tricky situation

[tanvics]

Hello everyone..
So here goes my case.. I am a Physics Master's student from India and had applied for Fall '14. I am currently in the second and final year of my M.Sc degree and unfortunately I have to reappear for a 3rd semester exam in December '14.
Having received offers of admission from 3 places, this situation of mine has really landed me in a soup. How do I ask the universities to defer my admission for the Spring semester? (Is a deferral even possible?) How do I communicate this situation of mine to the university people?

Any advice or help is highly appreciated...

[nik]

You rather leave you MS incomplete... I think your uni's won't mind.

[tanvics]

But being an international student, wont they ask for my Provisional degree or something prior to admission? (since they already know I am pursuing a Master's degree)

[shangtsail]

I think the completion of a Bachelor's degree is enough. Also, it's extremely likely that they will allow a one-year deferral.

[nik]

But being an international student, wont they ask for my Provisional degree or something prior to admission? (since they already know I am pursuing a Master's degree)

Depends on which universities they are. they might be more interested in transcripts, wants to see which courses you did rather than whether u received the degree.

I think the completion of a Bachelor's degree is enough. Also, it's extremely likely that they will allow a one-year deferral.

I agree with this. International MS's often has no value to US HEI's. they are valuable to industries, though.

[tanvics]

ok..but by all means i should honestly inform them of my situation right?

[nik]

ok..but by all means i should honestly inform them of my situation right?

Do u have any other choice? Then what is it?

[tanvics]

Nope..stuck in a tough situation..i appreciate your help

[TomServo]

Are they expecting you to get your MS first or are they expecting you to transfer as you are now? Certainly, know what is expected of you.

[TakeruK]

You should definitely inform them to make sure that your MS is not a condition of your acceptance. When I applied, I was working on a MSc degree. The MSc degree is not required for my PhD program and in fact counts for no credit at all. However, I was still required and expected to show proof of my MSc degree upon arrival at my school (I didn't get the degree until a month after I started due to my old University's schedule, but they gave me a few months to get them the degree).

So, even if you don't need the degree to be considered for admittance, it's likely that your acceptance is conditional on you finishing whatever degrees/qualifications you state on your application.

[bfollinprm]

it's unlikely they'll defer to spring, but they will for a year. I'd let the universities know your status, like everyone is saying.

[tanvics]

In case the university agrees to defer what are the chances of the funding getting renewed?

[midwestphysics]

In case the university agrees to defer what are the chances of the funding getting renewed?

Always check with the university to see if they allow deferments, some do and some don't. And, even some who do don't always allows it so you will have to check. Still, I don't see why you would need to, people do this commonly enough but like others have said just state that you plan to not finish your masters if you're accepted. That way your acceptance is not contingent upon completing your masters. I think you'd be wasting that time to defer it anyway.

As for funding, nobody can give you a good answer on that. It changes every year, and it depends on what type of funding. If you're just TA'ing then it might not be a huge change, but RA'ing is very different. Grant funding is time sensitive and when it comes to hitting budget on those things you really can't go over or under. So if they have money to hire someone now they will find someone, and that spot won't be available for long. The next year is a totally different story, that spot from earlier is likely filled, they might not have anymore room to fund you, heck the funding might have ended too. Considering how crazy some of the grant acceptance rates have become (in some areas during the good times around 45% of proposals down to single digits now.) The grant situation has made funding a very tricky business now, and there's always a lot of uncertainty. So you're going to have to just deal with what's there when it's there.

[tanvics]

Ok the offer letter I have received gives me the option to defer for a term provided I have communicated about the same to the admissions office. It also states that the financial reward will not be automatically renewed.

[midwestphysics]

Ok the offer letter I have received gives me the option to defer for a term provided I have communicated about the same to the admissions office. It also states that the financial reward will not be automatically renewed.

Okay so you can defer and they are covering themselves on funding by saying that. I think essentially it means this, they can't promise you it will be available then so to be safe they'll make you reapply for funding at the time you begin actually going there. For you it's a little risky, because they may not have funding, but like I said if it's TA'ing your chance of getting denied is significantly less than RA. This is more or less the company line of we can't commit to future funding now, but chances are for things like TA'ing the change isn't huge from semester to semester.

[tanvics]

Yes the funding they have offered me is in the form of TA

[ayushya]

Hello everyone..
So here goes my case.. I am a Physics Master's student from India and had applied for Fall '14. I am currently in the second and final year of my M.Sc degree and unfortunately I have to reappear for a 3rd semester exam in December '14.
Having received offers of admission from 3 places, this situation of mine has really landed me in a soup. How do I ask the universities to defer my admission for the Spring semester? (Is a deferral even possible?) How do I communicate this situation of mine to the university people?

Any advice or help is highly appreciated...

I have been in this situation before, not with the MS degree but my bachelors. I don't know how much this will help you, but here is what happened - I was waiting for my results of the finals which was just getting delayed because of which I wasn't able to get even a provisional degree and hence the visa. I had already accepted a university's offer and kept waiting till around 2weeks before the commencement of classes in the hope that something positive would happen. But it didn't. And so, I got a phone call from the Dean (or it was some official) asking me about my situation (the call was based on the information I had sent to the graduate secretary about my situation). He told me that I had a couple more days to either reject the offer or to defer it by a year, which if not done would result in the cancellation of my TA contract even for the upcoming year. In the end, I deferred the admission by a year and my TA contract was renewed.

[tanvics]

This does help Thank you for sharing your experience.. So have you joined the PhD program now?

[tanvics]

@ ayushya: Could you please share what you communicated to the Graduate Secretary regarding your situation?

[ayushya]

So have you joined the PhD program now?

Yes.

@ ayushya: Could you please share what you communicated to the Graduate Secretary regarding your situation?

I informed the secretary the same thing that I mentioned in my previous post.

[tanvics]

Thank you @ayushya

[tanvics]

Ok so I contacted the admissions coordinator and asked if admission to the phd program is contingent on the completion of my masters degree..he said no..
i just want to make sure that means i wont have to submit the master's degree ever in the future..
any advice?