Declining an offer to finish masters?

[SunshineStranger]

When I submitted my application to U of C back in October as a current MSc student, I had discussed a timeline with my supervisor and committee that was feasible (albeit tight) to finish in time if I was accepted. However, now I have an interview, but there have been a lot of setbacks with my research and I don't know if I would be able to finish my research, write and defend my thesis, and have my degree conferred (and move!) in time to start in July. 

I am working with my supervisor to make it happen, and there is obviously no guarantee of acceptance at this point - but in advance I wanted to know if people thought it would be a "death sentence" if I ended up with an admissions offer and had to decline in order to finish my masters thesis? It's important to me that I finish my research, but I want to know if people thought U of C would look down on declining an offer of admissions and then reapplying the following year?

I don't know what to do here.  

[Bambi]

I am assuming a deferral won't be possible? I cannot imagine it would be a death sentence for the future. Of course, you could accept and explain - in which case, I suppose they would likely turn you down for this cycle.

[MDee2B]

Don’t take this the wrong way as I’m sure you’re in the thick of it and working really hard on your Master’s right now but I would take the acceptance to med, assuming you get it. An acceptance to med has in my view greater long term professional value than finishing a master’s degree “on time“.

Maybe you could finish the master’s thesis on a part time basis over the next N years, parallel to med and in agreement with the faculty of medicine. Maybe you could do one year of med, then ask for a leave of absence to finish your master’s research. Maybe you could even finish all of med school and residency and wait till you’re a staff physician, then dial back to part time work and finish that master’s degree you’ve had cooking on the back burner all the while (if it’s still important to you then).

But again, unless your admission to med is somehow contingent upon completion of the master’s degree, I would think it wiser to take an acceptance to med rather than refuse an offer and then try again next year in order to complete the master’s in the meantime. The MD has greater long term professional value than a master’s so I wouldn’t prioritize the latter, assuming you get an offer of admission to med. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

[bearded frog]

I don't know anything about your app but if you're admitted and decline your offer there's no guarantee that you'll get an interview/accepted next year, and I don't know what Calgary's policy is about re-applicants who have previously declined acceptance, but in the US you would be basically blacklisted. As someone with a research MSc, it's not worth it, whatever your research is. Explore with your graduate program options for you to be able to delay defending your thesis, weather it be working on your own time during school or delaying until the summer after first year. I know a classmate who finished and defended their thesis 3 months into the first year of medical school.

Maybe you won't be accepted and this is moot, and maybe you have a 4.0 and your work is literally curing cancer so you'll be fine either way, but on the other hand this could be your one shot at medicine, are you going to risk it?

[frenchpress]

UofC answers this question on their help guide, see page 33: https://ucan.ucalgary.ca/includes/pdf/ApplicantManual2021.pdf

Offers are conditional on the plan you signed. You could perhaps, if your supervisor is incredibly supportive and willing to write to them, still withdraw and maintain acceptance. But they may not consider it.  If you really care about your research, can you start talking to your supervisor about alternatives or changes to the experiment that might allow you to finish on time (reduction in scope, etc)?  Alternatively, seeing if you can work out with them to complete it during medicine might be an option. 

[offmychestplease]

no words..

[Naruto]

Unless UofC cares about you leaving your masters (like UofT does), then why would you decline the med offer...?

[rmorelan]

2 hours ago, frenchpress said:

UofC answers this question on their help guide, see page 33: https://ucan.ucalgary.ca/includes/pdf/ApplicantManual2021.pdf

Offers are conditional on the plan you signed. You could perhaps, if your supervisor is incredibly supportive and willing to write to them, still withdraw and maintain acceptance. But they may not consider it.  If you really care about your research, can you start talking to your supervisor about alternatives or changes to the experiment that might allow you to finish on time (reduction in scope, etc)?  Alternatively, seeing if you can work out with them to complete it during medicine might be an option. 

Ultimately this is the official answer to their position. Ha and as someone that is done graduate work - I don't think it is surprising they want to finish regardless of the admission offer, and they would feel torn. You pour your heart and mind into these things - for many it isn't just some stepping stone to med school (and we don't know the research area - some literally are trying to help cure cancer for instance or some other highly personal topic). The school's language and position sounds like they wouldn't in any way negatively harm you if you had to withdraw your med school admission offer to finish if it came to that - they would view withdrawing as the ethical choice in fact. 

For those that are saying withdraw from the masters they are clearly expecting you to complete the degree prior to acceptance or as they put it honour your commitments and withdrawing from the masters is a breach of professional ethics (their words). I wouldn't say they may not consider a request to be allowed to do it either - that is too gentle. They are predisposed to not considering, and are advertising as such. 

Now the one saving grace to all this is that these are not ordinary times, and many researchers are negatively impacted by various layers of changes brought on by covid. If there is a year where a school would be more flexible this would be it. The closer you are to finishing the more likely in these specific strange conditions we find ourselves in they may be able to do something.  

Obviously the best outcome is to finish the masters if at all possible. Nothing like a hard deadline to provide that extra motivation (as anyone that has written a royal college specialty exam knows full well ha!) 

Almost ALL med schools do care about you withdrawing a graduate program to attend  - if for no other reason than a string of people breaking the commitment to graduate degrees would damage the reputation of the various schools - supervisors will obviously would start not accepting anyone that is or even looks like they would be applying to medical school so their time and resources are not wasted, and the annoyed professors would would often be at the same university as a medical school which would lead to a lot of internal politics.  It would be very messy basically. 

 

 

 

[SunshineStranger]

18 hours ago, Naruto said:

Unless UofC cares about you leaving your masters (like UofT does), then why would you decline the med offer...?

For exactly the reason that they do care.   I committed to finishing my masters in my application (which was originally going to be possible, but the pandemic delayed access to important data - in fact there is data I still don't have access to). I am also working off of a major scholarship, and it would be a breach of professional ethics and the terms of the scholarship to not complete the research and graduate from my masters. Unfortunately, if I don't finish my masters in time and gain admission I think my hands may be tied. I could try to defer based on the circumstances I'm in right now, but it's unlikely that a deferral would be granted. 

17 hours ago, rmorelan said:

The school's language and position sounds like they wouldn't in any way negatively harm you if you had to withdraw your med school admission offer to finish if it came to that - they would view withdrawing as the ethical choice in fact. 

The above is more what I was concerned about, because I've heard about being "black-listed" for declining and reapplying. But I originally misunderstood the schools position and thought I may have "royally screwed myself," to put it one way. So this understanding of the school's position alleviates some of my concern. But @rmorelan pretty much nailed where I'm coming from on the head - grad school wasn't just a stepping stone for me.

Obviously it's a (huge) gamble to decline admission because there is no guarantee I'd receive an invite again, let alone admission. However, my research is important to me (I like to think the work I'm contributing to matters) and my professional behavior is important beyond the context of my application, as a lot of time and resources have been poured into this by people other than myself. :/

But, for the time being - I'll prep for the interview and do everything within my control to get the research done and defend in time. Best case-scenario I finish in time and receive an offer of admission, then there's no worries. (In the meantime, there will be lots and lots of worries LOL).

Thanks all for weighing in and helping clarify things for me!

[rmorelan]

3 hours ago, SunshineStranger said:

For exactly the reason that they do care.   I committed to finishing my masters in my application (which was originally going to be possible, but the pandemic delayed access to important data - in fact there is data I still don't have access to). I am also working off of a major scholarship, and it would be a breach of professional ethics and the terms of the scholarship to not complete the research and graduate from my masters. Unfortunately, if I don't finish my masters in time and gain admission I think my hands may be tied. I could try to defer based on the circumstances I'm in right now, but it's unlikely that a deferral would be granted. 

The above is more what I was concerned about, because I've heard about being "black-listed" for declining and reapplying. But I originally misunderstood the schools position and thought I may have "royally screwed myself," to put it one way. So this understanding of the school's position alleviates some of my concern. But @rmorelan pretty much nailed where I'm coming from on the head - grad school wasn't just a stepping stone for me.

Obviously it's a (huge) gamble to decline admission because there is no guarantee I'd receive an invite again, let alone admission. However, my research is important to me (I like to think the work I'm contributing to matters) and my professional behavior is important beyond the context of my application, as a lot of time and resources have been poured into this by people other than myself. :/

But, for the time being - I'll prep for the interview and do everything within my control to get the research done and defend in time. Best case-scenario I finish in time and receive an offer of admission, then there's no worries. (In the meantime, there will be lots and lots of worries LOL).

Thanks all for weighing in and helping clarify things for me!

good luck! hopefully it works out. If it doesn't you can explore if there are area of wiggle room due to the clearly unusual situation we are in that is completely outside of your control. 

[CrazyRay]

My suggestion right now is to work as hard as you can your Masters. Also speak with your supervisor and committee members that you might get accepted into medical school and that you would really like to finish by a certain date. In all honestly, if your supervisor is on board, everyone else will fall in line, but sometimes you might get the odd committee member thats anal and you want your supervisor to back you up. Lastly, never decline an med school offer for grad school. I've heard of many schools bending the rules, even heard of people defending their thesis much later than the proposed deadline and still got into that class. Work hard right now, and be willing to fight tooth and nail to finish your masters. 

[Elgar]

I've known people who were able to finish their master's thesis during med school/pharmD. I think it's something that could be discussed with the admission office, and considering the COVID situation it's more than understandable if your project took more time than initially planned. I've also heard of people using the summer break in med1 to finish their degree.