Does Deferring enrollment affect scholarship possibilities? Forum

[tlsforumid]

Hi everybody. This is my first post. My question is if I defer enrollment for a year because I didn't get any scholarship money, improve my LSAT score dramatically during that year (like from a 160 to a 172), and re-apply will the school consider giving me scholarship money? Thanks very much.

[Clearly]

You're talking about two separate things. A deferral is when you are accepted to a school and defer to attend at a later year, you don't have to reapply, you are already considered accepted for the following year. There are non-binding deferrals, and binding deferrals. You won't get much in scholarship offers the following year from a binding deferral because you have to attend anyway so they have no incentive to pay you. A non-binding deferral allows you to be considered with the accepted students of that class for scholly. Neither deferral usually allows you to carry a current scholarship offer to the later years, the best they will say is "we will reconsider you for money next year". Reapplying however is totally different, that's actually declining your offer entirely, and trying again the next cycle.

[tlsforumid]

Ok thanks!

[Clearly]

It's also worth saying most schools don't like issuing deferrals and will only do so in certain circumstances, so I wouldn't bank on that as an option unless you've been offered one. Additionally if you think your score will actually go up so much you'd be crazy to take a deferral to any school your current score would get you in to.