How easy is it to get a deferral? Forum

[slsplease]

I'm interested in applying to a handful of state schools - UVA, Boalt, and UCLA. If I were accepted at one of these schools, how tough would it be to get a deferral of my admission so that I could move to said market and work for a year. As far as the school is concerned my motivation would be to get a head start networking and working in the area, but I'd also benefit by gaining residency and saving about 30-40k total.

Is this easy to do, and does it make sense?

[soitgoes9]

You would prob. need a better reason.

[lats19nys]

Absolutely not...Look even read what they say about deferrals. You're supposed to only ask for a deferral if either something unexpected comes up or you get a special opportunity to do something. Telling them, hey i want to make some money and network, is probably the worst thing you can do. I mean, not the schools you mentioned, some schools even are stingy about need based fee waivers for applications due to the belief that going to law school is a serious investment that the applicant should have thought long and hard about from the very beginning. Now, if you said you were doing like Teach for America or something similar that would probably fly. lol. "I want money" not gonna work hahaha. sry couldn't help myself.

[PDaddy]

Absolutely not...Look even read what they say about deferrals. You're supposed to only ask for a deferral if either something unexpected comes up or you get a special opportunity to do something. Telling them, hey i want to make some money and network, is probably the worst thing you can do. I mean, not the schools you mentioned, some schools even are stingy about need based fee waivers for applications due to the belief that going to law school is a serious investment that the applicant should have thought long and hard about from the very beginning. Now, if you said you were doing like Teach for America or something similar that would probably fly. lol. "I want money" not gonna work hahaha. sry couldn't help myself.

You would prob. need a better reason.

You are BOTH ABSOLUTELY WRONG. Work experience is one of the better reasons to ask for a deferral. it will depend on the type of work experience, but with the economy being what it is, the schools are not interested in admitting students who will struggle to pay for school and wind up dropping out. A couple of my friends cited a desire to work for a year and were both granted deferrals...another friend who deferred at UVA moved to C'Ville for a year to work and get in-state tuition.

[ben4847]

Working to save money for law school makes no sense. Your expected earning potential after school will be higher (or you shouldn't be going), so it makes more sense to work that year after school and make more.

[JamMasterJ]

it's not a great reason for asking for one, but the policies on deferrals are very different from school to school, so it's more about finding a school that's lenient or has over-enrolled

[slsplease]

Wherever I go work would likely be government related. I'm interested in PI (though not necessarily set on it) and the idea would be to gain experience in each state's capitol (Sacramento or Richmond) so that I'd both be able to learn about the state's legislative and legal system, gain valuable capitol networking opportunities that I would otherwise not have, and, of course, raise money to help cover tuition...

[rinkrat19]

Depends on the school (some won't accept anything less than "I need a year off to do a round of chemo" and some will grant a deferral for practically anyone).
Depends on your reason.
Depends on your timing (the later in the cycle you request, the more fussy the schools tend to be).

All that said, there really aren't enough people on TLS applying for deferrals to gather good data. What we know is mostly either anecdotal or information given by admissions offices.

Anecdotally, I was granted a deferral by Northwestern pretty much because I wanted another year to prepare to move and get vested in my retirement account at work. I applied only a week or so after I was accepted last January.

[suspicious android]

I like how angry some people get at what they perceive to be frivolous reasons to defer. Like rinkrat said, the standards for deferal are pretty varied. A friend of mine deferred at a top 10 school and told them it was becauuse she wanted to learn Spanish. She wasn't doing any prestigious program or anything, just bummed around South America for a few months, taking classes here and there. I withdrew my application to a particular law school (ranked in the 30's) last year with a note about how I was withdrawing my application due to concerns about job placement/legal hiring for lawyers in general. I said I was going to wait and possibly apply again the following year. An adcomm wrote me back offering a deferall if I wanted. So basically the reason for my deferall if I had accepted it would have been "I don't want to go to law school this year, just not feeling it."

[lats19nys]

Absolutely not...Look even read what they say about deferrals. You're supposed to only ask for a deferral if either something unexpected comes up or you get a special opportunity to do something. Telling them, hey i want to make some money and network, is probably the worst thing you can do. I mean, not the schools you mentioned, some schools even are stingy about need based fee waivers for applications due to the belief that going to law school is a serious investment that the applicant should have thought long and hard about from the very beginning. Now, if you said you were doing like Teach for America or something similar that would probably fly. lol. "I want money" not gonna work hahaha. sry couldn't help myself.

You would prob. need a better reason.

You are BOTH ABSOLUTELY WRONG. Work experience is one of the better reasons to ask for a deferral. it will depend on the type of work experience, but with the economy being what it is, the schools are not interested in admitting students who will struggle to pay for school and wind up dropping out. A couple of my friends cited a desire to work for a year and were both granted deferrals...another friend who deferred at UVA moved to C'Ville for a year to work and get in-state tuition.

I like how you say i'm absolutely wrong then qualify your answer. Try taking some logic lessons.

[PDaddy]

Working to save money for law school makes no sense. Your expected earning potential after school will be higher (or you shouldn't be going) is irrelevant so it makes more sense to work that year after school and make more I don't know what I am talking about.

I know different from first-hand experience. If an admitted student says he/she is unsure of his /her ability to survive the first year with the current package, and the school cannot increase it, the school will allow a deferral if the student can show that he has a job lined up that will allow him to put away extra dough to use towards law school.

I know this because a school did it for me...two years in a row.

Some of you guys just make assumptions and talk out of your asses...and you give really bad advice. Try doing a little research. Even without the research, it makes perfect sense that a school would want students to protect themselves against default or dropping out. And lets not even talk about schools that actually prefer work experience anyways (NU, Penn, Vandy, UVA, UCLA, etc.). They welcome the idea and even encourage it.

[soitgoes9]

I admit i was over simplistic, but schools would expect meaningful work experience in order to grant a deferral.