Accepting if you're still not sure that's where you'll go.

[grad]

Being new to whole grad school thing, I had no idea yesterday was the big day. I just found out this morning. For one of my schools. (My acceptance letter didn't give a date and when I called and left a message I never got a response. Still, I know, I needed to be more on top of things.) Encouragingly, though, they did tell me I could send my form in today. However, I'm still waiting to hear back from one school and having just received another acceptance on Tuesday, I haven't had enough time to make my final decision. Is anyone else in the same boat? How bad is it to accept an offer from one school only to change your mind later? What would be the best way to do that?

[solefolia]

Ask for an extension. Changing your mind after accepting is frowned upon and if you do it after April 15th (if your school is a member of the Council of Graduate Schools), you need written release.

I would imagine most schools don't want to go through that hassle and are willing to give you a bit of extra time to hear back and have all your options available to you before you make a decision. One of my programs was super understanding about the whole thing, and the grad coordinator even joked "Oh, it's only one of the most important decisions of your life, why would you want more time?"

[grad]

Well, I had a rather stressful day and in the end I freaked out a bit and did accept an offer that I am not entirely sure about. Now I am wondering if I should call them back tomorrow and ask for an extension instead of accepting, although I did already send in my acceptance. To be honest, it didn't even occur to me today to ask about an extension. I just freaked out, even though I'm sure that wasn't the best thing to do. I don't know if it makes any difference, but I am not accepting any money, financial aid, scholarships or the like from the school whose offer I accepted. In this case, do the same rules still apply? Thank you so much for your advice already!