Unexpected early decision - do I gamble funding with better school admissions?

[SashaM]

So! I  got admitted to one of the schools I applied to for a masters degree. (Yay!) The downside is that, while I'd be glad to attend, they aren't my top choice. And my top choice school (and my second choice school) say to expect decisions in early March.

Accepted School says they work on funding awards in February. Even if they technically don't *require* a decision yet, I'm concerned that if I don't commit I could jeopardize my chance at funding. On the other hand, I don't want to commit and then kick myself if Top Choice and Second Choice end up offering me admission.

Is it a huge faux pas to accept an offer and then change your mind? Is it okay to wait to compare funding packages? I'm going to call them tomorrow to ask how long I have to make a decision, but somehow I doubt they're willing to wait a whole five weeks. :-/ Any experiences with similar situations would be greatly appreciated.

[TakeruK]

If there is no deadline given for your decision, the right thing to do is to first just ask them if there is a deadline and note that you are waiting to hear back from two other schools, which have indicated early March decision dates. 

Receiving a funding offer should not be contingent on you accepting an offer beforehand, but I realise our fields are very different. In my field, the advice would be to not make any decisions until you have a funding offer, since if they know you will take their offer, some schools will be less motivated to offer a bigger package. If you are unsure about your chances at funding without a commitment, you can also ask if you are still eligible for funding decisions in February if you have not yet accepted their offer.

[SashaM]

Hmm @TakeruK, that's a good point about not making decisions without a funding offer, I hadn't thought about it that way. I guess that makes it more reasonable to not want to make a decision just yet, and it won't necessarily look like I'm not serious about their program.

I'm not sure what's typical for this field, my undergraduate degree was unrelated.

[TakeruK]

Oh okay, I saw your sidebar info and although I am not familiar with it, I know that education and policy fields tend to be fairly different. However, if it's a different field, then have you heard about the April 15 CGS resolution? (http://cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution)

If your school is a signee of this, then you might be able to have until April 15. Even if your school is *not* a signee of this, if other schools are, then they might choose an April 15 deadline anyways to streamline everything.

However, there are a couple of important caveats:
1. The resolution is signed by the Graduate School at each of these institutions. Some programs (e.g. education) are under the professional school or some other separate school, not the graduate school, so it doesn't apply.
2. The resolution relates to funding offers not admission offers, so there is certainly no obligation for the school in your case to follow this resolution, but they might choose to do so.

I don't mean to bring up the CGS resolution as the answer to your problems, but it does provide some context to why you might be able to get an extension.

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To answer the other part of your first question, it's certainly not great to go back on your decision (i.e. accept then jump ship to another school). But I would feel that this is much less of a big deal when there's no funding involved. I would advise against it, however, if the school requires you to decide before March, then I think you don't really have a choice! In your shoes, I'd accept the offer and if something better comes up, I would have to go back on my word. It sucks, but I would say the school forced your hand. (This is also part of the reason why schools signed a resolution to adopt a common deadline!)

[SashaM]

Well my field is education policy, so the degree is in the graduate education school of each university I've applied to, but the program itself focuses on policy and research mainly. I think that means they count as the graduate school and not a professional school...the degree is an MA, also. The good news is that all of the universities I've applied to have signed the CGS, so that's very helpful to know!

I definitely don't want to go back on accepting an admissions offer if I can help it. I suppose I'll find out more tomorrow when I contact them - if your point about not accepting an offer until you've received a funding package stands, though, that at least gives me some extra time where I don't have to feel pressured.

[Icecream]

I would tell them that you need to know about funding before you make a decision.  They should be able to understand.