What if I accept more than one offer?

[arnds]

Hi, I am an international student and I recently accepted an offer from Rutgers (as they ridiculously gave me a deadline of 13th March to decide over). Later I received an interview from Sackler school, Tufts and I think I have a good chance making it there. But I don't have any idea how to respond if I receive an offer. Tufts was my first choice, but I have no idea if it is even legally possible to turn down an offer that I once accepted. By the way, I am yet to have the acceptance letter in my hand and thus have not started the I20 visa stuff.

[TeaGirl]

If you get the admission and funding, before accepting Tufts, ask Rutgers if they will release you from the acceptance. I don't anticipate that they'll refuse especially if you are asking before April 15, and if/when they do go ahead and accept Tufts.

 

Sometimes schools will give you an early deadline to pressure you into committing. I had that with one of the schools and simply asked that they extend it till April 15 and they agreed.

Don't accept a program if you don't know the other will release you because then you'll have to blow off one of them, and It's not good to burn bridges like that.

[TakeruK]

Accepting an offer does not legally obligate you to any program. It is NOT a contract that you will attend the school. At least in my case, none of the letters of offer I saw actually required me to attend the school. Instead, the offer is IF I attend the school, THEN my funding will be $X/year for Y years. You can drop out of school anytime you want, including before starting school! So, if you want to withdraw from an offer, all you have to do is tell Rutgers that you are no longer interested in attending and that's it. 

 

However, there's more than just legal liability to worry about. The CGS April 15 resolution (if it even applies here) is meant to prevent schools from "poaching" students from each other or otherwise pressuring students to choose too early. So they have the whole "asking for a release" mechanism to prevent confusion. If you have accepted Rutgers' offer, no other school would want to accept you until they got a "release" from Rutgers confirming that you are not going to attend Rutgers. This is to protect themselves from being accused of trying to steal you away, I think.

 

If you get an offer from Tufts and it turns out that you want to attend, you should first tell Rutgers that you now want to decline your acceptance to Rutgers. They can't refuse -- the most you can lose is any deposit you might have made towards courses/registration (unlikely that you would have had to make a deposit this early though). Hopefully, they will cooperate and write you a release letter (it should be automatic anyways). The department there will probably be unhappy that you are backing out of their program, but you have to do what's best for you. They will understand and it will probably not affect you in the future if you handle the situation properly. At worst, they might remember this if you apply for post-docs or other positions at Rutgers, but that could be over 5 years away!

 

If they don't grant you a release (or take a really long time to), you should probably just go ahead and accept Tufts' offer anyways -- they can't make you come to Rutgers. But, you should probably let Tufts know what's going on though -- you don't want them to accuse you of wrongdoing and maybe they could even help you.

[Eigen]

Also, you don't mention if Rutger's offer included funding, or just acceptance. 

 

A lot of people overlook that the CGS resolution does not apply to acceptances, but only to offers of funding. 

 

A school can require you to accept an offer of acceptance whenever, they just can't require you to accept an offer of funding until the April 14th deadline. And even then, the CGS is more of a guideline than an enforced rule. 

 

But you definitely should obtain a release from Rutgers before accepting Tufts' offer, just so everything is clear and on the up and up. 

[arnds]

On 3/18/2013 at 12:09 PM, Eigen said:

Also, you don't mention if Rutger's offer included funding, or just acceptance. 

 

A lot of people overlook that the CGS resolution does not apply to acceptances, but only to offers of funding. 

 

A school can require you to accept an offer of acceptance whenever, they just can't require you to accept an offer of funding until the April 14th deadline. And even then, the CGS is more of a guideline than an enforced rule. 

 

But you definitely should obtain a release from Rutgers before accepting Tufts' offer, just so everything is clear and on the up and up. 

Thanks for the clarification. Yes, my offer also includes full funding, so I better get a release in case I accept another offer.

 

On 3/17/2013 at 1:00 PM, TakeruK said:

Accepting an offer does not legally obligate you to any program. It is NOT a contract that you will attend the school. At least in my case, none of the letters of offer I saw actually required me to attend the school. Instead, the offer is IF I attend the school, THEN my funding will be $X/year for Y years. You can drop out of school anytime you want, including before starting school! So, if you want to withdraw from an offer, all you have to do is tell Rutgers that you are no longer interested in attending and that's it. 

 

However, there's more than just legal liability to worry about. The CGS April 15 resolution (if it even applies here) is meant to prevent schools from "poaching" students from each other or otherwise pressuring students to choose too early. So they have the whole "asking for a release" mechanism to prevent confusion. If you have accepted Rutgers' offer, no other school would want to accept you until they got a "release" from Rutgers confirming that you are not going to attend Rutgers. This is to protect themselves from being accused of trying to steal you away, I think.

 

If you get an offer from Tufts and it turns out that you want to attend, you should first tell Rutgers that you now want to decline your acceptance to Rutgers. They can't refuse -- the most you can lose is any deposit you might have made towards courses/registration (unlikely that you would have had to make a deposit this early though). Hopefully, they will cooperate and write you a release letter (it should be automatic anyways). The department there will probably be unhappy that you are backing out of their program, but you have to do what's best for you. They will understand and it will probably not affect you in the future if you handle the situation properly. At worst, they might remember this if you apply for post-docs or other positions at Rutgers, but that could be over 5 years away!

 

If they don't grant you a release (or take a really long time to), you should probably just go ahead and accept Tufts' offer anyways -- they can't make you come to Rutgers. But, you should probably let Tufts know what's going on though -- you don't want them to accuse you of wrongdoing and maybe they could even help you.

Thanks.

 

On 3/17/2013 at 3:05 AM, TeaGirl said:

If you get the admission and funding, before accepting Tufts, ask Rutgers if they will release you from the acceptance. I don't anticipate that they'll refuse especially if you are asking before April 15, and if/when they do go ahead and accept Tufts.

 

Sometimes schools will give you an early deadline to pressure you into committing. I had that with one of the schools and simply asked that they extend it till April 15 and they agreed.

Don't accept a program if you don't know the other will release you because then you'll have to blow off one of them, and It's not good to burn bridges like that.

Thanks.