Can I apply for a "potential" deferred admission I'm sorry if there are similar posts, I had a look and couldn't find something exactly similar.
I will be starting my final year of Bachelor (in the UK), and I am going to start applying for an integrated MS/PhD in mathematics (in the US). Recently, I started thinking about going for a gap year before starting with my graduate studies, and I found an interesting (but very selective) internship which might be interesting.
However, my problem is, I do not know how the admissions process works for the internship. So I might end up getting an answer after having sent my PhD applications. So my question is: is it possible in some universities to ask for a &quot;possible&quot; defferal of admission? Conditional on a third factor?
PS: the universities I am applying for are UC Berkeley, and UCLA. I was thinking of emailing them but thought maybe someone would already have been in a similar situation here - and could maybe give me some advice :)
You can always ask, but as a committee member I would probably vote against such an application unless the candidate is exceptionally good. When departments evaluate openings for PhD programs, they have needs they seek to fill: For teaching assistant positions, to keep the strength of a program, to spend money they might have, to have enough students in graduate classes, etc. All of these needs are timely: They need to be satisfied in the upcoming academic year. So the department is looking for people for next year, not the year after: There will be another crop of applicants to consider for the year after. So unless there are really compelling reasons to admit someone now knowing that they may or may not show up only a year later, departments will generally want to admit people they know will actually come.