Received first admission offer from a program not on the top of my list

[KhaledAly]

Hi,

I would be so grateful if anyone could help me with this issue. If have applied to a number of graduate schools this year. One of these schools is is not my favorite one but I applied to it to act as backup in case of getting rejections from my top choices. However, this school was the firs one to reply with an admission offer and they asked me to respond with accepting or declining the offer maximum by the 5th of March. I am still waiting a reply from my top choices school. How can I handle this issue? thx.

[FishNerd]

Just a heads up about the April 15th deadline - this deadline is only for funded offers. Admissions offers without funding are not a part of the April 15th resolution and can ask for a decision before then. So if it is a funded offer they must give you until April 15th. That is unless they are for some reason not one of the numerous schools who signed and agreed to this resolution - here is the link of the schools who have signed this resolution: http://cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGSResolution_RevisedOct2017.pdf

However, if it gets close to March 5th and you still haven't heard back from your top choices you could politely ask for more time to decide since you are waiting to hear about the results of some of your other applications.

[Excelsior!]

5th of March is a long time from now. You thank them and wait for other offers.