Rescinding a Decision to Enroll

[roxyshoe]

Hi everyone,

I was admitted to a school's MSW program a few weeks ago. I am super excited about this prospect, however I am still waiting to hear from 7 other schools. Problem is - they want my admission decision this Wednesday, the 15th. I heard it is very iffy to ask for an extension on your decision because while the school is not free to take away your acceptance, they are free to take away funding. And I can't have that happen.

I doubt I will find out enough by Wednesday from other schools to decide either way, so I was planning on going ahead and accepting my admission, with plans to potentially rescind it later (but perhaps not, too!).

My question is - is this an unwise thing to do? How does one go about rescinding an enrollment, anyway? Any experience with this, advice, etc. is very welcome. I am kind of freaking out right now.

[newms]

You can ask them for an extension, people have done this before. Explain your situation to them - that you're not able to make a decision at this point because you're still waiting to hear about your decisions at other schools. The worst they can say is that they can't give you an extension.

Also, is the school a signatory on the Council of Graduate School's resolution concerning deadlines for funding offers? If so, I don't think they're supposed to give you a deadline like this before April 15.

[hungryhungryhipster]

Honestly, I wouldn't feel too bad about backing out later even if you accepted before their arbitrary deadline. This is a very common tactic among lower-ranked schools to try and trap students they wouldn't otherwise have much of a shot at getting. When they see people like you, who are probably overqualified to some degree for their school, they figure they'll give you a really tight deadline, knowing that there's no way you'll hear from the bigger schools by then, and try to get you to hurry up and sign on the dotted line before the big boys come and scoop you up.

Personally, if I got even one other acceptance, that would be one of the deciding factors in favour of the other school.

Edited February 13, 2012 by hall1k

[kaykaykay]

you can ask for a release from an acceptance if you change your mind after apr.15 and I have never heard from anyone not getting one ( schools know they cannot actually force you to attend) but before apr.15 you are not even obliged to do so as they should not have made you decide before that time. I feel that if schools can play with the rules of the game they cannot expect candidates to respect them.