How to reject after you've accepted

[latte thunder]

So, Last week I thought I knew where I was going. I made my decision based primarily on cost (School A gave me an assistanship for 3500 a year which I believe is the most this department can offer) but also based on cost of living, friendliness of Prof and students and the fact that it was cold here and this school is further south.

This week I've been thinking. School B hasn't given me any aid, and chances are I won't get aid until at least after the 1st quarter. It's my local state school, so this is around 4,000 out of pocket which I can pay for. Something possessed me to call the graduate school yesterday where I luckily managed to talk to the person over the other graduate assistantships. He said that it isn't that impossible to get something after you've started. Basically he said, "A lot of students get fired after the first semester, quit because it's too much work, or drop out for personal reasons. The departments will lose funding for the next year if they don't fill these positions so they scramble at the last minute." This made me call my Aunt, who went to grad school at School B back in the day and is currently a prof now. Although she's in a different field she's familar with both schools and told me that the cost is not that much of a difference between them and that I should go to school B.

There are other non finanical reasons as well (B is in a MUCH bigger city, my home state is the reason I even want to get into planning, boyfriend/friends family in the area, on both my highschool and college alumni associations, etc)

This is a lot of rambling, but basically my mind has changed. This is for a masters, and I don't think I would want to go to school A for a Phd later, but I don't want to burn bridges. How do let them know I changed my mind?

Edited April 15, 2011 by latte thunder

[glycine76]

Hi! Met again! U r not going? Did u sign something with school a? If so, then I think things will go ugly somehow...

Good luck anyway!