Asking to extend deadline of an offer

[CAguy]

Hi all, first of all, is it appropriate that a professor gives a student unofficial deadline to accept (send him my decision by email) the offer 2 weeks before the official deadline on the university website ?

Moreover, If I ask him to extend his unofficial offer as I have other options that I'm still considering, can it leave a negative feedback or affect my chances in anyway ?

Thanks

[rising_star]

Well of course it can affect your chances of getting a formal offer. However, if you truly need more time, you can politely say that you're prepared to decide by the official university deadline but are unable to make a decision any sooner without an official offer in hand. If you want, you can also reiterate your interest in the program/professor.

[TakeruK]

18 hours ago, Oawad said:

Hi all, first of all, is it appropriate that a professor gives a student unofficial deadline to accept (send him my decision by email) the offer 2 weeks before the official deadline on the university website ?

Yes, if this is not a US school that has agreed to the April 15 resolution and if accepting you means funding for you comes out of their research budget. They want to know if they are able to count on you actually accepting later if they put aside money for you. 

Also, depending on the school, these are actually two different decisions. The decision with the prof is committing that you will attend the school and you will work for that particualr prof. The official school deadline could just be a deadline to accept the offer of admission. Finding a prof to fund you could be a separate step. 

18 hours ago, Oawad said:

Moreover, If I ask him to extend his unofficial offer as I have other options that I'm still considering, can it leave a negative feedback or affect my chances in anyway ?

If you cannot commit to the offer by his deadline, you should ask for an extension. If you do it politely and professionally, it will not reflect negatively on you. It's your right to ask for an extension. But yes, it could affect your chances, depending on whether the prof is thinking of accepting another student. It could be that there is another student who has expressed interest in working for this prof but the prof prefers you so they gave you two weeks to decide. If you say you need more time, the prof might decide to go with the other student instead if they believe that the other student is more likely to commit and that this is worth it to them. 

Hope that helps you decide what to do.