Help me! I've got an admission with financial support without knowing results of my other applications

[mhn_namak]

Hi,

I've got an admission offer with financial support from one of my 9 applications. They've sent me an official admission letter and have asked me to respond in two weeks.

However, I'm not happy now. I have at least two other applications which I want to know their decisions before making any wrong decisions on my future studies. Their decision may be determined on the early March.

On the other hand, this offer is important for me too and I don't want to lose it.

I'm directly in contact with a professor there via email and he's given me the chance.

How should I ask for an extension of this deadline?

Please help me.

 

[parimala_v]

I can understand your dilemma. This is something I guess only you can take a real call on. There are way too many factors, the probability of your acceptance in the other two applications and your confidence to reject this.

 

If you aren't so sure, accept this offer and then maybe transfer next semester?

 

If you are asking for an extension, I would ask the professor I am in contact with personally on how to approach the school. Other than that if they gave u an aid means they consider you valuable so asking for an extension isn't going to hamper your chances. Try an ask, maybe oyu might see their true colors on how much they want you in their university

Edited January 29, 2015 by parimala_v

[TakeruK]

I would not recommend the plan on "accepting and then transferring". But it depends on your program. If you are in a research based PhD program, this is not a good idea at all and it will be very hard to apply to new PhD programs when you are already in a PhD program.

 

I think you need to ask for an extension until the end of March (or whenever you think you need). If the school wants you, they will give you the extension. The school is not going to withdraw their offer simply because you asked for an extension, so if the school says no, you still have the offer. However, sometimes schools do "bully" students into accepting early and you don't really want to go to that kind of school, to be honest.

 

Finally, if you have no other options (they will withdraw their offer if you don't accept in 2 weeks and they won't give you an extension) then one option would be to accept their offer and then rescind that acceptance later if you like the new school more. But this can really hurt you in the long run because it's not a good action to take (but I guess if you have no choice then you have no choice). But before you do this, try everything else first and let all the schools know of your situation!

[mhn_namak]

Hi,

Thank you for trying to solve my issue.

I'm in contact with a professor personally and he gave me this opportunity. Should I ask the extension from him or from admission office?

How should I ask my inquiry to not make him angry or not affect on his attitude about me?

[.letmeinplz//]

Hi,

Thank you for trying to solve my issue.

I'm in contact with a professor personally and he gave me this opportunity. Should I ask the extension from him or from admission office?

How should I ask my inquiry to not make him angry or not affect on his attitude about me?

I mean there are 2 ways to look at this.

 

- From his point of view (and admissions' point of view) you applied to that school because you wanted to go there. An offer with financial aid to a school you want to go to? Why would you ever turn that down?

 

- From your point of view you don't want to rush into anything without being sure (this is years and years of dedication). So an extra month to make sure this is the place for you doesn't sound like asking for too much.

 

There are obviously risks/rewards with both. Is being 100% sure on your choice of school worth the x% chance they rescind your offer? If it is, then definitely explain to them that you would like some more time to mull over their offer (you don't even have to mention that the reason for time is so you can hear from other schools).

 

If they say no? Then you have to make the tough decision on taking the offer you have over the offers you may or may not get. There is a saying for this exact situation though, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush".

Edited January 29, 2015 by <ian>

[pachydermatus]

Have you contacted the other programs you've applied to and asked where they're at? Or told them you have an offer but you're waiting to hear from them first?

[mhn_namak]

Have you contacted the other programs you've applied to and asked where they're at? Or told them you have an offer but you're waiting to hear from them first?

Thanks.

No I didn't. I've heard that it's like a two-edge sword! They may reject or accept me just because of this letter.  However, I'm not sure about that.

[mafia59]

I have same issue. I think asking your POI for extending the deadline is the best; cause he should understand your conditions. 

 

I wanna first ask my POI to extend my time for decision, and then ask the other Univ. that I want to know their decisions before accepting the current offer.