Scholarship acceptance deadline in 12 days! What should I do?

[an_internet_person]

Moved from "The Bank:"

So, I've been blessed with a wonderful dilemma: one of the 4 schools (we'll call it School A) that I applied to offered me a tuition waver + stipend (I'm unsure of how much the stipend actually is, though) which is unheard of for a masters degree in my field, but the deadline for accepting it is in 12 days. The real pickle is that I haven't yet heard anything from two of my other schools and have an interview with the third in a week. These other 3 schools might actually be better fits for me, but I'm not entirely sure because I haven't really had a chance to visit School A-- I was really hoping to get to School A's admitted students' open-house in three weeks before making a decision, and don't really have a chance to visit School A before the deadline because of work and my interview.

Incidentally, I think Interview School (UW) will give me a very good financial package-- perhaps even full tuition plus stipend if they accept me with the stipulation that I RA/TA etc.

I'm going to speak with somebody on Monday about trying to get an extension, but it's not looking good. Any suggestions on how I should approach this?

Any other general thoughts on what I should do/ advice from folks who have been in this position before? I guess I can't really go wrong with School A-- I only applied to schools that I was sure I would like to attend, and I do like how the program looks on paper. The school location is really my biggest concern.

Cheers!

Edited March 6, 2010 by werd814

[jkppkj]

You should start prodding the other schools to find out when they will be making a decision on your application. I don't have a scholarship deadline as all my potential offers will be funded, but I do have one offer on the table and felt I interviewed very well elsewhere in addition to having another interview next week. The one school that has offered seems to want me to decide by the end of the month and I plan on letting the school I'm going to interview at that I would like to know within a couple of weeks.

Perhaps it will be too aggressive on my part to try and demand that the school make a decision on my time table, but April 15th is only 2 weeks past what I will be asking for. Furthermore, I think that in both of our situations it is very telling if we were to find out that a department was not willing to communicate openly about the decision process. If a department cannot treat you with the respect to give you the opportunity to make an informed decision that has such huge implications, then I likely do not want to work with that department in any case. That's not to say that I wouldn't understand if they were frank about letting me know that they as a matter of fact cannot or will not make decisions until X date.

Additionally, in your case I would let the other schools know that you have been offered funding. If they are very interested in you they may take the extra steps to try and get you funded as well.

[an_internet_person]

Thanks for the reply jkppjk! I chatted with somebody today, and they agreed that my request for an extension based on not being able to attend the opne house before-hand was reasonable.

Edited March 8, 2010 by werd814