School I deferred is asking if I am still interested, but I applied to other programs this year! Dilemma

[AlabamaArkansas]

I was accepted into a PhD program last year but deferred admissions for 1 year for various reasons. I have since applied to other programs at other schools, but have yet to hear back about their admissions decisions.

Now here is the dilemma; the school which I had deferred is asking me whether or not I am still interested in their program. To be frank, I am! However, I also applied to some other programs in other fields that are more competitive and appealing.

Help me gradcafe: How do I avoid telling the school which I deferred that I am still interested in their program, while I haven't heard back from other universities? I can see this going horribly wrong in two ways:

• A: I tell the school that I deferred I am interested, and next month I am admitted to a much more competitive program in a different field that I would inevitable choose over the school I deferred. Isn't this really bad? How would that go down?
• B: I tell school that I deferred I am no longer interested, and put my future at risk of getting into _no_ schools this application season, and essential lose out on any graduate school opportunities?

Help! Thanks.

[TakeruK]

Honestly, I think you made a mistake. You should not have deferred admissions and also applied to other programs. Of course, I don't know the details of the deferment policy at this school, so maybe it's fine, but usually deferring means committing yourself to this program. 

It sounds like this school is about to make offers to the next cohort and they want to know if they need to save you a spot. You have not heard back from other schools because generally, schools need to figure out their deferred students decisions first so in general, I think this process happens before most of the admission decisions.

I think you have two ethical choices at this point:

1. Be honest with the school and tell them that you have also applied to other programs. Maybe the program is big enough that +/- 1 spot is not a big deal, so they can give you a few more weeks to decide. Or, maybe they did not expect that accepting the deferment last year means you are committed to them so this is not a problem at all. This could also backfire though, and they might decide that you were dishonest or did not keep within the deferment policy and rescind your admission. Or, maybe they will allow it but it means you will be re-evaluated amongst all the new applicants.

2. Tell the school that you will be attending this fall. Then, withdraw all of your other applications.

You asked if telling the school that you're interested and then taking another offer would be really bad. Yes, this would be extremely bad. In addition to being very unethical, this will burn all your bridges at that program, and although I don't know what field you're in, some fields are really small. Also, if the other schools you've applied to know about what you did, it would probably hurt you there too. Don't do this. 

In my opinion, you cannot ethically use the current offer you have as a backup plan while you pursue other offers. You either take it, or you risk it for the other applications. It's not right to fake interest in one school only because it's a backup to others. (Note: It's perfectly fine though, to have interest in one school as a "safety school" but at least be honest about it).

[ts1493]

45 minutes ago, AlabamaArkansas said:

Help me gradcafe: How do I avoid telling the school which I deferred that I am still interested in their program, while I haven't heard back from other universities? I can see this going horribly wrong in two ways:

• A: I tell the school that I deferred I am interested, and next month I am admitted to a much more competitive program in a different field that I would inevitable choose over the school I deferred. Isn't this really bad? How would that go down?
• B: I tell school that I deferred I am no longer interested, and put my future at risk of getting into _no_ schools this application season, and essential lose out on any graduate school opportunities?

Did the program commit to giving you funding this year, or did they tell you that you would be held a spot but that they would evaluate your funding alongside other candidates for the following year?  Some programs do that and I think it makes a big difference.  A friend of mine deferred but since she was not promised funding, only a spot, it was a lot more understandable that she applied to other programs. 

I was admitted to a PhD program two years ago right before being selected for a competitive international experience that I also applied to.  I explained what happened to my program and they were very fair: said that they couldn't hold my spot/funding, but that they could keep everything from my application on file for when I was ready to apply again, and all I would need was an updated SoP and any new test scores.  A couple of the professors said that if they were me they would have made the same decision.  Since I didn't have any promised spot or funding I reapplied to the program this year along with a few other programs to maximize my chances. 

I think it matters whether they gave you funding and what the reason for deferring was.  A lot of programs don't allow you to defer specifically to avoid the kind of scenario where a committed student picks a better option.  If you're sure you want to go there I would go ahead and say that you're interested and want to move forward in the process.  If you haven't been guaranteed funding then I would say that you'd like to move forward in the process, you're definitely still interested, but that obviously funding is a concern.  That leaves some room for the conversation about other options.  I do think if they promised you funding and now you say you applied to other schools in your deferral year it will raise some red flags and possibly a bad taste for the school you want to go to (i.e. compromise your chances of getting any additional funding...).  

Edited February 10, 2016 by ts1493

[rising_star]

1 hour ago, AlabamaArkansas said:

I was accepted into a PhD program last year but deferred admissions for 1 year for various reasons. I have since applied to other programs at other schools, but have yet to hear back about their admissions decisions.

Now here is the dilemma; the school which I had deferred is asking me whether or not I am still interested in their program. To be frank, I am! However, I also applied to some other programs in other fields that are more competitive and appealing.

You're looking at this too narrowly. They asked if you were still interested not if you were planning to enroll there. So, you write them back and say, "Yes, I am still very interested in your program. I'm eager to hear about the next steps in the admissions process and the availability of funding. Thank you." Don't volunteer information which they haven't asked for. If they haven't asked you to accept a funded offer, then you're fine.