Deferring Admission

[noman0008]

Is it potentially harmful to enrol in an institution and defer another (for safety purpose)? DO any of you have any idea?

[TheGirlWhoLived]

So, you want to start a program for a year, and if you don't like it, you will go to a program you deferred? 

I haven't heard of this, but I don't imagine either institution would be very happy with you. I don't think the deferred school would let you do that either. 

[Munashi]

This sounds very dangerous.  Are you planning to do things like publish or attend conferences?  I'd imagine so.  This type of thing would make it very easy for the school you deferred to discover you were enrolled somewhere else.  Your current institution would also be very upset to find out you were STILL holding a spot at another program.

 

As TheGirlWhoLived said, neither program would be happy.  At all.  I've never heard of this situation occurring, but I imagine the consequences would be very severe.  This is not a good idea.

[fuzzylogician]

It's both selfish (takes up someone else's spot) and abusive of the program that is holding your spot. If you get caught (which is very likely, because you'll be enrolled at another school, which will be on your CV, and you'll present your work at conferences), there will be negative repercussions for your reputation. Reputation is everything in academia. 

[TakeruK]

Yes, this is both bad practice (ethically) and bad for you because the schools will find out and the reputation you lose from it will be damaging. 

 

In addition, when you defer a school's offer, it usually needs to be justified and granted for a purpose. You might have to agree that you will not take another graduate school position! 

 

If you really want to do this, the only ethical way that I can see is to tell the school you plan to defer that you are interested in them, but want to spend at least one year at this other school and see if you like the other school better. If they still agree to hold your spot for a year, then you should be fine. At this point, any damage that happens to the school's program due to you not attending later is their own responsibility!

[Crucial BBQ]

Is it potentially harmful to enrol in an institution and defer another (for safety purpose)? DO any of you have any idea?

Attrition rates for grad students is pretty darn high and grad students do drop out of one program to transfer into another.  Accepting an offer at one school only to later enroll at another institution is not the issue at hand.  You specifically wish to hold a spot open with one program "just in case".  Honestly I am not sure how one program will find out about the other, or that of the other's offer of admission having been initially deferred, but the fact that it would be unethical is why you should truly avoid attempting this move.  By deferring your enrollment you are taking a spot from someone who wants, or deserves, to be there.  

[nugget]

A couple of other questions to ponder... What if the OP wanted to try out a school for the first two weeks into the semester and confirm his decision then? If he decides to continue and immediately drops the deferred offer 2 weeks into the first semester (and several months before next year's deadline) is it still unethical to do this? Or if he decides to withdraw from the first school after trying it out for two weeks and go with the deferred offer next year, is that unethical?

 

Curious to hear everyone's opinion on this scenario. What do you people think?

[TakeruK]

A couple of other questions to ponder... What if the OP wanted to try out a school for the first two weeks into the semester and confirm his decision then? If he decides to continue and immediately drops the deferred offer 2 weeks into the first semester (and several months before next year's deadline) is it still unethical to do this? Or if he decides to withdraw from the first school after trying it out for two weeks and go with the deferred offer next year, is that unethical?

 

Curious to hear everyone's opinion on this scenario. What do you people think?

 

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with leaving a school a few weeks into the program if you don't like it. This also "costs" another student a spot but I don't think this is an ethical problem at all. So I don't think we should worry about whether or not we cost someone else a spot when it comes to what is ethical. (see note below).

 

To me, the key thing to stay ethical is to never lie and stay true to your word. For example, I think the OP's situation and jenste's hypothetical is unethical because it is not ethical to accept more than one offer at a time, because you are committing to more than one school at a time. When you accept an offer, you are saying "I plan to devote my full time studies to your school" (sometimes this should be implied, sometimes this is explicit in what you sign when you accept). Similarly, a deferral request is the same thing, unless otherwise stated. A deferral means "I have accepted the offer but I will start later on at the agreed upon date".

 

So, if you do this to more than one school, then there is no way you are honestly able to commit to multiple program, and this is why I think it is unethical. 

 

Instead, as I said above, in the OP's situation and in jenste's situation, the student should only accept more than one offer (deferral=acceptance) if they disclose all conflicts of commitments. They should tell both schools what they are doing. If the schools allow this, with full knowledge of the conflict of commitment, then it's ethical and it's no longer the student's fault if they cause another student to lose a spot. The school has, for some reason, decided it was worth the risk so the responsibility is on them, not the student. (Therefore, I think if one is ethical and practices full disclosure, the ethical problem of costing another student their spot will not come up). However, I don't think many schools will allow this at all and it will force the student to be responsible and actually make a real decision when it's time to make a decision.

Edited April 26, 2014 by TakeruK