To defer or not to defer...

[b_bob31]

Hi, this is my first post!

I got admitted to 2 graduate schools. Let's call them A and B. School A is not as prestigious as school B, in terms of ranking. I got admitted to school A for their PhD program, which is fully paid for and I also get a stipend. For school B, I got admitted to their Masters program, which I will have to pay tuition. Finance isn't that big of a problem, so I choose school B. 

 

The problem is that I received the acceptance for school A before the April 15 deadline and for school B, I received it recently. Thus, I initially accepted school A and when the decision came out for school B, I also accepted that one too. I then emailed school A with a request to withdraw my registration. They offered to defer to Fall 2014. I ultimately want to pursue a PhD and would like to do so at school B, but just in case that is not feasible, I would be ok with doing so at school A. Thus, deferring would give me this option. I understand that it would be unfair for school A to put them as a backup, but are there any repercussions to doing so? Are there rules that state that I cannot attend another grad school while I defer the current school? Please let me know your thoughts. Thank you in advance. 

[Eigen]

I would say it's a bit unethical, especially as your chances of being finished with an MS next year are pretty slim. 

 

That said, I would think it's a pretty surprising move to choose an unfunded MS at a slightly "more prestigious" school over a funded PhD. 

 

Assuming the funded PhD is a decent school, it would be a much better move for your career, financial and otherwise. 

 

An unfunded MS will generally tell people that you didn't make the cut for either a funded MS or a funded PhD program, and is the schools way of telling you they didn't really want you. 

 

Just my 2 cents. 

[jeffster]

I also find your decision to pass on a funded PhD surprising, when a PhD is your goal.  Unless the gap in prestige and/or fit between these two schools is truly enormous, maybe.

 

Have you done any research into whether the MA program is a reliable feeder to the PhD program at this more prestigous school? It's not unusual for an MA program to be designed as terminal.  Did you apply to the PhD program at this school, and not get accepted?  You might try contacting the department directly and posing the question to them.

 

Otherwise it seems like a pretty big gamble, given the little we know about your situation.  Especially since the PhD programs offer to defer you for a year is pretty generous, and seems to indicate they really want you there.  As far as the ethics of playing a delaying game with the first school for a backup place, I think you have some incling that it's not particularly on the up-and-up, or you wouldn't have come here to ask about it. 

[MsDarjeeling]

I don't understand the logic in turning down a funded phd program if you ultimately desire a phd.  It sounds like school A was your second choice and school B was your first choice, but school B isn't offering you anything that you want.  Sure you're able to afford an unfunded master's program and you'd *prefer* to get a phd from school B, but they aren't offering you a phd opportunity or a guarantee that their master's feeds into their phd.  You'd still have to apply again and if they don't accept you what then? 

 

School A is offering you more and may be a better fit for you if you give them a shot.  Have you been to the campus, met with professors, talked to students, etc?  Also keep in mind deferring doesn't always mean your funding will be waiting for you.  If you defer and then enroll you may have to compete for funding again or risk being partially funded/unfunded.

[TakeruK]

I agree with everyone above that it doesn't make sense to be choosing to go to an unfunded Masters when you already got into your goal (which is a funded PhD). But, it's your choice!

 

To answer your question -- no, I do not think there are any grand/general rules that prohibit you from deferring grad school to attend another grad school. At my current school, it is common for undergrads here to be admitted to the same school for PhD studies on the condition that they defer their admission for a year and spend that in-between year somewhere else (e.g. a Masters). However, you should check with School A on their conditions on deferral. Since they offered it to you, you can ask what the conditions/stipulations are such that you would still have your admission offer for Fall 2014.

 

As for ethics, I agree that it is unethical, and also unprofessional, to accept School A's offer to defer admission for 1 year if you know that there is no way that you will be attending School A in Fall 2014 (i.e. your Masters will not be finished in a year). But, if your Masters at School B is indeed a 1-year program, then what you are proposing sounds like an okay thing to do. If you are also worried about the ethics of the situation, then come clean to School A. Tell them that you are deferring their admission for a year because you want to try to get into School B's PhD program. I'm not saying that you must tell them but if you do, then you know there cannot be any repercussions later on for any potentially unethical behaviour. In addition, if you tell School A your plans, then they will let you know if your deferral would still be valid a year later. Remember, that being granted a deferral is a privilege, not a right, so lying in order to get a deferral would definitely be unethical.

[b_bob31]

Thank you for all your responses. To clarify, one of the reasons why I choose school B is because of its proximity to my hometown. For personal/.family reasons, it would be much more convenient for me to be closer home. Whereas school A is across the country so going home in an emergency would be costly and time consuming. 

 

School B has a track for Master students who want to eventually pursue a PhD. I just need to make sure i have a high GPA if I want to stay there. 

I will come clean with school A and let them know that I am planning on squeezing my masters in 1.5 years and will be considering their PhD program afterwards and see if they are ok with it. 

[PsychGirl1]

Honestly, you're probably better off just taking a gap year and reapplying next year then starting the master's program. I went through a master's program before my PhD, so normally I'm biased the other way, but it just doesn't make sense in your case. I'd ask school B what you can do to strengthen your app to get into the PhD program, and spend the next year doing that and reapplying.

[Lisa44201]

Still not sure about the ethics. You accepted a spot. That means someone has been rejected. They are not hanging out on a wait list somewhere - they are done, because you accepted the spot. Furthermore, just because you're going to "try to squeeze in a Master's in 1.5 years" doesn't actually mean you're going to be able to do it; the program might defer for a year, but 2? Besides, just because School B has a track for students who want to get into a PhD program eventually, doesn't mean you're going to get into that track. Even if you do, it seems like your main reason for not accepting the PhD program is because it's away from home. Let's assume for the moment that you do finish this Master's in 1.5 years, and they let you defer: in 1.5 years, that school is not going to be any closer to home. Also, when you defer a program, it means that, assuming they allow it, you're going to be going there the following year, not "considering" it.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Lisa44201

[TakeruK]

Still not sure about the ethics. You accepted a spot. That means someone has been rejected. They are not hanging out on a wait list somewhere - they are done, because you accepted the spot. Furthermore, just because you're going to "try to squeeze in a Master's in 1.5 years" doesn't actually mean you're going to be able to do it; the program might defer for a year, but 2? Besides, just because School B has a track for students who want to get into a PhD program eventually, doesn't mean you're going to get into that track. Even if you do, it seems like your main reason for not accepting the PhD program is because it's away from home. Let's assume for the moment that you do finish this Master's in 1.5 years, and they let you defer: in 1.5 years, that school is not going to be any closer to home. Also, when you defer a program, it means that, assuming they allow it, you're going to be going there the following year, not "considering" it.

 

Accepting a spot in a graduate program is a serious responsibility because as Lisa44201 said, you are likely taking a spot away from someone else. However, this doesn't mean that it is unethical to change your mind later. If a student's situation changes just before their program starts, or even just a few months into the program, it's perfectly fine to change your mind and withdraw. It would be unethical, in my opinion though, to accept a graduate program spot with no real intention of actually attending the school. I think that at the time of the decision, as long as the student has every intention of following through with their commitment to attend the PhD program, it would be fine to accept the offer. The OP did do this -- info about School B came much after the School A decision. So I don't see any problems with ethics there.

 

The OP also told School A what happens and School A was the one that offered to defer the OP's admission for another year. This sounds like School A really wants the OP at their school so that they are offering to let the OP attend School A after his/her Masters are School B. So, I don't think doing a Masters somewhere else first then going to School A for a PhD is unethical either -- after all, School A implicitly gave the OP permission to do so because of their offer of deferral. 

 

The only iffy part is School A is expecting the OP to enroll in their PhD program in Fall 2014. OP might want to do a PhD at School B if the opportunity arises. But it sounds like the OP intends to let School A know that if they get an offer from School B, they won't be attending School A. So, if School A still keeps their deferral offer to the OP after disclosing this fact, then I don't see any ethical problems with this situation. If the OP ends up in a PhD program at School B, then that likely means a student lost their chance to start a PhD program at School A. But this is not the OP's fault -- School A decided to risk not getting anyone in order to have a chance to get the OP. It's only unethical, in my opinion, if the OP intends to mislead School A about their intention to enroll.

[juilletmercredi]

But the OP didn't tell School A what happened - they just contacted School A to ask to withdraw their registration.  They didn't explain that they were withdrawing so that they could finish a master's program somewhere else - which is why OP says "I will explain to School A what happened" in his most recent post.  And no, School A did not implicitly give approval for the OP to do any such thing.  Deferrals are usually granted for personal emergency reasons, not so you can pursue a degree somewhere else - and anyway, OP's master's program is likely to take 2 years.  They say they are going to try to "squeeze" in 1.5, but even if they could, there's no difference between 1.5 and 2 years in practice because most PhD programs want you to begin only in the fall.

 

If OP lays it all out on the table - tells School A "I want to do this master's for 2 years, so can you guys hold my spot until Fall 2015?  But oh yeah, I might not actually come, because I really want to do a PhD at School B, so if they let me into their program then I won't come" and School A still agrees to hold a spot open for him for 2 years...well, then OP will have done nothing ethically wrong and can rest assured.  But I doubt School A will hold a spot in their program for TWO years for someone who isn't even sure that they want to come to the program, and indeed, really wants to go somewhere else and is only using them as a backup.

[TakeruK]

But the OP didn't tell School A what happened - they just contacted School A to ask to withdraw their registration.  They didn't explain that they were withdrawing so that they could finish a master's program somewhere else - which is why OP says "I will explain to School A what happened" in his most recent post.  And no, School A did not implicitly give approval for the OP to do any such thing.  Deferrals are usually granted for personal emergency reasons, not so you can pursue a degree somewhere else - and anyway, OP's master's program is likely to take 2 years.  They say they are going to try to "squeeze" in 1.5, but even if they could, there's no difference between 1.5 and 2 years in practice because most PhD programs want you to begin only in the fall.

 

If OP lays it all out on the table - tells School A "I want to do this master's for 2 years, so can you guys hold my spot until Fall 2015?  But oh yeah, I might not actually come, because I really want to do a PhD at School B, so if they let me into their program then I won't come" and School A still agrees to hold a spot open for him for 2 years...well, then OP will have done nothing ethically wrong and can rest assured.  But I doubt School A will hold a spot in their program for TWO years for someone who isn't even sure that they want to come to the program, and indeed, really wants to go somewhere else and is only using them as a backup.

 

Agreed -- my second post was working on the assumption that the OP did indeed do what he/she said they would do in their second post:

 

I will come clean with school A and let them know that I am planning on squeezing my masters in 1.5 years and will be considering their PhD program afterwards and see if they are ok with it. 

 

I was responding to Lisa44201's post about ethics that was written 2 days after the "I will come clean" post by the OP. I thought Lisa44201 was saying that even if the OP discloses everything to School A, there would still be ethical issues because the OP is not using the deferral for the traditional reasons (e.g. personal emergency) and thus denied a student a spot at School A. However, I think that If the OP did disclose everything to School A and the deferral offer still stands, then it's no longer OP's responsibility that a spot was wasted and the unused spot is a result of School A's decisions. 

 

Sorry for that super pedantic post, but just wanted to clarify what I said!

Edited August 28, 2013 by TakeruK

[Guest |||]

If you pull it off, years down the road as an old professor it will make you a legend whom stories are spread about how you ventured through the system.

 

If either school finds out while youre doing this scheme, you probably won't make it into being an old professor.