How to turn down offers

[cherry12055]

Hello! 

I've been blessed with several acceptances and I want to start turning a couple of schools down that I will not be accepting. What is the best way to go about doing this in my email to the POI, especially if I haven't picked a school yet (so I can't say in the email that I've decided to attend xy university because of $$ or something)? Also, a few of the schools haven't sent me the official letter yet, so I feel weird about turning them down before getting the letter in the mail (because I think it has to be done officially by mail as well) but I also feel bad about holding a spot that someone else could get.

I would like to know how to do this the best way possible, especially if I've had a good amount of contact with the POI, but I haven't actually picked a school yet so I won't be able to explain it using that.

Thank you for your advice!

[fuzzylogician]

You don't need to justify anything; you just say thank you, you appreciate the opportunity, but you are leaning another way. You wanted to let them know as soon as possible so they can move on to others on the waitlist, if relevant. Even if you did know what you were doing, I would still advise not to get into details of funding or fit, at least not in the initial email. If someone wants to follow up and ask about how you came to your decision, you might consider explaining.