How acceptable is it to defer?

[moreschoolmoreschool...]

My husband is finishing up his masters and I'm ready to apply for my Biomed doctoral program for next Fall, but he might not be done with his degree by the end of next summer (it's about 50/50) and living apart just isn't acceptable (we're looking to move across the country for my phd).

If I'm accepted to a program, what is the likelihood that I'll be able to defer until the next year or just a semester? Is this an accepted thing to do or is it frowned upon and I'll be possibly sacrificing the opportunity? Someone told me it depends on the professor - the programs I'm looking at are ones in which your first year is full of rotations in multiple labs and your stipend paid via the university and not a professor's lab. Thoughts?

[anthropologygeek]

Different schools have different policies so check on the schools website

[Usmivka]

This is not unusual in the physical and natural sciences--either your two-body problem or deferring. The risk with deferring is that a funding source goes away, but this should be less of a problem given the rotation setup. That said, many entering classes in biology related fields are very small, just a few people. The programs are geared around this size, so make sure to let them know what you are considering--if they defer you, they will likely want to admit an additional person this year and one fewer next year to keep the money flow as even as possible.

[TakeruK]

You can check the deferment policies usually on the admissions page. Also, once they accept you, they usually point you to their deferral policy as well. I don't think it's frowned upon or is abnormal for a student to want to defer, but it depends on how you do it.

If you accept their offer in the Spring then suddenly decide to defer in the late summer (e.g. your husband thought he would finish but was not able to), it would be a pretty bad thing. But if you exercise your right to defer (if one exists in their offer) when you initially respond to their offer (i.e. before April 15), then it should be okay. I guess if you decide to ask for a deferral sometime between April and August/September, the amount of "frowned-upon-ness" would increase proportionally with time!

I don't know if your husband will know his chances of finishing by the time you need to respond to your offers. But there's definitely no need to include this factor in your applications! If you ask for a deferral when you respond to their offer, the worst that could happen is that they deny your request and you have to reapply all over again next year. That's not great, but I don't think the school would hold it against you since you told them early enough that it does not mess up their plans!

[emmm]

As mentioned above, you DO need to contact the individual schools, as policies vary. I have heard that deferrals are commonly NOT accepted, and students not ready to start on schedule need to reapply and risk not getting an offer in the next cycle.