Rescheduling Interview or Withdrawing Application?

[kingslayer]

Hi everyone! I'm so confused right now.

Basically, I have two top schools: A and B.

I was accepted into A with full funding and a stipend. It's a public ivy, I can see myself living in the state forever, and it's in the top 75 national schools. The staff is really nice, and I can see myself fit in. It also has a PhD program just in case I want to go that route. It's education department is higher ranked than School B's.

I was supposed to interview with B last Friday via Skype, but the interview was cancelled due to snow on their end. I received an email today from one faculty member with times I can interview for the program. Four hours later, I received another email from a different faculty member saying I was waitlisted. I haven't replied to either yet because I'm still sick and have no idea how to approach this. School B is also a really good school, it's a public ivy and in the top 30's nationally. On one hand I really don't want to interview for this one at all--it would be 1.5 hours at 7 AM. On the other hand, it has been a dream of mine to go to this school. However, I don't even know if they would give me funding.

I have no idea if I really am waitlisted, or if I could interview. How do I phrase "I want to go here but only if I have full funding and at least a 20k stipend"? Should I just withdraw? Argh.

[rising_star]

At least do the interview. It sounds like you'll have a bunch of regrets later (possibly years down the road) if you don't. Pretty much everyone knows that you can't do a PhD without funding so I wouldn't worry about that part yet.

[Villain Elle]

I agree--do the interview if the school is a dream for you. Give yourself all the opportunities and options possible. Interviews are the worst, but you don't want to have regrets later just because you weren't willing to be slightly uncomfortable for a couple hours. 

Good luck! 

[kingslayer]

4 hours ago, rising_star said:

At least do the interview. It sounds like you'll have a bunch of regrets later (possibly years down the road) if you don't. Pretty much everyone knows that you can't do a PhD without funding so I wouldn't worry about that part yet.

Thank you! It's actually for a masters/education specialist degree. Funding has become super important for me, and I would rather not waste my time or their time if they won't offer me funding. I think I may interview though, if they ask me.

4 hours ago, Villain Elle said:

I agree--do the interview if the school is a dream for you. Give yourself all the opportunities and options possible. Interviews are the worst, but you don't want to have regrets later just because you weren't willing to be slightly uncomfortable for a couple hours. 

Good luck! 

Thank you so much! True. If I end up not doing the interview I've decided it's probably not the end of the world. I can always apply for a PhD program there.

[fuzzylogician]

Do the interview, you have nothing to lose (a few hours of sleep don't count!). You aren't wasting their time unless you have already decided that you will absolutely not attend. If you're not sure, talk to them, and then see what kind of offer they make you. If it's unfunded or you are offered insufficient funds, you could consider using your other offer as leverage to ask for an increase in your stipend, or you could just accept the other offer. Either way, it seems to me that you owe it to yourself to give yourself as many options as possible and choose from a position of knowledge, not speculation. 

[rising_star]

6 hours ago, kingslayer said:

Thank you! It's actually for a masters/education specialist degree. Funding has become super important for me, and I would rather not waste my time or their time if they won't offer me funding. I think I may interview though, if they ask me.

In that case, either take fuzzy's advice or ask the program directly whether or not any funding is available for your prospective/intended degree program. If they say no, then you decline the interview. If they say "maybe", "possibly", "potentially", etc., then you do the interview.

[kingslayer]

21 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

Do the interview, you have nothing to lose (a few hours of sleep don't count!). You aren't wasting their time unless you have already decided that you will absolutely not attend. If you're not sure, talk to them, and then see what kind of offer they make you. If it's unfunded or you are offered insufficient funds, you could consider using your other offer as leverage to ask for an increase in your stipend, or you could just accept the other offer. Either way, it seems to me that you owe it to yourself to give yourself as many options as possible and choose from a position of knowledge, not speculation. 

 

15 hours ago, rising_star said:

In that case, either take fuzzy's advice or ask the program directly whether or not any funding is available for your prospective/intended degree program. If they say no, then you decline the interview. If they say "maybe", "possibly", "potentially", etc., then you do the interview.

Thank you both!

The program basically told me that they gave out invitations, but someone may drop out. Instead of a formal interview via Skype, a faculty member is going to have a "talk" with me via phone. She kept making that distinction very clear.

I'm ok either way. I'm still in my top choice!

Edited March 10, 2016 by kingslayer