aerien
It's not as rare of an occurrence as you might think though. Adcom knows that things come up;
you just have to convince them that you would go. Whether you actually attend after being accepted again is your choice though...
True - but when "something comes up" and the student is unable to attend that year, that's when a deferral is asked for. If a school doesn't grant deferrals, then game on.
But in this case, nothing is preventing the applicant from matriculating this year other than the desire to go to a higher ranked school. What's the saying? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me? I just think most Adcom's are savvy enough in this situation to ding and move on.