BlueberryScone22

Thanks everyone for the kind words! @emiliajulia I don't know how helpful/ pertinent this is for you, but they did tell me I could try enrolling and then taking a leave of absence as a policy workaround. They said it's hard to receive permission to take a leave, but that it was worth trying. Good luck!

@Busy Bee @Horb I was told today that I could not defer, and that the April 15 deadline was not flexible –– fair! So now I have to be prepared to make a decision, and while, yes, it does make sense that one could get into better schools after receiving a Fulbright, I already got into my top choice... waiting for the euphoria to wear off before I make any decisions. If it doesn't wear off, there's my decision!

Thanks @wildchartermage and @sat0ri ! I'm pretty sure it's allowed – we did discuss it briefly/ casually as a hypothetical possibility, and the response form has a defer option. I'm just more generally curious about the pros and cons of deferring or not. Of course, I don't know if I'll even get the Fulbright and don't want to overthink it beforehand, but at the same time I feel I'll need to make a decision fairly quickly because of deadlines. I think my (small-ish) reluctance is, that I'm very excited to be a part of a community of scholars in my field, whereas the Fulbright research path has the potential of being a bit lonely. But I still know that having nine months to focus on research is a huge privilege and one I'll surely miss once school starts. Really when I think about it, deferring makes perfect, logical sense, but I'm just so excited about MIT and don't want to wait! @Satori Yes, thanks, I'm very excited about MIT – it feels like the perfect "fit." I applied to Croatia (so next to Italy!).

Has anyone else applied to both Fulbright and graduate school for the same year? I am very shocked to have been accepted into my first choice school, and also to be a Fulbright research semi-finalist. I'm going to speak with MIT about my situation soon, but am wondering if anyone has thoughts on this matter. I think they will let me defer, but it seems doubtful that I'll hear if I'm awarded the grant before the April 15th deadline. And in a way I might be more excited about MIT than Fulbright, but deferring wouldn't take away the opportunity. This is the best kind of problem to possibly have and I am truly overwhelmed! All thoughts welcome.