Does waiting to accept affect funding?

[cafeaulaitgirl]

Hi Everyone,

I have been accepted into a program that I am really excited about. However I have not yet received anything official about funding. My program advisor has told me unofficially about an assistantship. I am wondering if I wait before accepting the offer, do you think that will help me get more funding from the school? Or will they be more willing to offer more if I go ahead and accept now?

[cokohlik]

I think it depends on each individual school and program. It wouldn't hurt to ask if the funding is first come first serve and/or if they have a specific date they'd prefer to hear back from you by. That's what I did.

[cafeaulaitgirl]

That's a good suggestion.

[ol'spice]

I'm assuming not (since in my case I got a signed letter from the school's financial aid office with the breakdown of how much I was getting). That's like a contract, so as long as I send the acceptance form by the deadline stated, the funding should be the same...