micca

At this point I just want to know. I'd take rejections over this agony any day! /rant

You're not over-thinking it. I too was worried about the repercussions of accepting an offer only to retract it later on. The way I see it though is, if a school is going to give you a limited amount of time to accept, which was the case for me with the University of Calgary, then what do they expect? I accepted the offer because they gave me 1 week to decide. Yesterday I sent an email pretty saying that another opportunity more suited to my needs has come up and thank-you. At least I let them know right away and it's still early. Bottom line is this whole process is a bit of a game and you try to be considerate and ethical, but are sometimes left with few options. And at the end of the day, you have to think of yourself and what's best for you. Also, some Canadian Universities are part of that April 15th deadline. I have attached the link for you to check out: The first link is about what the Council of Graduate School is about: http://www.cgsnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=201 And the second link lists all the Canadian Universities that are members: http://www.cgsnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=102&ctl=InstSearchResult&mid=437&TYPE=REGION&VALUE=CANADA And just to rant a little, why is it that this whole process isn't more regulated? I think each university should have an agreed upon deadline and on this day, decisions need to be made and sent out asap, and from that day each applicant has 2 weeks to make a decision. For instance, every Canadian University has to send out decisions by March 15th...then you have 2 weeks to see what your options are and make a decision...and after that, the waitlisted people can find out where they stand. We have deadlines for other things like taxes...this would make so much more sense. As it is, I won't find out about some of the other schools I've applied to until mid-April, possibly longer whcih leaves me with no choice but to accept an offer I may later retract. Good luck

Reading this post was like reading about myself! I too keep checking the online status of my applications, despite knowing that decisions will be mailed and not sentout until mid-March. Not to mention the far too much wine and food I've been consuming. About a week ago I started to re-read my SOP's to give myself a much needed boost. That and one of my referees gave me a copy of what she wrote so I've been re-reading that over and over too Good luck to you, and it was great to read someone who sounds just like me

Exactly! I won't hear a thing until mid-March to mid-April and you know those are the best case scenarios. I could be waiting until May. I cannot imagine not knowing a thing for that long, but that's my reality.

Thank-you for this post. It seems you really deserve this acceptance and it just goes to show perseverance does pay off.

I know exactly what you mean. I have 1 friend who thinks with 100% certainty that I'll get into all 7 schools I've applied to. How ridiculous is that! I am the only person out of my friends who has recently applied to grad school and is waiting on an answer. They have no idea what it feels like to have your future in limbo, and not know where you will be living in the next few months. I swear they think I'm crazy when I bring it up; and trust me, I don't bring it up in every conversation. I guess that's why I joined this site...so I can see that I'm not the only one in this position.

Glad to see I'm not the only one that saw the irony in that

also meant to say this is in response to coffeeandtoast

I thought Plan B was meant to prevent getting pregnant Oh God, that was an awful joke...

I guess my Plan B would be to re-apply next year. The thing is, my full-time job is a contract position that ends July 13th, 2010. Getting into school to begin in September would be so perfect. I guess if I don't get in, I'll apply for employment insurance, look for another job and reply for 2011