Haven't heard from my top school yet

[ramswell]

So my situation is this. I have already had interviews with two schools (B, C). However my top preference is school A and all I heard from them is that they will send out invitations for interviews sometime after March 1st. Schools B and C have already interviewed me and have hinted that I might be accepted and the official letters would come by the end of February.

 

Now I want to send an email to school A saying,

 

"I will be receiving admission decisions from 2 other schools shortly. However your school is my top priority so I was wondering when I can expect to hear from you. "

 

Is this a bad idea? What are your thoughts? Is playing the universities against each other at this stage detrimental to me?

[queenleblanc]

If you haven't yet received official letters from school B and school C, and expect to get those at the end of February ... and you'll get notification at the beginning of March for school A, it seems to me that at this point you could just be patient and wait.  You don't have an official offer from school B or C that you are obligated to accept (or whatever) just yet.  That's just me ... maybe others have a different perspective for you.  Congratulations on positive results from two of your schools - that's definitely great!!! :-) 

[saphixation]

B and C haven't even accepted you yet, let alone started pushing you to make a decision. From what I can see of your situation, there's no point in rushing A except due to your own impatience. I get that waiting to hear back from your top choice is tough, but at this stage you need to just wait and see.

 

Given that A has told you roughly when to hear from then, you should at least wait until then. Asking any earlier makes you look impatient and like you can't follow directions. If you haven't heard by mid-March or so, then you can consider asking if they've finished sending out invites yet.

[gradschoolmom]

I agree.  Not sure you are really going to get anywhere with it anyway.  We are all waiting on some response.  The schools know this.  I don't think they process any faster (almost) no matter what you do.  If you are in a legitimate situation where you've actually received acceptances from B and/or C school and have a deadline to decide, and A school is late with their notifications, then I *might* consider speaking to them about where they are in the review and notification process.  At this point...I'd wait.  Which I know, waiting sucks.

[ak48]

However my top preference is school A and all I heard from them is that they will send out invitations for interviews sometime after March 1st.  

 

If A said they will sent out interviews after March 1, you should wait until March 1. I feel that if you are such a special applicant that they A would rearrange its priorities for you against B/C, then A would invite you to an interview normally anyway.

 

Waiting's hard, but I think it's poor form to demand information when they've clearly given you a schedule.

[ak48]

 By the way, to me it makes sense that your lower priority schools would contact you faster.

 

Most people's top choices are competitive, prestigious programs, which means the competition is stronger. Lesser programs try and contact quicker in hopes of grabbing qualified applicants before others do, whereas the stronger ones know they already have appeal.