How much information should I let schools know about my other options?

[millionrubios]

I need advice. One of the programs I was accepted to asked me to let them know if I am considering anywhere else and get any other offers. I told them about an interview I had coming up and now I am not sure if I was supposed to do that or not. They asked me to keep them updated and I said I will. I know that it is good to tell them if I have another acceptance, but what if I end up being only being waitlisted or rejected? Should I let them know since they asked me to keep them updated? Or will that look bad on me or like I am not a wanted applicant? Could it affect potential extra funding I might be up for? Should I just not tell them at all what I hear back or would that be even worse? Hopefully I am accepted and don't have to worry about it, but I feel like I may have put myself in an awkward position, unless this is what you are supposed to do? I am new to the process and have no clue how this goes.

[PHILOKEV]

Greetings @millionrubios.  I would not worry too much about what you have already disclosed to this department.  First, congratulations on your admission!  Just remember that you are one among probably 4-6 out of hundreds who were offered a spot.  This should be for you both validating and humbling, concomitantly.  Second, I was admitted into a Philo PhD program a year ago and experienced the same line of questioning during the admissions phone call.  My response was a bit of a bluff to be honest [to be honest about being dishonest...].  I said that I was waitlisted in a few departments and had yet to hear from a few more.  The truth is that I was at that time on just one waitlist, and I believe I perhaps had just one university to hear back from.  Regardless of this white lie, departments usually give the admitted student a specific amount of time to mull the decision over.  For me, it was two weeks; I took just one day.  If you do not know how much time this department will afford you to make a decision, you need to email or call the person who contacted you and make sure that you know precisely how much time you can take.  Obviously, if you know for sure you will not be accepting the offer, decline asap.  But do not assume anything.  If I were in the position of having a few applications for top-tier schools out there in the mix while being admitted to a middle tier university that is demanding I make a decision within a two-week period of time, for example, I would personally take the full two weeks and hope that the better schools exclude or accept me within that time frame.  If, however, I had not heard back from those top schools, perhaps I would get in contact with them just to inquire about my status.  If I then find that I am on a waitlist for two or three really good schools, I would try to learn where I am on those waitlists [high or low or not sure], and then consider accepting the current offer at the lower-tier university as a hedge.  Remember, this is a one time shot; and although some feel it is a violation of common decorum to arbitrage like this, if you were to accept one week and politely ask to recant your acceptance the next week, most every department would certainly grant you this consideration and just move on down the list of applicants.  Anyhow, this is just my advice on the matter.  Best regards, ~ PhiloKev  

[MtnDuck]

1 minute ago, PHILOKEV said:

...  Regardless of this white lie, departments usually give the admitted student a specific amount of time to mull the decision over.  For me, it was two weeks; I took just one day.  If you do not know how much time this department will afford you to make a decision, you need to email or call the person who contacted you and make sure that you know precisely how much time you can take. ...

I minor point for folks who are admitted to US based schools to add on to Philokev's response. Many US departments cannot require an admitted applicant to accept or decline their offer on a timeline before April 15th. On or after April 15th it's a bit more dicey (I have one colleague who was accepted to both Cornell and Berkley on the 15th and both said they needed to hear back by X time), but if a school is saying "you have X number of days" and requires a hard yes/no before the 15th (yes if it's two weeks from the 15th then "you have 2 weeks makes sense"), they may be going against pretty well established practices through the CGS..

For US based schools, I would recommend checking to see if they are a signatory to the April 15th Resolution. 

 

48 minutes ago, millionrubios said:

I need advice. One of the programs I was accepted to asked me to let them know if I am considering anywhere else and get any other offers. I told them about an interview I had coming up and now I am not sure if I was supposed to do that or not. They asked me to keep them updated and I said I will. I know that it is good to tell them if I have another acceptance, but what if I end up being only being waitlisted or rejected? Should I let them know since they asked me to keep them updated? Or will that look bad on me or like I am not a wanted applicant? Could it affect potential extra funding I might be up for? Should I just not tell them at all what I hear back or would that be even worse? Hopefully I am accepted and don't have to worry about it, but I feel like I may have put myself in an awkward position, unless this is what you are supposed to do? I am new to the process and have no clue how this goes.

It doesn't hurt to share the good (other acceptances and waitlists) but be vague on the bad. You aren't required to share everything but if it does turn out that you get into other places sometimes that can help with additional funding! It's also okay to be a bit vague ("I've heard positive news from a few places and am currently weighing my options financially, with respect to fit, location, etc." or "I'm waiting on a few more places and want to wait until I hear back just so I can know about all my options") since they don't need to know everything.

Know that sometimes departments will ask that you keep them in the loop since, in the past, there have been problems with folks not letting departments know they will not be accepting an offer/not taking themselves off of a waitlist. Folks not keeping them up to date messes up the process and can limit their ability to bring in a full class.

[millionrubios]

@PHILOKEV @MtnDuck Thank you for this! The department didn't pressure me to decide soon or anything, they didn't even bring it up. They just seemed to be very interested in what other offers or potential offers I had and wanted to be updated, so it is less about the timing and more about how much I should disclose to them. If I hear back from the other school and it isn't an acceptance, should I just withhold what I hear back unless the department asks? I would definitely need to think about what I would choose if I got both offers because I don't definitively know if I would choose one over the other, so that isn't the problem I am talking about here. I am just worried if I get rejected or waitlisted and then have to tell the first school about the position I am in (like if I am rejected and I don't say anything, how bad would that be to do or is that recommended?) It feels like I am in a good position in limbo, but it all might fall apart if I don't have the advantage of another acceptance and in that case I would worry about getting in trouble or something for not telling them about a rejection or waitlist if I have found out about it. I recently got another rejection, not from a school I interviewed at or anything, but it made me think about this potential problem (I have a feeling this might be my case based on some information I recently heard).

Basically, do I have to tell a school about the negative outcome of a potential other offer (like a rejection) or does that look really bad to hold off even if I know the result? If I get waitlisted, would it be to my benefit to tell them or should I say I am still waiting and then see if I get an acceptance? I would be waiting to see the result of that anyway before I could decide, so I don't think I would be holding anything up unnecessarily. I am interested in what to do in both case scenarios (waitlist vs rejection). 

[PHILOKEV]

@millionrubios Unless there is something I am missing, you do not have to disclose anything about your applications with other departments.  An offer needn't be contingent on whether you are desired by other departments - waitlisted, rejected, pursued et al.  You are being evaluated solely on the reception of your application at that particular institution.  In terms of disclosure, I would bear on the side of "less is more." But @MtnDuck has picked up on something that I omitted, namely that you have until April 15th.  My experience began around that date [April 15th], and so my advice only really applies to anyone who may be offered admission after that date.  Thanks for catching that, @MtnDuck. 

[millionrubios]

@PHILOKEV Okay, that makes sense. I think I was just unsure because the department seemed to really want me to keep them in the loop on how things progress where I felt almost pressured to commit to keeping them updated. At the time I felt really good and happy that they were this interested and outright said I would let them know any news I get, but after a little while I started to feel like I shouldn't have been that agreeable and should have been more vague because now I feel like I promised something I shouldn't have ?. I just didn't know if it was looked down upon to not fully update a school who you said you would update (obviously excluding if you knew 100% you were going to turn them and go somewhere else, but that isn't the case I am wondering about). I didn't want to feel guilty that I didn't tell them every time I got a rejection or something (which is how I feel a little bit even though I guess I shouldn't). I guess I just feel like I put myself in a position I am not sure how to approach