How do you explain that a school wasn't your top choice?

[sassypenguin]

Hey,

 

I recently declined an offer from School A and am in the process of deciding between School B and School C. However, School A, just sent a follow up email asking me which school I will be attending instead of theirs. (School B and C's decision deadline has not yet passed.) 

 

Is it rude to tell them that I am still deciding? Doesn't that indicate that they clearly weren't the top choice? I don't want to mar my relationship with School A in case I move back to this city and see them around (at workshops or conferences.) How do I politely explain my situation? 

 

 

[Sigaba]

However, School A, just sent a follow up email asking me which school I will be attending instead of theirs.

 

Based upon the information provided in the OP,you might be foxing yourself into a hole unnecessarily; the question is which, not why. When you decide between School B and School C, reply to School A's query with a concise answer: I am going to attend School [b or C]. 

[eeee1923]

I feel that you don't owe them an answer honestly.

[Marst]

Interesting move on A's part. Is this seriously the university asking, an adcom or something, or is it simply a POI you have been in touch with? The latter would make sense.

[Sigaba]

Schools and programs sometimes request information so that they can bench mark themselves against "peer" schools. 

[SublimePZ]

Schools and programs sometimes request information so that they can bench mark themselves against "peer" schools. 

One of the schools I declined had a specific box that said "Where will you be attending instead?". Tempted to put Hogwarts but that probably wouldn't go so well.

[sassypenguin]

Schools and programs sometimes request information so that they can bench mark themselves against "peer" schools. 

How interesting. I don't really consider these schools on the same bar. I mainly applied out of the convenience of the location. 

[TakeruK]

As Sigaba said, this information is helpful to schools so that they can find out what their "peer" schools are. They don't know what your final decision will be and sometimes the student will say schools that rank well above them. This doesn't mean that they consider themselves on the same bar, but they do want to know where else people go.

 

And the current students want to know too. I just recently got a spreadsheet from my school listing every admitted's student final decision. It's interesting to see where some of our favourite prospectives end up going. For my program, there is a definite trend--in the last 5 years or so, all of the students we "lost" only chose 2 other schools (and 90% of the "lost" students went to the same rival school). This usually means we can predict whether a student will attend our program fairly accurately (i.e. if they didn't get into one of the other two "rival" schools, we'd be pretty sure they will accept our offer).

 

Anyways, for your specific situation, my suggestion will be to not reply at all right now. Wait until you actually make a decision and then let them know. There's no rush to respond!

 

And finally, I do agree that you don't "owe" them an answer, but as you say, you want to keep a good relationship with School A, so you should tell them when you know. Your final decision is not a secret because people will find out very shortly when they see you publishing or presenting with your new affiliation. In fact, I would even say it's in your best interest to tell people where you go because if they were interested in you enough to ask, they would pay more attention and know where to look for new work by you and that's a good thing!

[Sigaba]

How interesting. I don't really consider these schools on the same bar. I mainly applied out of the convenience of the location. 

 

Academic institutions sometimes define their peer institutions based factors that are widely known among administrators and faculty members involved in various forms of strategic planning. As a hypothetical example   , a private university in the Northern California bay area may pay less attention to the governing sensibilities in that region when it comes to facility and transportation planning and instead look to schools in Southern California and the Pacific Northwest because they have similar values/mission statements.

Edited April 24, 2015 by Sigaba

[zj868]

TakerUK nailed it man! Go with his advice