changy06 Posted March 26, 2014 Posted March 26, 2014 Hi everyone! I've been trolling the April1 5th forum for some guidance, but I can't seem to find the exact info I need. I'm hoping you all can provide some insight before I make calls to the schools themselves. I've been accepted to 4 out of 6 programs I've applied to. Two programs have asked for a decision by April 15th, and another by April 30th. Two programs have said financial aid offers will follow in a separate letter (one I've been in contact with the GA who gave me specific dates; the other has not stated if the offer will be before or after April 15th). The other two programs made no mention of financial aid offers in their acceptance letters. I am waiting on the last to get back to me, but I submitted that application last week, so it will be awhile before receiving an offer. Is it typical of programs to withhold offers of aid until receiving official acceptance by the applicant, or should I have received some offer in my admissions letter? Furthermore, I have come across the CGS info regarding decisions by April 15th - my understanding is that offers accepting financial aid need to be withdrawn by written notice, but does this apply to strictly offers of admission as well? Although I still have about 2 1/2 weeks left until the deadline to receive aid offers, I am getting a bit antsy. Should I accept all the admissions offers now and decline later once I receive my aid offers? Thank you for your help! I appreciate it
bakalamba Posted March 26, 2014 Posted March 26, 2014 I'm also applying to International Ed programs, but PhD. I got a funding offer with one acceptance, and another acceptance was followed with funding (because the program applied for a Departmental fellowship). I was also accepted into a MA program, and they specified funding shortly after as well. Like med latte notes, it depends on PhD or MA - from what I understand, NYU & Vanderbilt have guaranteed funding packages for PhD, so they may not include a separate letter. In my experience, funding information should come before April 15th. If you don't receive notice, it could mean the offer is arriving late, or got lost, or there is no funding offer. I would follow up with the programs to see if they can tell you more about funding, or if you should continue waiting. Funding is a big deal in how you will decide on which program to attend, so I would contact them directly, particularly if you received admissions letters a month ago (or more).
TakeruK Posted March 26, 2014 Posted March 26, 2014 I just want to note that admissions-only offers are not included in the CGS April 15 resolution. That resolution is specifically for financial offers only. For admission offers, whatever appears on your offer letter is the terms/deadline for that offer. Whether it's typical for admission and financial offers to come separately may really depend on the field. In mine, for PhD programs, almost every offer is funded, so they usually come together (but not always). I agree with everyone else that funding is an important part of the offer and I would not count on any funding until you have a written financial offer in your hands. Also agree that you should keep in touch with the schools that have not yet told you about the offers and ask for updates since it's a major part of the decision. My advice would be to not accept any offers until you get funding information. I would not accept multiple offers and then decline them later unless there was no other choice (i.e. it's April 14 and the school says funding information will come later). I would let the school know that you need the financial info before you can make a decision and then wait as long as you can! Ask for extensions past April 15 if necessary.
changy06 Posted March 26, 2014 Author Posted March 26, 2014 med latte - These are regarding MA programs. rbamattre - Do you recall if the MA programs specified in the letters that funding would follow or was that a follow up that you had to do? TakeruK - Would you suggest asking for extensions to coincide with the later school's deadline of April 30th, or just for whatever they will offer? While I have some funding available through an external scholarship program, my decision will come down to how much each school offers as I'm not keen on taking out too many loans. In terms of admissions decisions, NYU was the only one that asked for a deposit at the time of my decision, while the other seem to only ask for a yes/no. Thank you all!
TakeruK Posted March 26, 2014 Posted March 26, 2014 (edited) TakeruK - Would you suggest asking for extensions to coincide with the later school's deadline of April 30th, or just for whatever they will offer? If you ask for an extension, I do think it would be useful to at least request a specific date and then see what they say/go from there. If the April 30 school has indicated that you will know your funding before April 30, then it doesn't make sense to request an extension until April 30. But if not, then I guess April 30 is a good nominal starting point, hopefully you will know all your funding info by then! I would say that at the very least, you should consider all of the other information so that you can make a decision shortly after knowing the funding. Unless there are other circumstances, I think that as soon as you have funding information from more than one school, you can at least decide your top choice between those schools and decline everything else. That is, if you have two (or three) funded offers and waiting for funding information from the third (or fourth), you can at least make a choice between those two/three schools right away and just hold onto one offer at a time! Edited March 26, 2014 by TakeruK
bakalamba Posted April 2, 2014 Posted April 2, 2014 rbamattre - Do you recall if the MA programs specified in the letters that funding would follow or was that a follow up that you had to do? The only MA admissions letter I received, from Wisconsin-Madison, implied that funding would follow, since I was nominated for a fellowship. I got an email about the fellowship a week or so later. Any response from programs, OP?
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