Hi everyone,

I was wondering how many are in the same situation. My guess is that this year it will be a very common decision, considering the problems created by the financial crisis both for LLM funding and for recouping the investment made (landing a job iin the US at the end of the LLM will be almost impossible).
I have been accepted by some good programs, but I am going to ask for deferral (if possible) or will apply again next year.
It would be interesting to know how many people are doing that.
Please feel free to mention also the schools to which you are asking for deferral, and what is their response.
So far, I did that only with Berkeley.

me me me ...although its besides the financial aspect more a psychological choice... I will be waiting for my results from my final exam in october... and just don't wanna go to the states before I know them. So I decided to defer my admission from UofMinnesota.
Nail what did you tell Berkeley to defer your admission? When I was reading their deferall policy it seemed very strict.

I'm going to write an email for deferral, too. But am wondering what would be sound reasons. Apparently it can't be family crisis, which might have been used before by many people...

I guess that is still one of the chief reasons, and you can go around it as much as you want but in the end you cannot do much about it. It is clearly a sound reason!

In fact, to answer MAP2009's question, this is the reason I gave to Berkeley. Let's see what they think about it.

the family crisis?

Ahah. Sorry, I thought u were thinking at your family's economic crisis...meaning no funds basically

oh and they accepted it as a reason? cool I thought that they would say something like "you should have thought about this earlier" :D

I've yet to hear from them. Will keep u posted

that would be great thanks

anyone know if you can defer Harvard? information? chances etc?

Thank you guys. I'm afraid I don't have much time to brainstorm excuses for deferral. If the school doesn't buy it, then I may have to re-apply next year...Anyway, it'd be better than attending the school after denial of deferral, making my excuses not hold water at all. Tough choice - there must be more applicants...

Hey Nail have you heared anything from Berkeley yet?

the problem is that if the market does not get better, I doubt the funding will get easier by next year :/

I haven't applied yet, but I'm already thinking of applying next november, and if I get accepted ask for a deferral, my main reason will be personal and family economic situation, which is true.

one question for all of you: Do universities grant deferrals as a general rule, or is it an exception?, what I mean is, do most deferrals go through or do they commonly reject the reasons people give?

basically, how hard is it to get a deferral?

thank you all and good luck getting through the economic sh$thole we are all in...

schools (at least the top ones) hate deferrals as they f#$%-up their admissions decion-making process; hence they deal with these on a case-by-case basis and are usually not very accomodating unless you have VERY goods reasons backing your request.

I personally doubt that they view "financial issues" favorably as a reason to grant a deferral, my opinion is that they view your financial condition as something that you should have thought about prior to applying. After all, these are fee-earning programs, to which should not be applying unless you can meet their fees. If on the other hand, you applied for financial aid and clearly stated that it would be extremely difficult for you to assist if you are not granted financial aid, but you still get an admission offer but no fin. aid, then, maybe, the school will be more lenient towards "finances" as being a sufficient reason to grant you a deferral.

my advise to you, don't waste the multiple application fees (and the LSAC fee) if you cannot attend the programs for financial reasons; get your finances sorted first, and then apply. (otherwise, you'll lose time and money TWICE).

but that's only my opinion.

Slave.lex,

this makes sense but you have not considered the case of one who initially thinks he can afford the LLM and then cannot because of some unexpected event. What if the economic turmoil has affected your investments so badly that the stock you were relying on is in the end worth nothing? This is actually my case, but probably also the case of many other applicants

Nail, my case too... the rise in currency prices (from 10.50pesos-1dollar to 14.50pesos - 1 dollar) has complicated everything...

@Nail
@fajats

I can agree with both of you, an applicants financial conditions generally and the impact to your (or everyone's) financial condition given the current global recession can be easily distinguished. I agree that schools will probably much more accomodating due to these issues.

the thing is I don't think good universities will be able to allow much more postponing they usually do, otherwise it would just f**k up their admission process