The Application Process

Hey Everyone!

I would request experienced professionals to kindly share their views / opinion on this situation:

I have been granted deferral of my admission for next Fall (was already admitted) and I have accepted the deferred admission offer. However, I would like to apply to other schools as well and explore options I did not have before. The current program (that allowed deferral) has my tuition deposit already. The school has accepted my deferral request, but will be re-evaluating my profile with new pool of applicants for Fall 2012 to determine my scholarship.

My question is: is this legal / acceptable to apply to other programs for Fall 2012 when I have deferred admission to one school? Since my current school will be deciding my scholarship again after re-evaluating my application with new applicants for Fall 2012, it's fair for me to also reevaluate my chances at other programs?

Please share your advice / opinion and assist me!

Hi pulakdatta -- interesting question.

It's by no means illegal to be shopping around for other options, but it's getting a little bit into murky territory re: ethics, depending on what you've said to the school already and why you asked for the deferral in the first place. If you have committed to them to attend, then you sorta should attend, right? It's not quite fair to ask for a deferral (we assume you gave a legit reason for that like a personal situation) and then use their kindness in granting that flexibility to go looking for a better deal. But it's not a legal obligation, and if you ditch out on them, they won't go around telling other schools about it. You also won't get your deposit back, either.

It's sorta like dating... you asked someone to marry you... they said yes... you said cool! but can we wait a year? they said sure... now you're out on the market trying to get another date, and in the meantime, waiting to see if your fiancee is gonna come into a big inheritance, in which case you will in fact go ahead and marry them next year after all... but who knows, maybe you'll find someone cuter/wealthier this year... Feels a little funny.

Nothing illegal though! Just semi-shady. But, bschool is a big deal, so we can see the temptation!! We're also big fans of "the bird in hand" too. But all this is very very personal and obviously EssaySnark doesn't have the whole story! So we're not tryin ta dictate morality to nobody.

EssaySnark