{"id":22896,"date":"2014-02-16T16:42:04","date_gmt":"2014-02-16T23:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=22896"},"modified":"2014-02-16T16:51:12","modified_gmt":"2014-02-16T23:51:12","slug":"when-to-give-up-your-acceptance-in-hopes-for-greener-pastures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/when-to-give-up-your-acceptance-in-hopes-for-greener-pastures\/","title":{"rendered":"When to Give Up Your Acceptance in Hopes for \u201cGreener\u201d Pastures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Greener-Pastures\"<\/a>Scenario: You get accepted to an excellent MBA program. You\u2019re happy\u2026but\u2026you can\u2019t help thinking that maybe you could\u2019ve done \u201cbetter.\u201d Should you turn down your acceptance (whether it\u2019s an early decision acceptance or regular) in hopes that the school that waitlisted<\/a> you ends up accepting you, or in hopes that a school that rejected you this year accepts you next year?<\/p>\n

Here are two reasons why I think you should probably count your lucky stars and say \u201cyes\u201d (enthusiastically) to the program that accepted you:<\/p>\n

1. As I\u2019m sure you noticed, I put \u201cgreener\u201d and \u201cbetter\u201d in quote marks above. You need to think about whether your alternate options are truly better for you than the amazing school that accepted you. Maybe HBS<\/a> is a better school than, say, Yale SOM<\/a>, according to most ranking reports, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s the best program for you. And in fact, if you\u2019re thinking about heading into non-profit management, it may not be better than Yale. If the accepting top school supports your goals and provides an educational environment that suits you (and you shouldn't have applied if it didn't), then a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. Don\u2019t look for greener pastures when you\u2019re most likely in the pasture that\u2019s optimized for your individual growth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2. Acceptance at one elite school does not at all<\/strong> imply that you\u2019ll get accepted at another elite school. Acceptance decisions are independent events \u2013 Wharton<\/a> doesn\u2019t consult with Booth<\/a>, which in turn couldn\u2019t care less that you were accepted to Stanford. Be happy about the outstanding school that accepted you and attend!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Legitimate Reasons for Deferring or Rejecting an Admissions Offer:<\/p>\n

There are some situations in which I\u2019d recommend deferring or rejecting an admissions offer and reapplying next year:<\/p>\n

1. Personal circumstances<\/strong> unrelated to education, like an illness in the family. (You may want to defer or reject your offer, depending on the circumstances.)<\/p>\n

2. A geographical\/relationship issue<\/strong>, like your significant other got into a one-year program across the country from the program that accepted you, and you don\u2019t want to be apart for a year. (You should try to defer for a year in this case, obviously, and not reject the acceptance, if you plan on then pursuing your educational goals next year.)<\/p>\n

3. Your post-MBA goals have changed<\/strong> since you applied, and the school that accepted you is no longer the best school for you. (This doesn\u2019t happen very often.)<\/p>\n

Some of you may be thinking, \u201cCan I ask for a deferral?\u201d Schools are reluctant to give a deferral. It binds them, and doesn\u2019t bind the applicants. Furthermore many applicants requesting the deferral use the additional year to reapply at other programs. This bit of shopping around and gamesmanship has given deferrals a bad name in admissions offices. And they frequently don\u2019t want to play.<\/p>\n

Here's a tip if you want to defer and are serious about attending the accepting school a year later:<\/strong> Offer to put down a large deposit that will be applied to your tuition when you matriculate and lost if you don't matriculate.<\/p>\n

\"Sign<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Accepted.com\"<\/a> Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best <\/a><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Accepted.com's experienced admissions consultants<\/a> can help you create the most impressive application possible with comprehensive packages<\/a>, <\/i><\/b>or provide targeted assistance from picking perfect programs<\/a> to designing a dazzling resume<\/a>, constructing engaging essays<\/a>, or preparing for intense interview<\/a>s<\/a>\u2026and more! Accepted.com has guided thousands of applicants to acceptances at top MBA programs since 1994 \u2013 we know what works and what doesn't, so contact us<\/a> to get started now!<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog<\/a>, the official blog of Accepted.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scenario: You get accepted to an excellent MBA program. You\u2019re happy\u2026but\u2026you can\u2019t help thinking that maybe you could\u2019ve done \u201cbetter.\u201d Should you turn down your acceptance (whether it\u2019s an early…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1,939,775,113],"tags":[360,880],"class_list":["post-22896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-uncategorized","category-accepted","category-admission-consultants","category-applications","tag-deferral","tag-deferred-enrollment","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22896"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22903,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22896\/revisions\/22903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}