2012 Psy D Program -- Option to Defer Admission?

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Congrats to everyone on their acceptances and final decisions (for those who have been brave enough to make them!) For those of you still on the fence, wishing you plenty of clarity as we approach April 15th.

I am writing to see if anyone has had any experience discussing the option of deferring their acceptance with their prospective programs? I have been accepted to two PsyD programs (wahoot!), and wondering whether or not this is something that clinical programs are generally open to (as long as I make my case for why I need more time). I'm sure the option depends on the policy of the particular program, but imagine that there is some general sense of how receptive PsyD programs are to requests like these. And if deffering is not an option, is it likely that I would to go through a similar application process if I were to apply the following year? These are most likely questions that I will have to have with the two programs I am looking at, but was hoping to get some insights from those that have ventured before me. Thanks so much!

What is your reason for deferring? Some programs may have to problem with a deferment and may not even need to know why, but for others, you may need a pretty strong explanation for why they should defer your place, rather than asking you to reapply next year.

This is why they have waitlist. I seriously doubt a program would allow you to defer admissions. If you are on the fence after going through the massive amount of paperwork, interviews, etc..., it is my guess that the program could rescind their offer as you may not be a serious candidate and they do not want to have an empty slot for next years class. I would be very cautious about your decisions or making public your intentions. I've heard of programs offering more slots then are available as they expect or rather from past history know that not all students will accept their offer. Once they get the full amount of replies to fill their slots, the remaining students who were offered may get a letter recinding the offer with apologies as funding was reduced and they were not able to accept all of the students offered.

If you really seriously want to begin your doctoral program, it may not be in your best interest to wait until the final date...I guess it is April 15, 2012 because you are sending a message that your are, well "on the fence!"

Originally Posted by 4410

I've heard of programs offering more slots then are available as they expect or rather from past history know that not all students will accept their offer. Once they get the full amount of replies to fill their slots, the remaining students who were offered may get a letter recinding the offer with apologies as funding was reduced and they were not able to accept all of the students offered.

I've heard of this happening on the academic job market, but not with regards to grad admissions!

Originally Posted by 4410

I've heard of programs offering more slots then are available as they expect or rather from past history know that not all students will accept their offer. Once they get the full amount of replies to fill their slots, the remaining students who were offered may get a letter recinding the offer with apologies as funding was reduced and they were not able to accept all of the students offered.

I don't think that this is allowed. In my program, we are not allowed to make a new offer until someone has turned down the one that they were holding, so it's impossible to have more students than slots. And once someone has accepted an offer, we are legally required to fund them for the length of time that was promised. Even if the department loses some grant funding a couple years down the road, they will borrow from the university if necessary to see those students through.

I'm in a funded PhD program, so I guess it could be different, but I don't think so.

Originally Posted by psychRA

I don't think that this is allowed. In my program, we are not allowed to make a new offer until someone has turned down the one that they were holding, so it's impossible to have more students than slots. And once someone has accepted an offer, we are legally required to fund them for the length of time that was promised. Even if the department loses some grant funding a couple years down the road, they will borrow from the university if necessary to see those students through.

I'm in a funded PhD program, so I guess it could be different, but I don't think so.

Good, as this allows for some protections for the program and the student. I am an older student and during my earlier years of applying to doctoral programs in the 80's and 90's there seemed to be different degrees of acceptance with full, provisional or waitlist. It may be different now. Depending upon the PsyD program that this person is accepted, it most likely or could be unfunded. If that is the case, some of these programs have year around admissions rather than step-lock cohort groups. They would be able to defer admissions then, but I doubt that many of the programs allow for deferred admissions.

I've heard of some programs having a system where you are provisionally accepted based on a faculty member having a research slot opening or dependent upon the graduate school accepting your application. Earlier in my career, I was provisionally accepted into a counseling psychology program to later on have it recinded based on the graduate school review of my application. Now this was way back in the 1980's before we had everything online with applications, etc. There was some issue regarding deadlines as you had to be accepted by both the graduate school and the psychology department. Due to the massive amounts of paperwork to be reviewed at the time and the graduate school being short staffed there was an issue with timelines. The psychology department sent me a letter later on indicating that I was not approved through the graduate school review of my application, so the offer was recinded.

Originally Posted by 4410

T Once they get the full amount of replies to fill their slots, the remaining students who were offered may get a letter recinding the offer with apologies as funding was reduced and they were not able to accept all of the students offered.

Do you have any evidence for this statement? Even a verbal report from someone it happened to? I just don't think getting a letter saying, in effect, "too bad, you took to long" under the guise of reduced funding is something that happens even rarely. More likely, a date is specified either formally or informally with the acceptance. Other than programs with large n cohorts, there probably is some additional direct contact from the mentor/program along the lines of "hey, what's up, we haven't heard back on the our offer yet".

Seriously- if you're just making up the whole thing about "offer rescinding letters" or repeating hearsay several degrees removed, that's pretty lame.

As to the OP- you pretty much sum it up in your post- it all likely depends on the speicific programs and your reasons for deferment. Any advice you get from here on this issue is likely not to apply to your situation.

Some PhD programs do send of more offers than they expect to accept. A program I interviewed at told me that they sent out 10 offers for the previous cohort expecting a good number to decline so they were quite surprised when they realized the size of the cohort… something they will not be doing again.

However, I do not think this is commonplace at all!

Originally Posted by ClinicalABA

Do you have any evidence for this statement? Even a verbal report from someone it happened to? I just don't think getting a letter saying, in effect, "too bad, you took to long" under the guise of reduced funding is something that happens even rarely. More likely, a date is specified either formally or informally with the acceptance. Other than programs with large n cohorts, there probably is some additional direct contact from the mentor/program along the lines of "hey, what's up, we haven't heard back on the our offer yet".

Seriously- if you're just making up the whole thing about "offer rescinding letters" or repeating hearsay several degrees removed, that's pretty lame.

As to the OP- you pretty much sum it up in your post- it all likely depends on the speicific programs and your reasons for deferment. Any advice you get from here on this issue is likely not to apply to your situation.

I do not have fact about any of this. Did I ever say it was fact, no. I have heard of specific situations where an offer was recinded as in my specific experience years ago where there were delays or lack of communication between the graduate school and the psychology department. I was offered provisionally based on the graduate school application review, so after that was reviewed by the graduate school the offer was recinded. This was back in the 80's some thirty years ago, so I would hope the system is better at this point in time. As for funding of positions, I've heard stories of people arriving on campus to begin a program to discover that the funding had changed from the initial plan, and the student was stuck basically without an assistantship and other types of waivers. I am not saying this happens all the time but this does happen sometimes. You have to realize at this point in time, many State economies are suffering severely and this generalizes to the University funding sources.

deferring for a year is not uncommon. Just make sure you have a good personal reason

Originally Posted by 4410

I do not have fact about any of this. Did I ever say it was fact, no. I have heard of specific situations where an offer was recinded as in my specific experience years ago where there were delays or lack of communication between the graduate school and the psychology department. I was offered provisionally based on the graduate school application review, so after that was reviewed by the graduate school the offer was recinded. This was back in the 80's some thirty years ago, so I would hope the system is better at this point in time. As for funding of positions, I've heard stories of people arriving on campus to begin a program to discover that the funding had changed from the initial plan, and the student was stuck basically without an assistantship and other types of waivers. I am not saying this happens all the time but this does happen sometimes. You have to realize at this point in time, many State economies are suffering severely and this generalizes to the University funding sources.

You seem to "hear about alot of stories" and then present them here as solid evidence (and sometimes fact) for your statements/conclusions about a topic. I do not observe this intellectually sloppy and rather reckless behavior in other posters on this forum. This seems important to me...

I am in a PsyD program and know of people in my program who had deferred for a year before coming. They had pretty legitimate personal reasons.

Originally Posted by M45000

Some PhD programs do send of more offers than they expect to accept. A program I interviewed at told me that they sent out 10 offers for the previous cohort expecting a good number to decline so they were quite surprised when they realized the size of the cohort… something they will not be doing again.

However, I do not think this is commonplace at all!

This is commonplace in disciplines outside of psychology, where applicants don't interview, and it is probably especially common for departments without funded labs. We (non-clinical social scientists, humanities scholars) typically express interest in working with one or more faculty in the personal statement, but acceptance into the department is unrelated to whether or not particular faculty agree to take us on upon matriculation. You can relocate to your school and the person with whom you'd hoped to work can refuse to work with you (actually, they could dump you at any time after agreeing to work with you). So we avoid the interviewing nightmare, but you really have to sell yourself once you get accepted. This can be quite brutal and result in high attrition rates.*

Anyway, the admissions committee gambles based on previous years' acceptance rates and extends more offers than they are hoping to receive acceptances. The possibility that more people will accept than anticipated isn't cataclysmic for the department because we (folks in my discipline, others) don't typically receive the kind of full funding packages that many psych folks here seem to get.

*As per the department's grad advisor, the attrition rate at one of the top schools in my discipline is 50%. The department accepts many and culls them down after matriculation, not during the application process.