Ask for early review of application?

[Cyborgvampire]

Hello,

I was recently accepted to my 2nd choice program, but they are demanding a decision by feb 25th. My 1st choice program--Theory and Criticism at Western Ontario--says that they will not make announcements until march, which could mean until the end of march... Is it possible to request that they review my app early? Also, would it be terrible to accept the former program and then withdraw this decision if I am offered admission to Western? Finally, what is a POI??

[iphi]

No, you should not ask. What you can do is talk to the first school and tell them you are waiting to hear back from other schools. If they still don't care, then just accept the offer and withdraw if you are accepted to Western.

[Chubberubber]

Agreed. Also, a POI is a Professor Of Interest- the professor you want to work with at an institution.

[MathCat]

Don't explicitly ask them to review your application early. You can, however, let them know your situation and ask if there is anything they can tell you. Maybe all you hear back is that they'll make decisions in March, but they may be able to tell you if you're in the running or not. I'm in a similar situation (except without a clear ranking of which my top choice is) and when I did this, one school thanked me for telling them and emailed me an early offer, one told me I had a good chance but offers would be made later, and the rest told me nothing of use. Also, if you have not already, you should ask for an extension on your current offer, without telling them they're you're second choice. I'd be happy to talk the specifics of what I did if you want to message me.

 

And this thread may be of interest:

Edited February 8, 2015 by MathCat

[TakeruK]

You mentioned Western Ontario, which is a Canadian school. With this information, I would disagree with some of the above posters and say that you should ask. At least in my field, Canadian graduate admissions work differently and they are more like job applications. I agree with MathCat that you should not ask directly, but just tell the other school that you have an offer from somewhere else. This is what happened to me:

 

I was interested in School A (application deadline Jan 15) and School B (application deadline March 1). I was in contact with POIs from both schools in early January and made plans to visit in mid-Feb (during my undergrad school's reading break). By Feb 1, School A accepted me and gave me 3 weeks to respond. However, this is before School B's application deadline! So, I submitted my application to School B early. I also visited both schools in mid-February. While visiting School B, I let them know that School A already accepted me and wanted me to respond within a week at that point. School B said that they will get a decision to me ASAP. Just in case, I asked School A for an extension of 2 weeks so that I can hear back from School B and School A granted the extension. About a week after my visit to School B, they notified me that they decided to accept me! This was still in February, prior to their March 1 application deadline. 

 

So, now that you have an offer, you should ask all your other schools about your application status and let them know that School A asked you to respond by X date. Ask them when they would know their decision (don't rush them) so that you can ask School A for an appropriate extension. It is likely they will accelerate your application decision process, if possible. (This is because in Canada, there isn't often a committee that makes decisions, but instead, each individual prof will say yes or no and you get a letter saying you are accepted to work with the profs that said yes).

[MathCat]

(This is because in Canada, there isn't often a committee that makes decisions, but instead, each individual prof will say yes or no and you get a letter saying you are accepted to work with the profs that said yes).

Actually, I think it's a bit of a mixed bag with schools on this. Of the three Canadian departments I applied to, only one works under this model. The other two are like in the US.