Hello everybody,



This question is mainly for people who have deferred an offer at an American university before or have an experience with that.



I was accepted at several universities, but got rejected from my top 3. I decided to accept the offer of one university that I was admitted to. Nevertheless, I am asking them for a deferral.



I was wondering whether I can still reapply next year to the three other universities regardless of the deferral agreement that I would sign.



Anyone did the same this year although they deferred last year ? In the deferral agreement they require that I won’t apply to any university next year, would it be a problem with LSAC ?



Thank you so much for your help in advance !!

[Edited by 1984-kmn on Mar 30, 2021]

I don't think you can do it. Usually, the university are very clear and restrict regarding the commitment of the deferred student for the next year. It's better to reapply next year, if you are not sure about the university that offered you the position. 

Thank you so much for your answer. But how the university that granted me deferral would know ? 

Hey :)

I would advise not to apply to other schools with a deferred status from another school. I investigated the question last year as I wondered how to reapply to the schools I didn't get into, and I had to withdraw from the schools I deferred in order to reapply. To answer your last question, the fact that the school has your LSAC matricule may give them access to your LSAC information and thus to your new applications. This is indicative information as it didn't come from LSAC itself, but I would not take the risk of reapplying while you explicitly stated to another school you wouldn't apply elsewhere. If the school you deferred to ended up knowing about it, not only they may withdraw their offer, but it could harm your other applications as this is considered as breach of contract. US schools are pretty strict about this!


That being said, if the school you deferred to doesn't have you sign a specific agreement stating that you will not apply to other schools, then you should contact them and explain them your situation, asking them if you are able to apply to other schools. That's what I did as well and some schools were pretty comprehensive.

In any case, I would advise not to go behind their backs as it could turn against you. On top of having your LSAC information, admissions committees from different schools may know each other and communicate... And besides, by signing a deferral agreement, you commit to respect its terms!

Hope that helps! :)

[Edited by patch2022 on Mar 30, 2021]

Hey :)

I would advise not to apply to other schools with a deferred status from another school. I investigated the question last year as I wondered how to reapply to the schools I didn't get into, and I had to withdraw from the schools I deferred in order to reapply. To answer your last question, the fact that the school has your LSAC matricule may give them access to your LSAC information and thus to your new applications. This is indicative information as it didn't come from LSAC itself, but I would not take the risk of reapplying while you explicitly stated to another school you wouldn't apply elsewhere. If the school you deferred to ended up knowing about it, not only they may withdraw their offer, but it could harm your other applications as this is considered as breach of contract. US schools are pretty strict about this!


That being said, if the school you deferred to doesn't have you sign a specific agreement stating that you will not apply to other schools, then you should contact them and explain them your situation, asking them if you are able to apply to other schools. That's what I did as well and some schools were pretty comprehensive.

In any case, I would advise not to go behind their backs as it could turn against you. On top of having your LSAC information, admissions committees from different schools may know each other and communicate... And besides, by signing a deferral agreement, you commit to respect its terms!

Hope that helps! :)

Hey there,

Here's my story:

I applied to school A, B and C last year. I first got in at school C and paid the deposit there before the early deadline (March 15). I then got in at school B in early April and intended to pay the deposit there and withdraw from school C. I did not make it to school A, which was my first choice. Before I even got the chance to withdraw from school C, it became clear that Covid-19 was going to impact my LLM year.

I asked school B for a deferral and signed the deferral agreement without really acknowledging its terms. School C then reached out to find out if I wanted to defer, as I had paid the deposit.

This marked the moment when I started wondering about whether I could defer to another school or not, in regard to the deferral agreement I had signed. This lead me to read the deferral agreement closely for the first time lol, and it stated that I couldn't apply to any other school. I realized that the deferral prevented me of giving school A another shot. Like I said, I investigated and found out that I had to withdraw my acceptance to school B in order to reapply as it turned out that deferral agreements were regarded very seriously.

I therefore contacted school B and withdrew my acceptance, simply saying that I was no longer able to commit to enroll. They were extremely comprehensive and actually offered an acceptance for 2022, 2023 and even 2024. I kindly rejected their offer as my plan was to give school A another shot and reapply for fall 2021.

I then answered school C's deferral offer by asking them about the terms of the deferral. I told them that I decided to reapply to LLM programs for Fall 2021, and asked about how to proceed with my acceptance, if I should withdraw it or not. Once again, they were really comprehensive and simply answered with a new acceptance email for the next fall. I was therefore able to apply at school A with a secured spot at school C.

Overall:
- If the school explicitly states that you cannot apply/enroll to another school, definitely don't plan to do otherwise for the reasons I mentioned before. The school has the right to withdraw your acceptance if you don't respect the deferral agreement and can inform the other schools you applied to about it, which could harm your applications severely 

- Even if the school does not have you sign a deferral agreement explicitly stating that you are not able to do so, it sometimes is an implicit condition for them. What I mean is, honesty really is the best policy and you don't know how a school may react if for some reason they find out that you're applying to another school while being deferred at theirs. Like I said, schools are usually comprehensive especially these days with Covid, so don't be afraid to ask about the exact terms of your deferral.

Hope that makes sense :) Feel free to DM me if you have any other questions

[Edited by patch2022 on Apr 01, 2021]

UC Berkeley has not given me any deferral agreement. I paid the 1000 USD deposit a while back. Should I ask them? I also plan on reapplying to two other schools this year while holding my UC Berkeley deferral in hand