Tell them where you're going?

[wanderingalbatross]

I'm in the incredibly lucky position of having to send declining-your-offer emails, and I'm wondering if it's a good idea to tell the prospective school whose offer you did accept. Do they expect this and want to know? Or would they think it's weird and pseudo-bragging? I'm inclined not to say anything beyond the "thank you" and "I'm declining" aspects.

[spacezeppelin]

One school I applied to has a SIR that you fill out if you go or not. That school actually asks for the reason you aren't going and which school you will be accepting. If I reject that offer I plan to tell them, but otherwise i'm not sure I will unless they ask. Thats just me though, I have no idea what is considered "normal".

 

I would imagine if you were in contact with a particular professor they might be interested to know where you end up. That seems pretty natural.It might be a good idea to thank them for their time and support, then say you are accepting X offer. As far as letting the actual institution know though, I'm not sure.

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[ak48]

My gut instinct is to say that they'd appreciate this sort of information when they analyze their own admissions process. "Who are we accepting, and where are they going to? How can we retain better candidates?" sorta deal.

[iowaguy]

Any tips on how to word such a letter/email, so as not to burn any bridges or create hard feelings?  For one POI, I could see myself possibly working with him down the road even if I don't end up at his program...  Also, you never know if you might have a post-doc opportunity at one of those universities that you're turning down!

[Tuck]

Any tips on how to word such a letter/email, so as not to burn any bridges or create hard feelings?  For one POI, I could see myself possibly working with him down the road even if I don't end up at his program...  Also, you never know if you might have a post-doc opportunity at one of those universities that you're turning down!

 

I think you should say just that. You appreciate that they took the time to evaluate your application, you really like X Y Z about the program, but due to factors A and B, you've chosen to attend School U. You enjoyed corresponding with him you will continue following his work, and you hope to have the opportunity to work with him in the future.

[ShortLong]

I canceled a visit to a school because I had narrowed my decision down to two other schools. I had to email the professors I had scheduled meetings with to cancel the meetings. I basically just said that I was not going to attend that school, and I thanked them for being so welcome and inviting, but I felt my research interests would be better served elsewhere. 

 

All the professors responded back that they wished me well in my future endeavors. Professors understand that you have to choose between schools. As long as you are polite, it should be fine. 

[mrmolecularbiology]

I let my interviewers know in the interviews what schools I was choosing between. I let them all know where I was going when I declined their admission offers, but I like full disclosure. Most fields are small they are going to find out anyways at conferences why not tell them in advance? 

[pears]

If they ask, tell them; if they don't, I would say it depends on the situation. My online forms for withdrawing and decisions (i.e., declining) have all asked me where I'm going/why I'm withdrawing. I mentioned to some students at my second choice that I was between their school and my top choice (soon to be my program, woohoo!), but I'll refrain from mentioning it by name when I email the GSC about my decision; there wasn't a form on their site, so I plan on saying something to the effect of "I've decided to accept another program's offer."

[LeatherElbows]

I don't see any reason to tell them, unless they ask. An exception might be if you are specifically responding to a POI who was helpful during the admission process and you expect to deal with them professionally in the future.

[Inyo]

I think it greatly depends on the size of your field. I plan on emailing the professors at the schools that rejected me to let them know my plans. I'm in a very small field, and there are < 20 people in it with similar research interests to mine. Several of them share grants, and I may end up working with these people in the next few years anyways. The networking I have done has resulted in some of the nicest rejection letters you can imagine (including notes about how they hope to have a post-doc position for me in 5-6 years), and I want to make sure they know where to find me in the future. 

 

If you're in a large field and/or haven't been talking much with professors at the schools, then I wouldn't see a need. 

[TakeruK]

I also agree that it depends on your interaction with the profs there. In response to the posts about the "exit surveys" that you fill out after accepting/declining a school, I really hope those are made anonymous! So, I don't think you can expect your department/profs to know where you ended up going instead if you answered there! 

 

In my case, I did say which program I ended up going to because it was something that came up when we had one-on-one interviews during the visit days. I think my field is pretty open about where else we've been accepted/hoping to get into since that's one of the most common topics we talked about during the visits! I also think it's a good idea to say where you're going because it will help the profs remember you and recognize you in future work. Just be careful to not say something like "I'm going to School X because it's way better than your school", obviously! I felt safe using phrases like "we decided that School X was the best fit for us" since it's vague enough that you aren't saying anything specific and it's personal enough that they can't really argue with what's the best fit for you!