Requesting Deferral - Making The Case

[drbillybob]

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Hey All,

My question - to Adcoms in particular - is whether a request for 1-year deferral would be palatable to any office of admissions if the reason is primarily financial? My particular situation involves being a founder of a firm that may see a major acquisition or IPO within the next 18 months.

My intentions are entirely in good faith: none of this "defer and apply again" nonsense I've seen in other threads. I just would like to know how I could best frame the request to an admissions office. It has the potential to make enough money to permit a sizable donation (> $1 million), if that would be of any use in persuasion.

No, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. No, I am not going to tell you the name of the firm. No, I am not greedy, but it is foolish for me not to consider this option, taking into account the considerable financial opportunity cost.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, especially from someone who's been-here-done-this.

 

[gyngyn]

We grant deferrals for accepted students whose plans for the year are going to add to their ultimate value to society. Accepting the deferral precludes a re-application.

 

[solitarius]

From what I've read, each school is different. For some schools, requesting a deferral is pretty easy. For others, it's close to impossible. For a lot of schools, they'll only accept some service requirement or some research fellowship.

 

[DokterMom]

Have you been accepted yet? Or are you wondering if/what to say pre-acceptance about the possibility? (I can't see how a pre-acceptance question would work.)
Certainly your circumstances are exceptional, though I wouldn't mention the 'contribution that sounds like a bribe' ...

 

[drbillybob]

We grant deferrals for accepted students whose plans for the year are going to add to their ultimate value to society. Accepting the deferral precludes a re-application.

Thank you for your response, gyngyn. Given the information (albeit minimal) that I provided, what do you think your committee's response would be to a request made under my circumstances? Specifically, do you think it would be acceptable in light of how this enterprise would "add to my ultimate value to society". (I think it would indeed add to it)

 

[drbillybob]

Have you been accepted yet? Or are you wondering if/what to say pre-acceptance about the possibility? (I can't see how a pre-acceptance question would work.)
Certainly your circumstances are exceptional, though I wouldn't mention the 'contribution that sounds like a bribe' ...

Yes I have several acceptances. And while you did compare the potential of contribution to a 'bribe', I'd like to point out that this is nothing like 'contributing' for the purposes of acceptance: I've already earned that independently. This is a question of how to show the committee that this enterprise is worth allowing me to defer.

 

[gyngyn]

Thank you for your response, gyngyn. Given the information (albeit minimal) that I provided, what do you think your committee's response would be to a request made under my circumstances? Specifically, do you think it would be acceptable in light of how this enterprise would "add to my ultimate value to society". (I think it would indeed add to it)

How would this activity add to your ultimate value as a physician? It's not intuitively apparent from the information you have given so far.

 

[drbillybob]

How would this activity add to your ultimate value as a physician? It's not intuitively apparent from the information you have given so far.

You subtly changed the criterion from "ultimate value to society" to "ultimate value as a physician". I would argue that developing the soft skills and business acumen necessary to bring together academia and industry into productive partnerships which provide products and services to the public would certainly add to my value as a physician. In any case the two criteria that you conflated go hand in hand.

 

[gyngyn]

You subtly changed the criteria from "ultimate value to society" to "ultimate value as a physician". I would argue that developing the soft skills and business acumen necessary to bring together academia and industry into productive partnerships which provide products and services to the public would certainly add to my value as a physician. In any case the two criteria that you conflated go hand in hand.

I did not mean to give the impression that my criteria differed in the two posts. My apologies.

If the deans/committees at the schools that have accepted you buy your rationale and have the same view on deferral that we have, you should be successful.

 

[Law2Doc]

Hey All,

My question - to Adcoms in particular - is whether a request for 1-year deferral would be palatable to any office of admissions if the reason is primarily financial? My particular situation involves being a founder of a firm that may see a major acquisition or IPO within the next 18 months.

My intentions are entirely in good faith: none of this "defer and apply again" nonsense I've seen in other threads. I just would like to know how I could best frame the request to an admissions office. It has the potential to make enough money to permit a sizable donation (> $1 million), if that would be of any use in persuasion.

No, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. No, I am not going to tell you the name of the firm. No, I am not greedy, but it is foolish for me not to consider this option, taking into account the considerable financial opportunity cost.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, especially from someone who's been-here-done-this.

Two problems. First it's hardly unlikely you couldn't anticipte all this before you applied, and so you should have waited. Second, 18 months can easily become twenty -- deals get delayed all the time -- and there's no place that wants to hold a spot for you for more than a year. In general except for a couple of schools, you can only defer in very unusual circumstances, like if you get accepted to a Rhodes scholarship or something presigious you coundnt anticipate. You are trying to jerk around schools and honestly you aren't worth that much to them -- they all have long wait lists of similarly qualified individuals.

 

[DokterMom]

Didn't mean to imply that your contribution was a bribe towards acceptance -- Just that it could be construed as an offer in consideration of a deferral.

 

[drbillybob]

Didn't mean to imply that your contribution was a bribe towards acceptance -- Just that it could be construed as an offer in consideration of a deferral.

Yeah no worries; I just didn't want anyone reading to get the wrong idea hahaha

Thanks everyone for your advice! I guess I'll just contact the schools and see which ones feel this circumstance could merit a deferment, if any.

 

[xffan624]

I knew a friend who got into a school but still had service obligation from ROTC. They deferred for one year and then she tried to get a waiver to get out of her obligation and do HPSP (it technically would require her to resign her commission and recommission). The waiver came too late and she deferred for another year and then she was deferred for a year after that to do some assignment at the pentagon. Honestly this school seemed overly willing to defer but I guess that's the service member benefit. Needless to say, I'm in medical school and she's still working some Army job and she applied almost 2 years before me, lol.

 

[Law2Doc]

I knew a friend who got into a school but still had service obligation from ROTC. They deferred for one year and then she tried to get a waiver to get out of her obligation and do HPSP (it technically would require her to resign her commission and recommission). The waiver came too late and she deferred for another year and then she was deferred for a year after that to do some assignment at the pentagon. Honestly this school seemed overly willing to defer but I guess that's the service member benefit. Needless to say, I'm in medical school and she's still working some Army job and she applied almost 2 years before me, lol.

People take a very different view of armed service obligations. I think that kind of leeway wouldn't ever be applied with respect to forseable business dealings. In the armed service case the person fulfilling their military requirements is regarded as being responsible, in the latter, by applying to med schools knowing this might be on the table, irresponsible. So a school would regard this as the opposite analysis.

 

[xffan624]

People take a very different view of armed service obligations. I think that kind of leeway wouldn't ever be applied with respect to forseable business dealings. In the armed service case the person fulfilling their military requirements is regarded as being responsible, in the latter, by applying to med schools knowing this might be on the table, irresponsible. So a school would regard this as the opposite analysis.

It is different, but she knew what her obligation was before she applied. I had an obligation until Jan 2013 because of loan repayment and I waited until the 2012-2013 season to apply so I wouldn't have to defer. She could have waited until she knew her ROTC obligation would be up, but chose not to.

 

[Law2Doc]

It is different, but she knew what her obligation was before she applied. I had an obligation until Jan 2013 because of loan repayment and I waited until the 2012-2013 season to apply so I wouldn't have to defer. She could have waited until she knew her ROTC obligation would be up, but chose not to.

I understand, but military obligations are regarded differently. Nobody is going to regard her as "irresponsible" given the underlying trappings of responsibility of the armed forces. Our business friend doesn't get the same courtesy.

 

[seeinghowitgoes]

For what it's worth, in my personal experience I found each school to be very different when it came to deferrals.

Ultimately, I deferred for one year and will matriculate this fall. Some schools, knowing my situation from my application/updates, reached out to me before I even formally requested anything to let me know they were more than happy to have me with the next class. Others acted like it would be something they'd have to think about seriously.

For me, schools that questioned the value add of my year were schools that I became less interested in (as they didn't seem to value the same qualities I do/did at the time). That might have been reading too much into things, but applicants only have so many interactions off which to base decisions. Nobody was right or wrong, but just the response a school gave to my first inquiry actually helped me decide which school I thought I might fit best at.

So yea, just contacting schools can be really helpful on multiple levels. Good luck and congrats in the success so far - sounds like you've had some awesome experiences!

 

[Narmerguy]

I suggest you write schools after receiving acceptance offers. If you're up front with them, they will be very up front with you about whether they would consider granting a deferral for your situation. Worst that could happen is they say no, they won't take your acceptance away. I suspect most schools would not be willing to defer for something like this, especially when you don't have a firm timeline (this process could drag on further than you expect).

 

[mcloaf]

Highly school dependent. My school has actually had to ask people to defer due to over acceptance the past couple of years, but other schools wouldn't let you do it for anything short of a Rhodes.