Any success deferring an acceptance and reapplying?

[SquirrelHollow]

Hello SDN Pre-dental forums,

I feel very fortunate to have received an acceptance very late in the admissions cycle. I have already secured an internship in a dental office and have made other plans to improve my application during this next year. My stats are competitive and I have plenty of shadowing and volunteering experience.

I would love to accept the offer to this school, but unfortunately I do not feel confident that I can successfully manage the debt. I do not believe that the stress and strain of taking out loans for the full price of this school would be a wise decision. Furthermore, I did not feel that I would be a good fit at this school based on my experiences during the interview day. Before I visited the school, I had no way of knowing that it would not be a good fit as it was financially prohibitive to visit before my interview.

I live in a state with a few options for dental schools that are significantly cheaper, approximately 66% less expensive than this school, and having received an interview and waitlist offer to one of them, I am fairly certain that I could receive admission the next application cycle or the one after.

I have been considering a few options and was wondering if anyone could share any advice or stories about their own experiences with this situation.

1) Turn down the offer and reapply the next cycle.
-My concern with this option is that any other schools that I would apply to could see that I have turned down an offer for admission and think that I am not serious about this profession, or would turn down an offer from their school for a similar reason.

2) Defer the offer and reapply next cycle.
-There is a possibility of deferring with the school that I was admitted to, but I am really concerned about the ethics of this decision. Would the school I deferred the acceptance of find out out that I have applied? Would other schools see that I already have accepted an admissions offer to another school? In other words, would my AADSAS application be confidential, or would the schools have some way of communicating about this matter? If the schools that I was applying to found out that I had already deferred an acceptance, my thought is they may view this as an unethical decision and refuse to consider me for any application cycle then or in the future.

Thank you in advance for your advice. I am very happy that all the hard work I have put in to get this far has finally paid off, but I really feel backed into a corner here. I only have one, extremely expensive option, and at this point my options for scholarships are limited. I would love to improve my odds of receiving a financial windfall for the next application cycle, and perhaps an admittance to a state school, but I don't know if rolling the dice is worth it given that I already have an acceptance.

What do you think!?

Edit: I realize that many of you may have seen threads like this in the past. Indeed, after thoroughly canvassing the forums, there have been many similar threads, but ultimately most people seem to choose to attend the school that was their only option despite their concerns over the astronomical expense. What I have not seen at all has been a credible anecdote or personal story of someone who has deferred their acceptance (thus holding on to their "golden ticket") and reapplying to increase their options. Or simply dropping their only option and suffering no repercussions from other dental schools seeing that the applicant had already turned down an offer.

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[ajj70]

...a bird in the hand.... What is plan B if you don't get in next cycle or the cycle after that? Are you ok not becoming at dentist at all? You are going to have debt no matter where you go, less debt would be nice but there is no guarantee you will get in anywhere in the next few cycles. Take the acceptance, live frugally through dental school, explore scholarship options for your last 3 years, military or otherwise, and just have the mindset that your first few years out of dental school will be lean until you have paid down your debt. There is one thread here about someone that is working for a corporate dentist, putting in a ton of overtime, to pay off debt early and save money for his own practice. He is getting great experience and building up a practice that can, and probably will, move with him in time.

 

[SquirrelHollow]

...a bird in the hand.... What is plan B if you don't get in next cycle or the cycle after that? Are you ok not becoming at dentist at all? You are going to have debt no matter where you go, less debt would be nice but there is no guarantee you will get in anywhere in the next few cycles. Take the acceptance, live frugally through dental school, explore scholarship options for your last 3 years, military or otherwise, and just have the mindset that your first few years out of dental school will be lean until you have paid down your debt. There is one thread here about someone that is working for a corporate dentist, putting in a ton of overtime, to pay off debt early and save money for his own practice. He is getting great experience and building up a practice that can, and probably will, move with him in time.

Thank you for your reply ajj70,

I am definitely not okay with not becoming a dentist. I was completely prepared to take this year to build up my application a bit more and reapply by working in a dental office, and honestly I would be fine with that. I am very patient, and with my stats, I feel pretty confident that I could get in somewhere next application cycle.

The big issue is, would my declining this acceptance follow me to the next cycle. Would this be confidential, or would every school see some flag on my AADSAS application saying that I had already received and declined an acceptance. I have seen a few pre-med posts that have similar questions, and everyone says that turning down an acceptance is tantamount to career suicide (kiss med school dreams goodbye!).

A lot of people would say: If you did not want to go to this school, why even bother applying? The truth is, I applied to only a few schools (3) for this very reason. I thought that I would like this school, and if I had gotten in early enough, I could have applied for the HPSP or other scholarships. Now, though, my chances are very slim of paying anything less than the entire amount. Plus, I thought that this one seemed like a good fit, but I realized after visiting that this is not the case.

Trust me, I would suck it up and go to just about any school, but not for $400k+! That kind of debt is a life-changer. I know dentistry can be a very lucrative career, but with the current interest rate (6.8%), and interest accrual while you are in school, you are looking at 600k in the first 10 years of your career.

 

[hugomaaf]

I visited 2 state schools, both have 1/more well known student (applicant) that apply the school multiple times even they got acceptance from other schools. The admission dean use that person as an example for determination and show that they really want to get into that school.

It can be good and bad and highly depends on how you "word" your application.

It came down to your choice and money smart. I think you have a good idea how much is too much (personally I think u are correct, 66% more expensive is too much).

 

[zoey1234]

If I'm in same situation, I'd definitely go with what I have now. I'd say go for it now and save yourself a whole year of waiting. You'll be closer to achieving your dream. There's no guarantee for next cycle. I don't know if other schools can see that acceptance but if they do, they will ask you about it and they'll say if you aren't sure about it, why did you apply in first place? and they will think same would be with their school. All I wanna say is that no guarantee. Take what you have and you will be in same boat as others in your class. I am sure not all of them got their education paid for.. just my opinion..

 

[Faux]

New York resident?

Might be better t0 post this on dental town when it comes to missing out a year of salary. Plus you said you didn't like your experience at the school, so theres that too.

Med school see if you reject a school and reapply. Pretty unfair imo. Not sure about the situation with dental school

You can apply to for army,navy scholarship this year and get a 3 year.

 

[SCDP]

...a bird in the hand.... What is plan B if you don't get in next cycle or the cycle after that? Are you ok not becoming at dentist at all? You are going to have debt no matter where you go, less debt would be nice but there is no guarantee you will get in anywhere in the next few cycles. Take the acceptance, live frugally through dental school, explore scholarship options for your last 3 years, military or otherwise, and just have the mindset that your first few years out of dental school will be lean until you have paid down your debt. There is one thread here about someone that is working for a corporate dentist, putting in a ton of overtime, to pay off debt early and save money for his own practice. He is getting great experience and building up a practice that can, and probably will, move with him in time.

Link?

 

[I want to go to there]

If you are confident you will get into a better school next year, why would you defer a school you don't like? If you are not confident you will get into a better school next year, why don't you just accept the offer?

Anyway, schools won't figure out from AADSAS unless you mention it. I guess deans of admissions can talk to each other and your name could come up but that possibility seems remote.

 

[sjv]

If I'm in same situation, I'd definitely go with what I have now. I'd say go for it now and save yourself a whole year of waiting. You'll be closer to achieving your dream. There's no guarantee for next cycle. I don't know if other schools can see that acceptance but if they do, they will ask you about it and they'll say if you aren't sure about it, why did you apply in first place? and they will think same would be with their school. All I wanna say is that no guarantee. Take what you have and you will be in same boat as others in your class. I am sure not all of them got their education paid for.. just my opinion..

If you are confident you will get into a better school next year, why would you defer a school you don't like? If you are not confident you will get into a better school next year, why don't you just accept the offer?

Anyway, schools won't figure out from AADSAS unless you mention it. I guess deans of admissions can talk to each other and your name could come up but that possibility seems remote.

It asks on the AADSAS application:

Q5. Have you ever applied to dental school prior to the present application cycle? (Yes/No)
If "yes", include the name of schools to which you applied and year(s) of application. If accepted/enrolled, indicate dates of enrollment. You are limited to 600 characters, including spaces.
Indicating “yes” to this item does not jeopardize your candidacy to dental school. There are many reasons why an applicant would have applied in previous years. Answer this question truthfully, providing all information requested.