Accepting an offer and not going. Thoughts?

[pilisopa]

If you have a funded offer that has a deadline before you expect to hear from other schools, what's the best course of action? Wouldn't it be to accept the offer and wait to see what the other schools say? What are the consequences - financial and otherwise - of accepting an offer and then reneging on your decision? Input would be greatly appreciated. 

[TMP]

Is this a UK or Canadian school?

If it's a US program, it should be part of the Council of Graduate Studies (CGS) where universities have made an agreement that no (funded) offer can be withdrawn before April 15th.  After April 15th, anything goes.  

If it is an issue of getting off a waitlist at another university, that happens all the time.  Once you decline a funded offer, you can't get it back and will have to reapply and be treated just like any other applicant.  If it's an issue of wanting to go to a program abroad, that will get tricky.

[pilisopa]

It's an issue of receiving a full-time funded PhD offer in the US and waiting for MA program responses from UK and US that will likely come after the PhD offer's response deadline. So trying to see if it's OK to accept the PhD offer and potentially renege if the MA programs pan out. 

Also, I recognize this sounds like an odd predicament but part of my issue here is that the PhD university is good but not great for my field and I realized later on that I might be able to increase my chances of getting into a better PhD program down the line with an MA that fills in the gaps in my application. That's why I'm in this position. 

[dr. t]

I'd communicate with the university to see if they have any flexibility. If they simply won't work with you, you should do what you need to, but you should also consider that bridge burnt, dynamited, and carpet-bombed.

[Eigen]

Personally, I wouldn't advise you to take an offer that's not a great fit to begin with. A PhD is a long process, and especially in the humanities, the school you go to matters quite a bit in future prospects. 

I think if it's such a bad fit that you'd consider MA programs over a funded PhD, you should not accept the PhD offer regardless.

[TheHessianHistorian]

53 minutes ago, Eigen said:

Personally, I wouldn't advise you to take an offer that's not a great fit to begin with. A PhD is a long process, and especially in the humanities, the school you go to matters quite a bit in future prospects. 

I think if it's such a bad fit that you'd consider MA programs over a funded PhD, you should not accept the PhD offer regardless.

Agreed. If you got a funded PhD offer, I don't think you'll have any problems getting acceptances to other MA programs (unless the PhD school is really, really lowly rated, and the MA schools are all very top tier). Decline the PhD offer and open the door for some waitlisted applicant who really wants to get into that doctoral program and doesn't care how highly ranked the school is.

[pilisopa]

14 hours ago, Eigen said:

Personally, I wouldn't advise you to take an offer that's not a great fit to begin with. A PhD is a long process, and especially in the humanities, the school you go to matters quite a bit in future prospects. 

I think if it's such a bad fit that you'd consider MA programs over a funded PhD, you should not accept the PhD offer regardless.

 

13 hours ago, TheHessianHistorian said:

Agreed. If you got a funded PhD offer, I don't think you'll have any problems getting acceptances to other MA programs (unless the PhD school is really, really lowly rated, and the MA schools are all very top tier). Decline the PhD offer and open the door for some waitlisted applicant who really wants to get into that doctoral program and doesn't care how highly ranked the school is.

This is my third cycle and my proposed field is tiny. This year, perhaps a bit late, I realized that if my goal is to get into any top-tier programs, applying to history may not be the best bet as I might have a better chance applying to Near Eastern programs. The school that I got a PhD offer from in history is a good school (top 40 overall) and from what I understand, it's making a big push upwards. My potential advisors are also pretty good. However, the school is not well-known in history or for my field which is making me worry about post-PhD prospects. So, I was thinking of applying to MAs in Near Eastern that would buttress a future application to top-tier Near Eastern PhD programs but I'm worried about the chance of not getting into those for whatever reason and losing out on the PhD, as well. 

[TMP]

I got your PM but I'll put my questions out here so others can help.

1) Why made you decide to apply to that "good school" in the first place?

2) Have you asked for feedback in the prior cycle?  If not, you should ask for feedback ASAP from the programs that rejected you.

3) My guess is that your languages must be up to par.  Do you have sufficient language training for the area of research you want to do including at least French or German for reading?

4) What do you want to do with the PhD after you finish? Besides academia.

5) Would you be open to doing it in Europe or the UK instead of the US?

[psstein]

On 2/27/2018 at 11:55 PM, pilisopa said:

 

This is my third cycle and my proposed field is tiny. This year, perhaps a bit late, I realized that if my goal is to get into any top-tier programs, applying to history may not be the best bet as I might have a better chance applying to Near Eastern programs. The school that I got a PhD offer from in history is a good school (top 40 overall) and from what I understand, it's making a big push upwards. My potential advisors are also pretty good. However, the school is not well-known in history or for my field which is making me worry about post-PhD prospects. So, I was thinking of applying to MAs in Near Eastern that would buttress a future application to top-tier Near Eastern PhD programs but I'm worried about the chance of not getting into those for whatever reason and losing out on the PhD, as well. 

This is not to be rude, but "top 40" in history is not a good program. 10 universities train 65% of TT faculty. The top 20 likely train 90%+. By the time you're around 35-40, as my undergrad was, you might get one academic placement every 3-4 years.

[pilisopa]

On 2/28/2018 at 1:00 PM, TMP said:

I got your PM but I'll put my questions out here so others can help.

1) Why made you decide to apply to that "good school" in the first place?

2) Have you asked for feedback in the prior cycle?  If not, you should ask for feedback ASAP from the programs that rejected you.

3) My guess is that your languages must be up to par.  Do you have sufficient language training for the area of research you want to do including at least French or German for reading?

4) What do you want to do with the PhD after you finish? Besides academia.

5) Would you be open to doing it in Europe or the UK instead of the US?

Sorry about delay in responding. To answer your questions:

1) It has a historian who has a good (though not great) reputation in my field.

2) I have asked for feedback in past cycles and I have tried to incorporate the advice but to no avail. I was placed on the wait list at a top program last year and came close in another top program according to my POI but was ultimately rejected from both. 

3) I have fluency in one of two languages I would be doing primary research in. No French or German language skills, though. 

4) Academia is one option but I'm not beholden to it. I am also considering think tanks and foundations where I can do research in my field without necessarily being in academia. 

5) I'm open to Europe/UK and have applied to Oxford in the past. 

I'm just getting the feeling that there is so little space in history to begin with that for me to try to get into a top history program with my very narrow field is hoping against hope and that I might potentially increase my chances if I orient myself toward Near Eastern instead, where competition for my particular field will be lower and I can still do what I want. 

[pilisopa]

On 3/3/2018 at 5:09 AM, psstein said:

This is not to be rude, but "top 40" in history is not a good program. 10 universities train 65% of TT faculty. The top 20 likely train 90%+. By the time you're around 35-40, as my undergrad was, you might get one academic placement every 3-4 years.

It's not rude. I appreciate your frankness. It's what my worry is. And regarding it being top 40, I meant the university as a whole, not the program itself, although the program itself is not even top 40 in history. 

[psstein]

5 hours ago, pilisopa said:

It's not rude. I appreciate your frankness. It's what my worry is. And regarding it being top 40, I meant the university as a whole, not the program itself, although the program itself is not even top 40 in history. 

You've said that you're in a very narrow field. What field is it?

[pilisopa]

10 hours ago, psstein said:

You've said that you're in a very narrow field. What field is it?

Late Ottoman intellectual history. 

[TMP]

PM'ed.

[psstein]

15 hours ago, pilisopa said:

Late Ottoman intellectual history. 

Makes sense. I'd suggest learning a European language like German/French before reapplying. European languages are critical to secondary literature.