Turning Down an Offer

[feministfoodie]

For those of us lucky enough to have more than one offer, does anyone have any advice on how to turn down an offer?  Email or phone?  Is there a standard procedure?

[onehardtaco]

Email something like:

 

"Professor X,

 

After long thought, I have decided to attend graduate school at ABC University. I appreciate your interest in my career, and I hope we can keep in touch. Thank you very much.

 

Best,

 

Person Y."

 

Email is best. And there's no reason for a long email.

[surefire]

For those of us lucky enough to have more than one offer, does anyone have any advice on how to turn down an offer?  Email or phone?  Is there a standard procedure?

 

E-mail. It can be quick and concise for those that you just want to let know (a prospective supervisor as onehardtaco has mentioned) AND it leaves a necessary paper trail for those that need it (grad secretary/administrator).

 

So yeah, it's not clear who exactly you're thinking of contacting, but when I turned down offers, I sent quick e-mails to prospective supervisors and anyone associated with the department who spent more than a standard amount of time finessing me (grad chair who hosted a recruitment, a grad student in the program whom I took out for a coffee). AND I sent e-mails to the grad admin, who needed to know for the purposes of moving along on offers and the like. IN ADDITION the welcome packages I got with acceptances CAME WITH a form to fill out that had ticky boxes for "I accept the offer" and "I do not accept the offer". Check to see if you have received similar forms, and send those to the right people, where applicable.

 

Congrats on the offers!

[jmu]

If FIU is one of the programs you want to turn down, you can do so at http://my.fiu.edu/ using your login information provided after you applied. The bottom of the middle section will have your acceptance information which you can click on and choose to decline. If you were offered funding it would also be a good idea to email Laura Ogden as there are people currently "waitlisted" for funding (I think she mentioned there were only 6 funded spots and something like 12 acceptances.) This would let her make an offer to the next person in the list.

 

Alternatively, if you have questions about the program feel free to send me a PM.

[feministfoodie]

Thanks everyone!  I turned down Portland State and FIU and kept it short and sweet in email form, considering I hadn't really spoke to anyone in the program other than the grad director.  Portland State is the only school that gave me an actual form to fill out with my decision, which I attached to an email.

[gingin6789]

I ended up pouring my heart out over the phone to the DGS of the program I rejected because I did really love the program, and it was a very difficult choice!

 

I'm glad email ended up working well for you!  Congratulations on making your decision!!

[breaks0]

I wanna tweak this question and ask how do you turn down an offer when you have no others b/c even this one gives you no funding? And I suppose I'd add this is a place I may want to reapply to in the Fall, will decide over the summer I guess. What exactly should I say and how long should an email be, roughly?

 

May provide more details  here in future, but need to notify the school by the 15th so any feedback over the weekend would be appreciated. And I should add, the school's about 4 hours from here and while I strongly considered visiting, I ended up deciding not to, which in retrospect I think was a mistake, but due to my shaky financial situation wasn't sure what else to do. Thanks again in advance for any feedback.

Edited April 11, 2014 by breaks0

[Darth.Vegan]

I would just thank them for the acceptance but inform them that you are unable to attend without an offer of funding and will be reapplying next year. 

[breaks0]

I would just thank them for the acceptance but inform them that you are unable to attend without an offer of funding and will be reapplying next year. 

 Thanks Darth, as well as previous posters.