Deferring, overall

[duckchicken]

Hi everyone,

I'm starting to consider applying to graduate schools (in a humanities subject) and/or seminaries. I would like to take a year off in between to do something very worthwhile to me, but not oriented towards improving myself professionally. I was wondering, in general, how many graduate schools would automatically consider giving someone they accept a year's deferral - is it just a given that most graduate schools (in the humanities) will do this, or are some schools more likely to offer a deferral than others? If so, what kind of schools?

Basically, what I would love to know is whether or not I could count on a 1-year deferral of enrollment if I were accepted to, for example, a Ph.D. program in the humanities. How exactly do deferrals work? I can't consider a term deferral.

I would appreciate any help. Thank you so much!

[runonsentence]

Many programs say on their websites whether or not they allow students to defer. Then, of the ones that do, some only allow you to defer for specific reasons (e.g., a family emergency, got accepted too late to find outside funding if it's a degree you pay for, etc.).

But in the end, I'm wondering why you need to defer at all. Why must you complete applications this year? Why can't they wait until you're ready to attend school right after acceptance?

Since you know you want to take time off, it would make the most sense to give yourself an extra year to make yourself an even stronger candidate, and to give yourself the best options. You don't want to pick a graduate school only because it happened to offer deferrals (whereas your dream school might not).

Edited September 16, 2011 by runonsentence

[duckchicken]

Right. But then, would I have to ask my professors to write me references before I leave town? How does that generally play out? I'm worried about getting too far out of reach, somehow, or wanting to somehow stay in the same place as my university so that I can keep in touch with profs, which would nullify my ability to do what I wanted to do with the gap year.

Also, what if the things I plan on doing during the gap year would bring me to another country / a place from which it is difficult to send out applications? Is it generally possible to apply from anywhere? How do people approach something like this?

[runonsentence]

You shouldn't worry, plenty of students apply to graduate school after taking a break from school. If you poke around the boards here, you'll see that a good number of us have taken a break between undergrad and grad school.

If you're worried about falling out of touch or your professors forgetting you, then by all means talk to your professors about your intention to eventually apply to school (or to take a specified number of years off). It will behoove you to get their advice anyway. But it's routine for professor to recommend you if you're only a few years out of undergrad, which is why you'll see questions on the application board about packets of materials to send to LoR writers (which usually contain a CV, transcript, draft of your SoP, discussion of experiences you've shared with that writer that you think make you a good candidate for grad study, etc.).

As long as you have internet access, I don't see why you couldn't apply from anywhere. Graduate applications are just about always handled online, and all of your correspondence with your recommenders can be handled by phone or email.

[duckchicken]

Very encouraging. Thank you for your responses and help!

[sacklunch]

As far as I know many (most) divinity schools/theology programs will give you a year to defer, unless you got some sort of special scholarship/award. I remember reading on several websites this was possible (Yale, HDS, BC, ect).

[PoetryPupil]

I just wanted to put my 0.2$ in. Applying from abroad can be a pain. This is experience talking, many times last year I found myself pulling my hair because of how limited I was by my location. Problems that occured varied from

- very expensive and unreliable process of sending any supporting material

- schools that only allow you to pay by US checks or some other limited method - I was lucky enough to have a family friend travel to the US briefly and he paid my application fee for me, otherwise I would have been screwed

- official letters of acceptance/rejection take a LONG time to get to you and some schools only notified by snail mail

I don't mean to be discouraging, but these are very real and nerve-wrecking problems that you might want to consider. If you have a way to apply from the US, do it now. I also have experience in deferring and I got my deferral no problem with no questions asked (it was an MA in the humanties from a very good school).

HTH