Asking for extensions? Or accepting and then withdrawing

[pietjekanarie]

Anyone familiar with asking for extensions? I have a few offers right now. Two of them are interesting for me, but I am waiting on the decision of my #1 school. I asked the department when they expect decisions and the answer was: "You can expect a decision in the next couple of weeks". Well, that is not even an indication when the decision will come out. It might be somewhere in May.... I'm pretty annoyed that it takes this long. On the other hand, I'm still waiting on one external funding decision (without I can't go to school #1 anyway). But, here comes the problem: On April 30 one of my offer will lapse and on May 5 the other one will as well. I'm expecting the funding decision at the end of April, so this might be kind of tricky (I can't accept anything without this funding). Also, my #1 school might not even have a decision by the end of April :S If I get the funding, I definitely want to wait for that decision, but I have the April 30 and May 5 deadlines of the other schools.... I might just get rejected after all by my #1 school.

How does this work? Should I ask for an extension? I cannot really give them a certain date though, because the #1 school only indicated that I'll get my decision in "the next couple of weeks". Whenever that might be... I only applied to Masters programs and they don't come with funding (or very rarely). The offers I hold now, do not include any funding! I applied to external funding to finance this. I read a lot that it is common to just accept an unfunded offer and then withdraw later if your situation changes. How does this work though? From what I understand, accepting an offer means that you have to sign a contract. Your stuck then, right? One of my offers is from NYU. They ask me to pay a $250 deposit if I accept as well...

Does anyone have experience with these kinds of situation? Or some advice?

[Squawker]

I would explain your situation and ask for some extra time. One of my MA offers explicitly stated that they wanted the response by a certain date if not earlier, but that I should contact them if I needed extra time to decide. You may even manage to squeeze some funding from them if you explain that you are waiting on a funding source and may not be able to attend their program for financial reasons. This worked for a family friend, which prompted my parents to force me to tell the admissions people (AFTER I had already mailed in my official acceptance of their offer) that I may have to attend my other offer (with funding) if they are unable to give me any funding. How embarrassing. I am also choosing between MA programs so I don't think it's anywhere near as complicated or binding as PhD positions.

So, although I haven't had any successful experience with such a situation, I'd say to just send an email off to each place explaining your situation. Be honest about it, and if they want you in their program (which they presumably do, as they accepted you) they will probably give you more time to decide.

[pietjekanarie]

I don't think they'll give me any funding. Anyway, I can of course say that I'm waiting on my external funding decision. This decision however, will come the end of the month. I'm more worried about my #1 school that says I can expect a decision "in the next couple of weeks". I have no clue how much extension I should ask them for. This is such a pain. If I ask for extension to wait out my funding decision, it might still not be enough time for my #1 school to make up their mind.

I'm pretty annoyed by this school. They can not even indicate when decisions are about to come out. Maybe I should just not wait for them and decide when the funding decision comes out.