Deferring Applicants On Demand

Overview

The On-Demand Transfer of Deferred Applicants process refers to the transfer of deferred applicants from one cycle to the next. Deferred applicants are meant to serve as placeholders in the new cycle for reporting purposes, filling seats, etc. This feature is available after the new cycle opens. Your CAS may have specific dates during which this feature is available; contact a member of your account team to learn more.

Important Note: previously, deferring applicants was available within Transfer Settings or the Liaison-Assisted Deferral Process; starting in the 2026-2027 cycle, it is no longer linked to either of these processes, so you can run a Transfer Settings for your templates separately from deferred applicants.

Definition of a Deferred Applicant 

Deferred applicants are applicants who applied for admission in one cycle, received an offer of admission in that cycle, but could not accept that offer of admission due to health, personal, or other reasons agreed to by the school (for example, called upon for military service).

Deferred applicants are not the same as re-applicants. If your applicant falls into one of these categories, direct them to the re-applicant process instead:

• Applicants who did not submit an application.
• Applicants who completed an application without receiving an offer of admission and wish to be considered in the next application cycle. 

Gaining Access to This Feature

The On-Demand Transfer of Deferred Applicants feature is available on the Applicant Details page, and access to this tool is controlled through Work Groups. You must have the Defer Individual Applicants to a Future Cycle permission and access to the Deferrals subpanel under the Designations panel to defer applicants.

Process

This feature should be used with caution, as deferring an applicant cannot be undone within WebAdMIT.

1. In the previous cycle, navigate to your applicant's application.
2. Under the Designations panel, click the Deferrals subpanel.
3. Click Defer to a Future Cycle.
4. Select your desired cycle and click Next.
5. Select the program you want to defer the applicant into. It does not need to be the same program that they applied to.
6. Click Submit.

WebAdMIT View

Once you defer an applicant in WebAdMIT, you can view parts of their application, including the full application PDF, in the new cycle. Review the sections below for specific data that is transferred. Deferred applicants will have a Manual application status for the program they are transferred into and additional deferral data points under Details.

Note the following WebAdMIT behaviors:

• You can use WebAdMIT's features in the new cycle to manage your deferred applicants, including assigning new Assignments and Interviews, updating Custom Fields, sending Emails, adding new Notes, and re-ranking them with Scoring.
• Direct Applicants cannot be deferred.

If you are using a Student Information System (SIS) on campus and are importing data from WebAdMIT to the SIS, keep in mind that the applicant's data should already be in the SIS from the previous cycle and that you likely only need to update their matriculation status in the new cycle.

Applicant View

When applicants log in to their application after being transferred into the new cycle, they see their application started, with an In Progress CAS Status and the program they were deferred to under My Programs. If needed, the applicant can update their application in the new cycle, and that information will be transmitted to WebAdMIT.

Applicants can apply to additional programs in the new cycle; however, this is not common behavior.