How do you 'Undo' an Agreement to an Acceptance?

[DrDogg]

Of all of the terrible terrible things us prospective grad students have to worry about, this is probably the least important.

However, I am in a situation (as many may be) where my favorite school may not respond to me until after I have to make a decision for my second favorite (which I have been accepted to). UC Berkeley is only committed to notifying people by the end of April, while Georgia Tech and UW-Madison want my decision April 15th.

I am going to accept one, but what happens if I hear from Berkeley afterward? Is it as simple as writing the other school back and saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Nevermind" ?

This is just optimistic looking ahead, but I may be in a time crunch should this situation occur and I want to be well informed. Any advice?

[was1984]

Choose between the schools you are accepted to, and notify the schools that you don't want to attend. Wait until you receive all decisions to notify the school that you have decided to accept. Obviously you have to decide by April 15th, and if Berkeley doesn't notify you by then, you have to accept your other offer.

If Berkeley doesn't respond until late April, you can't back out of a decision after April 15th without burning a lot of bridges and looking bad. That's the way it is. At this point you are probably on an unofficial waitlist at Berkeley if you haven't heard back. I'd email or call them to ask your status.

Edited April 4, 2011 by was1984

[shaydlip]

Of all of the terrible terrible things us prospective grad students have to worry about, this is probably the least important.

However, I am in a situation (as many may be) where my favorite school may not respond to me until after I have to make a decision for my second favorite (which I have been accepted to). UC Berkeley is only committed to notifying people by the end of April, while Georgia Tech and UW-Madison want my decision April 15th.

I am going to accept one, but what happens if I hear from Berkeley afterward? Is it as simple as writing the other school back and saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Nevermind" ?

This is just optimistic looking ahead, but I may be in a time crunch should this situation occur and I want to be well informed. Any advice?

I would call either Georgia Tech or UW-Madison (whichever of the two you want to go to) to ask for an extension on your decision as you have not heard from UC Berkeley.

Do you have to put a deposit down? Are you intending to go on into academia? The risk of accepting before April 15 & changing your mind is either losing your deposit, or burning bridges (if you want to go into academia, but mechanical engineering doesn't strike me as a field where you HAVE to go into academia).

[abookbumble]

I'd lean on Berkeley a bit. Be respectful, of course, but they have to know they're being a little difficult-- even letting you know if you're in the "definitely maybe" pile as opposed to the "meh, probably not" could help you make a more informed decision. I was in a similar position because half of the schools I applied to are in the UK, and they have completely different timeframes than we do, but when I was in communication with them about my situation, they (1) were already aware of the April 15th deadline for US schools, and (2) were totally willing to work on trying to get me an answer a little bit sooner. Worst case scenario, the people at Berkeley refuse to give you any information, and you're not in a worse position than you are at the moment.

[amanda lauren]

I agree with abookbumble - I was in this same situation as well, where my top choice school said they'd notify us by "mid to late April", and all of the other acceptances I had gotten needed a decision by mid to late March. I ended up panicking and accepted the offer from my 2nd choice school and turning down all of the others, and figured if I got into my top choice then I'd back out of that original acceptance. However, after accepting the offer, my 2nd choice school began sending me time-sensitive information, including forms to fill out for advising, course registration, and field work that had to be submitted within 2 weeks, which would still have been before I heard back from my top choice. I didn't want to submit these forms and be "locked in" at that school just in case I did end up getting into the one I was waiting on, so I called my top choice and explained the situation, saying that they were my first pick, but I was getting nervous because I had heard from other schools and the deadline to accept their offer was rapidly approaching (I didn't say that I had already accepted another offer). Two days after that phone call, I received an email from my top choice saying that I was accepted into their program! I quickly sent an email to my 2nd choice and said that regrettably, due to unforeseen circumstances, I would have to withdraw my offer of acceptance for their program. They were very understanding and it was a simple, painless process. It ended up working out exactly the way I wanted it to, but if I could go back and re-do the situation, I'd probably call my top choice school BEFORE accepting the other school's offer. There's no guarantee that they'll give you a decision sooner, but it might have been a little less stressful if I didn't have to accept and then withdraw from the other program.

[DrDogg]

I am happy I asked this question. The advice here seems consistent, yet I was completely prepared to go the other way with this situation. I would like to think that the advice here will be seen by someone else in this situation, because I will not be needing it as I had hoped.

Thank you!

[ComeBackZinc]

Whatever you do, do it carefully, openly, and respectfully. Academia is such a small world....