Help! Decline PhD AD before and after April 15

[fingercrossed]

Hello everyone! I have a problem dealing with my two admissions. 

Madison - without first-year funding and need to find a GA by myself,  it seems not difficult to find a GA position to cover the tuition and expense.

Davis - Still waiting for funding decision but I have accepted its admission through online portal, didn't sign any letters. I am contacting with professors there. Personally prefer Davis based on interest match and considerations about family. But if I can't get funding, it is more expensive to live there also difficult to find a TA for first-year-student (heard from current students there).

I am now worried that if I accept Madison's Admission (through portal and email) and receive funding from Davis after April 15 , will it be problematic to withdraw acceptance of Madison?

Also, is it problematic to accept two admissions by April 15?

Thanks a lot!

[Psyhopeful]

I think if you have accepted through the portal, you have officially accepted. At the school I accepted, the whole process was online, and at the UC school I declined, it looked the same in the portal. Do you mean you clicked accept and then just didn’t finish the process? I know there are differences when it comes to accepting unfunded versus accepting funding by the 15th. I think the issue has to do with accepting funding at more than one place. But I think you might have a problem accepting at a second and then withdrawing. Is your Madison offer also considered unfunded? I don’t really know how they will know in the short run what you did, but potentially it could become apparent later. You’re really in a bind though. Have you tried asking Madison for an extension on your decision due to a lack of funding info? They might be willing since it’s out of your hands. Personally, a school that can’t give funding info this late is cause for concern. You should look over just what you said yes to at Davis. It sucks they aren’t getting back to you!

[Bottle-o-Red]

To my knowledge, your acceptance of an offer is only binding if it came with a financial award, and only if left in place after April 15. In order to accept funding from a second school you would have to decline the first funding offer in writing before April 15. Any offers left accepted after April 15 become binding if there's money involved, and you would have to get a release from one funding school in order to accept another. To my mind, until you have a guaranteed GA'ship at UWM, there is no financial offer to accept, so that if you accept UWM's offer of *admission* and later decide to go with Davis, you wouldn't have to first obtain a release from UWM. Also, simply having accepted the offer of admission from Davis wouldn't be binding right now either, unless there were funding involved.

But I'm not a lawyer. Here's the actual resolution, by the way: https://cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution

For offers of admission only, you can always withdraw even after April 15. In my personal opinion, that's where you are right now - I think you're safe to go on accepting both, as long as neither has actually offered you money.

[fingercrossed]

@Psyhopeful@Bottle-o-Red  Thank you so much! Your words comforted me a lot especially at this time point.