Hello! I applied for a Research MPhil to Cambridge in December, as per the funding deadline. I have received an offer and I was wondering whether it makes sense to accept my offer while I am waiting to hear about funding. Would accepting my offer work in favour or against me in terms of funding? What I wouldn't want is for me to accept the offer and discourage funding committee from offering me funding because accepting the offer might indicate to them that I would attend regardless of funding. The opposite is also possible: accepting the offer encourages the funding committee to offer me funding because they would know for sure that I would attend and that the funding offer won't go to waste. I am confused about what to do because even though I want to attend Cambridge I do not want to discourage the funding committee from offering me funding. What should I do?
(the deadline to accept/decline the offer is end of July this year)