, not stats.
On a general, random note, I just want to thank all of you for your thoughtful comments here. Even though there is nothing that the deferred camp can do but sit and wait – and my son is interested in talking about the college thing but does not want to listen – I am grateful for this supportive community. I am very glad to have found this list.
Thanks again to Pilate for starting the deferred list.
As always, continued good luck to everyone! 
On the news front:
Madison was ranked as the third best city for quality of life by U.S. News & World Report.
(Green Bay was also in the top 10.)
At the same time, following up on their threat to withhold funds from the university if it did not back off from its diversity, equality, and inclusiveness efforts, the Wisconsin House passed a constitutional amendment to limit diversity efforts.
Huh.
(I would include links to the stories, but the site does not permit inclusion of links.)
The UW ended up with a very favorable deal on that threat that included $300 M for a new engineering building. No such constitutional amendment will ever be adopted . Long way to go.
Assuming no on has heard anything? Last year a few people heard early!
Nothing at all 
. I’m still hoping for a March 22nd release (and good news).
I’m definitely assuming 3/22, but that’s not based on anything more than eyeballing the dates the last few years.
Will the RD decisions just come out, or will there be a notice like the day before?
I’m guessing they follow the same script as EA and just drop decisions after some minor portal astrology.
What happens in portal? Any tips?
There were a number of changes that people noticed prior to the release of decisions (see the EA thread for details). However none seemed consistently predictive of an outcome.
For example, the ability to register for first-year housing or SOAR seemed like a clue, but there always seemed like there were exceptions to the rule. Not that it stops my son from checking. 
Checking constantly