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#How to politely refuse a potential offer. I have concluded my application. Although I am still waiting for official rejection from MIT but at some point I need to stop kidding myself. I did two interviews (out of three programs I have applied so pretty good) and already accepted by school N and is 99% sure I will also get one from school P. However I already accept offer from N and need to refuse the potential offer from P. I found it a little hard to do because of the following. I am an international and P offered me a Skype interview at first. I told them I will be in States because of interview from N and hoped to visit on campus. They immediately offered me round trip flights to their city from the city of N. They also booked me two nights at Hilton Hotel. They actually spend more money on me than P (P has a $500 budget for flights and round trip from N to P cost more than $500 and P bought everything). Interview at N ends at Friday and interview at P is arranged the next Tuesday so I do not feel I did a bad thing 'cause I am not sure I will get into N before the interview (though I knew immediately after the interview). However I found it difficult to tell the coordinator in P that I am not coming. She told me they have an event in March so I expected the offer comes after that. What should I do? Tell her they do not need to consider me now or wait for the offer and click decline silently?

First of all sorry to those who got rejection today. However is any of you applied through EECS instead of directly through SES?

Though it is definitely a rejection for me, I thought there would still be another round. It is weird that it is not yesterday.

And if you think about it, the concept of rate does not even make sense. They do not determine how many to recruit based on how large is the pool, they determine by funding. So if one year only a few people applied, you will think MIT's accept rate is very high. Am I right?

Sorry, I meant to say "most of us"... OK, 180 is already very large number to me. But do they all get funding eventually?

700 just EECS is crazy. However, I know they give acceptance first and then decide on fundings. And I heard stories that someone eventually could not go because did not get funding. Is it normal?

How many do they recruit every year? Based on the amount of admission posted it starts to feel like that was it.

So I want to ask if it is proper for me to ask the school for a fly-out ticket. The situation is that I am an international and university in NY already bought my international round trip tickets. Today I got email from Pittsburgh and originally invite me for an skype interview. After I told them I will be in the states they offered an on campus interview. The person was very kind and directed me to book tickets through their agency. However it was not very clear from our conversation whether they can cover both fly-in and fly-out. I will fly from NYC to Pittsburgh and I am not planning to directly fly back to NYC since I will still be in the states for over a week. I plan to go to Philly (for fun) next. I did not realize it was a long trip to Pittsburgh to Philly. I mean, is it proper for me to ask them cover a fly out to Philly? Scratch that. They were actually planning to pay my flight back to NYC. Philly should be cheaper. And sorry for added one more floor below.

People start to panic.

What did you say? "Dear Madam/Sir, Am I the center of the Cornell Universe?"

Last year was Feb 4th Wednesday. So technically we should hear yesterday :). But the year before is much much later.

Haha Thanks! I believe that is his real hair!

Ditto!

Going to NYC on Monday and just got another interview in UPitts and waiting for the arrangements. Other than that I am waiting for MIT but that is basically day dreaming.

As a foreigner who happen to into US politics but can only obtain information from CNN, NBC (and maybe FOX alright). I do find "liberal Texas" sounds weird. But I guess it is Houston.