paperfish

I am in almost the same situation. I have acceptances in hand to three Canadian schools, am "unofficially" accepted at another. The "deadlines" for response start Friday (March 12), then continue next week. I actually did ask for an extension from one school and they pushed the deadline back by a week. This is not the most helpful thing in the world, but it was something and it was definitely more than I thought I'd get. So on the "asking" front, I would just do it. They seemed to be pretty understanding about it being a big decision that I wanted to have time to think through, but did clarify by saying they have deadlines from the Grad School itself, so it couldn't be pushed much, if at all further. I'm also wrestling with possibly changing my mind later on. I don't think it's a great thing to do, especially if you are tied to a specific professor, but I think in exceptional circumstances, they might be understanding. I do think it could be a detriment to relationships later on, so I'm personally trying to avoid it if at all possible. My problem is that I also applied to U.S. schools that I haven't heard back from about funding, and they don't have to tell me until much later.