When do you have to make a decision by if you're accepted off the waitlist?

[bravesball]

Hey guys so as you can see in my signature I am currently waitlisted at Wisconsin-Madison and Missouri. I have a question about what happens if I get accepted off of one of the waitlists on like April 14th or 15th. Do I still need to decide by April 15th? Or do I get an extension past that because it seems pretty unreasonable to only have a day or a few hours to make a decision. 

Thanks for any help.

[gughok]

Officially I'm pretty sure you still have to decide by the 15th. I have heard, however, of programs being forgiving and offering a few extra days in such extenuating circumstances.

[philstudent1992]

23 minutes ago, gughok said:

Officially I'm pretty sure you still have to decide by the 15th. I have heard, however, of programs being forgiving and offering a few extra days in such extenuating circumstances.

Graduate students are not bound by any resolution to decide by the 15th. Instead, most programs have agreed not to require their admitted students to respond to offers of admission before April 15. So April 15th is the deadline because that's the earliest date that most programs could require their students to respond, without violating their commitments. That being the case, there's no "official" deadline for graduate students; it's decided by each school in each case. But I think you're right about what schools will actually do (some will give you a few extra days, some won't).

[MentalEngineer]

51 minutes ago, philstudent1992 said:

Graduate students are not bound by any resolution to decide by the 15th. Instead, most programs have agreed not to require their admitted students to respond to offers of admission before April 15. So April 15th is the deadline because that's the earliest date that most programs could require their students to respond, without violating their commitments. That being the case, there's no "official" deadline for graduate students; it's decided by each school in each case. But I think you're right about what schools will actually do (some will give you a few extra days, some won't).

Yeah, that. All it means is that if you haven't accepted by the 15th, your offer can be pulled. If you're getting in off a waitlist, it's certainly reasonable to at least ask for a bit more time. And the 15th is on a Friday this year, so I would hope programs would at least give you the weekend without much fuss.

[maxhgns]

58 minutes ago, philstudent1992 said:

Graduate students are not bound by any resolution to decide by the 15th. Instead, most programs have agreed not to require their admitted students to respond to offers of admission before April 15. So April 15th is the deadline because that's the earliest date that most programs could require their students to respond, without violating their commitments. That being the case, there's no "official" deadline for graduate students; it's decided by each school in each case. But I think you're right about what schools will actually do (some will give you a few extra days, some won't).

That's exactly right. The April 15 deadline is the legal deadline for American departments to extend their first offers.This practice has resulted in most programs giving those first offers until April 15 to decide. That's it.

 

If you're offered admission close to the 15th, just ask the department to give you a few days/a week or so to decide, and do what you can to decide as quickly as you can. You can speed up that process now by asking them to put you in contact with some current students (or, indeed, by reaching out to them yourself), among other things.

[AnotherKantFan]

Yeah, but presumably the decision is between one and another program (in most cases), so - since accepting one offer (even off the WL) entails rejecting another - it does not make much sense to do anything after the 15th and put in trouble other applicants waiting (say, if you eventually don't accept your offer off the WL, you're not giving a chance to someone else who is after you on this WL to do so).