Fellowship contact

[StephanieJ]

I was awarded a fellowship at a small state school and asked to respond as soon as possible, preferably within three weeks. The end of this week is the end of the there weeks. I was recently reading over the documents and the university adheres to the April 15th and it says that I don't have to decide until that point.

Next week I'm going to visit my first choice school. Obviously I don't want to commit to the smaller state school until I've visited with the professors at school of choice #1. Should I email my contact person at the small state school and reassure them that I'm considering the fellowship and that I am waiting to visit another school? Or should I just let the offer continue to chill out in my inbox until they initiate a conversation?

[TakeruK]

I think it's polite and in your own best interests to email the small school and ask for an extra week (or whatever time you need) to consider their offer because you are going to be visiting another school. When I had to do this in the past, I find that the school appreciates it if you gave a specific length of time (e.g. "I believe I would be ready to make a decision by XX date, after visiting schools YY and ZZ") instead of just asking for "more time".

It doesn't take much time to ask for an extension and the worst they can really do is say no. If you just ignore their deadline, it would be rude, and they may think you are no longer interested in their program (since you won't even write them a short message!) so they could offer it to someone else. The April 15th thing is not a legal obligation, just a "guideline" so even though they say they will adhere to the document, they are under no obligations. Technically, if they were actually following that document, they should not have even asked you for a 3 week deadline and allowed you to wait until April 15th.

Since they offered you a fellowship, they are probably interested in admitting you so they would probably be okay with waiting another week or two. It seems like smaller schools tend to ask their applicants to respond within a few weeks because they know that a large fraction of their accepted students actually only applied to their school as safety schools, and are likely to go somewhere else. So the deadline is probably a gentle reminder/encouragement to decline their offer if you already decided to go to another program.

It's definitely a good idea to visit School #1 first, and it would be a reasonable thing to ask for a little more time.

[StephanieJ]

So like this?

___is currently a top choice for graduate studies next year. However, I am still planning to visit one more university before I make a final decision. They are hosting me on March 30th. I realize that this would place my decision outside of the three week window that was originally offered me. I am hoping that ___ will be willing to extend the deadline on this fellowship until I have had the opportunity to visit my last program.

Thank you,

Stephanie J....

[TakeruK]

Just my opinion, but I like it. It is a lot like an email I wrote when applying to MSc programs 2 years ago and it got a favourable response so I hope that will work out for you too!