Confused About Acceptance Letter

[PorcupineTree1985]

Hi Everyone,

 

So I was very excited to receive an official notice of acceptance to one of the grad programs I applied to. I had received an informal acceptance letting me know I should be eligible for an assistantship and tuition waiver. The official letter contained no formal financial aid offer. Here's why I am confused, the official letter asked me to accept or decline my admission by Jan 31. I only want to accept admissions anywhere if I am offered a stipend and tuition/fee waiver. Basically it seems like the school wants me to accept admissions before I know about my funding package...is this typical? Should I e-mail the program director and ask what the deal is? It doesn't say if the admission decision is binding on my end...

 

Thanks!

[Purplepolarbear]

I would ask. You do not want to walk into a situation where you have no funding.

[OhMySocks]

That seems really odd and I would definitely be wary. Call and ask. If it were me, I would tell them flat out that while I'm interested in the school, I cannot accept any offer without information about funding. Unless there is something sketchy going on, they should understand that.

 

Is this a US school, and are they a member of the Council of Graduate Schools? According to CGS agreement, schools can't force you to accept an offer of funding before April 15th. Obviously, you haven't received an offer of funding, but this agreement seems to informally extend towards offers of admission at most schools also. I would really question their motives at trying to force an earlier deadline on you.

[TakeruK]

IF this is a US school, then I think this is atypical and I would be vary of this situation. I am guessing they are asking you for an early response because funding might depend on how many students say yes. So they might be "bullying" students into making a quick decision. Or, their funding decision might be based on who wants to hire whom as an RA/TA, so you might have to interview or apply for this later on. It does sound like they are trying to circumvent the CGS agreement regarding April 15 deadlines by not making a funding offer (as the CGS agreement clearly states it applies to funding offers only, not offers of admission).

 

In either case, this is a bad deal! Since you, like most people, say that you don't want to accept without knowing funding, then you should tell the school exactly that. Tell them that you are honoured etc. to be accepted by their school but you can't make any decisions without knowing funding. You should also directly ask if the decision is binding, although I do not think accepting admission is a legally binding agreement. A student without a financial package can withdraw from their program at any time (although they might forfeit any fees paid for the current year/semester/quarter). So, you can probably accept the offer, see what the funding this, and then change your mind. It's not a good idea to do this in general, but if they are forcing your hand by making you decide before most schools even get back with decisions, then I think this is okay to do. In your shoes, I would even ask the grad director what would happen if you changed your mind because you don't like the funding package.

 

It's possible that they are just hoping applicants will respond by Jan 31 so that they know who really wants to attend and who applied as a safety. I think this is a bad practice but it's their right to run their school this way (I hope though, that this will have negative ramifications on their enrollment). So, if you ask for more time, they might just give it to you. 

 

On the other hand, if this is not a US school, then this might be more typical. Many Canadian programs give you about 1 month after notice to accept/decline (in Canadian science programs, usually the prof hires/admits the student directly so they don't want you holding onto an offer forever when there are other students they are interested in as well.) But if you have a valid reason, you can usually ask for more time (e.g. you know that School X won't decide for another 2 weeks so you want to hear back from them first). Sometimes in these situations, you can even contact the other school, let them know your situation and they might expedite your decision. 

[PorcupineTree1985]

Hi Everyone,

 

Just an update...I e-mailed the program director and I can accept my admission and then withdraw later if financial aid does not come through. I think it's a strange way to do it but whatever workes I guess.