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so....would schools be okay with deferral without a job lined up? can you defer just to travel the world, smoke clove cigarettes, and eat baguettes on the streets of paris? i really want to defer but i haven't been able to find much information on this. has anyone else done this? sorry if this has been posted before - i searched but didn't find anything super relevant.

Not only do you need a good reason to defer, TLS wisdom holds that having a job is often not a good enough reason for a school to allow you to defer.

I think it varies largely by school, and even by year within schools. Last year, a roommate had a lot of difficulty getting a deferral from Boalt, but relative ease at Columbia... made his choice of schools easier.

depends on the school. I know that it's important to inform them early on.

Knew of a person who needed to defer Georgetown due to SO's death - was not granted.

Knew of someone who successfully deferred Columbia to do exactly what you are intending.

Depends on the school. I know some schools explicitly say they will grant a 1 year deferral without any reason whatsoever.

When you request the deferral may have an effect as well. I was told by Northwestern that they are "pretty generous" about granting deferrals early on in the cycle (that was in Mid-Jan) but the later it gets, you'll need a more pressing reason.

my friend deferred from Berkeley last year just to hang out an extra year. He didn't even have a job lined up (at the time). He said he had to have a scary talk with the dean but that was it.

Oh...so I need to have already been getting that going? I was planning on waiting until I got financial aid info, then decide where to go, then defer. Is that not possible?

glewz wrote:depends on the school. I know that it's important to inform them early on.

Knew of a person who needed to defer Georgetown due to SO's death - was not granted.

Knew of someone who successfully deferred Columbia to do exactly what you are intending.

Damn Georgetown is a sick fucking place, lol.

lol georgetown.

um yeah i'm thinking probably columbia. eek! i want finaid info first....... but i have no idea when that's coming either! oh well. i'm sort of afraid to ask to defer to chill out / travel and then have it be denied; can i re-ask to defer with a job after that if it's unsuccessful...?

whitman wrote:Oh...so I need to have already been getting that going? I was planning on waiting until I got financial aid info, then decide where to go, then defer. Is that not possible?

I don't know if all schools operate like NU, but it does make sense. You're asking the school to change their plans to do you a favor. It removes a student they have already selected from this year's incoming class, and now they have to fill that seat. They'd probably like to have the largest possible selection of applicants to choose from when they go to fill it, which means they probably don't want to wait until a lot of the best applicants on their waitlist have withdrawn.

I also had to pay my first seat deposit for this fall's entering class (normally not due until 4/29) before I could even request the deferral from NU. So it was a $750 gamble that fortunately paid off for me.

Edited for spelling.

That Georgetown story really had me worried, but my deferral request there was just approved, no questions asked!

All I had to do was email a request, and I don't even have a job definitely lined up at the moment. Was getting cold feet and wanted another year to make sure I'm set on making the investment and doing a JD rather than a PhD (didn't mention that of course...just said that I had some exciting job prospects for the coming year here in the UK).