Need help and suggestion! CGS resolution conflict?

[bradstenson]

Hi all,

 

I received admits from two schools.

School A: My dream school, but away from home (no aid)

School B: An OK school, in home location, and is offering full tuition waiver/ aid.

 

Here's the problem:

 

I want to accept school A (school that I want to go to). At the same time I want to accept school B (and the aid) as well, should my wife not be able to find a job in School A's location by August.

 

Do you see a conflict here with the Council of Grad School resolution if I accept both schools now and cancel say school B later.

 

Im terribly confused.,,and cant really ask anyone but you folks on this.

 

Appreciate all of your comments.

 

BradS

[zabius]

I don't think that they'll let you do that. Many schools stipulate that by accepting their offer you need to decline admission to all other schools. Even if that's not stated in your official admission letter, it's probably in the fine print somewhere.

 

What you could do is email both of the schools and ask for a slight extension on the decision deadline. I'm not sure if they'll extend it past April 15th, but it's worth a shot. If they both go along with it, this will give your wife a little more time to look for jobs. They won't extend the decision deadline all the way to August, though (at best, you'll get a few weeks). But it will buy you and her a little more time.

 

If they don't give you an extension, you'll probably need to just make a decision now, and it will be up to you to determine whether you want to take the risk on your top choice school (better for you, but uncertain employment for your wife) or settle for your hometown school (not so great for you, but has financial security). That's a tough choice and I'm not sure what I would do in that situation. Maybe others who have been in a similar boat themselves can weigh in with more useful advice?

 

One other thing to keep in mind, though, is that the CGS resolution technically only applies to offers of funding, not offers of admission. Check with School A and see what their acceptance deadline is for unfunded offers. If it's later than April 15th, then one option may be to accept School B's offer now, have your wife look for jobs near School A, and then back out of B's offer and accept A's if she finds a job before A's deadline. That's not an ideal situation, of course... by backing out of School B after you have accepted their offer, you risk making enemies there which is something could come back to bite you later. I wouldn't recommend this, as obviously burning bridges is something that you don't want to do if you can help it, but I am putting the idea out there. Just keep in mind that if you *do* try this strategy, School B may give you a hard time when to try to withdraw. It's probably best to not even try that, and instead make a decision now (or try to buy some time by extending both deadlines).

 

Good luck!

Edited April 9, 2013 by zabius

[bradstenson]

Thank you very much for your reply. Its been a tough decision for us. Im trying to see if I can get an extension...I truly hope they would.

Thanks again for your comments.