Declining offer (masters)

[Patrick_K]

Long time lurker here. But I appreciate this forum and the posters sincerely, and it's been really helpful. I wish you all the best. 

 

Might be a silly question , but when you finally made your decision and finally accepted the offer, what have you done with *the other schools* you didn't go?

 

I applied to 4 schools(Master of REL) and got three admissions. Although I'm choosing and heading to one of them because they offered me a full-tuition remission award, I'm still thinking "isn't there a more wise way of declining offer, rather than just click 'DECLINE'? "  I know. Maybe I'm overreacting, but I'm thinking about the future that I would face within three years.  I would apply to doctoral program soon, and I will contact and talk with the same POI again. So this worries me. Although I'll be heading to somewhere else, at the same time, I don't want to hurt their feelings by any chances. Plus, all POIs were really amazing during this period.

 

So my question is, when you decline admission offer, what is the wisest way to do it?  

 

Edited April 7, 2017 by Patrick_K

[ThousandsHardships]

From what I've seen, most students will email those who they've been in contact with throughout the recruitment process, thank them for their time, and politely tell them that they've unfortunately decided to attend a different school.

[xypathos]

I'd use the system that the school has setup.

If you were notified of your admissions decision by way of "Your application status has been updated. Click here to read it." and there's a system to decline the offer - use that.

If someone from Admissions emailed you to tell you, email them.

No need to over analyze this. If you were a PhD applicant, I'd suggest contacting the POI and Admissions Officer in an email but Masters students are a dime a dozen.

[MarthUser]

My general rule of thumb is that if your POI reached out to you congratulating you and inviting you to check the school out/offer to speak/skype with you about the program, then it's common courtesy to send them an email thanking them for taking the time to reach out to you and to kindly reject them. From my experience, they've appreciated an update from their admitted students given that they invested time and energy into marketing their program to you. If you want a general template, I use the following. I also insert some details if I had any other contact with the professor like actually meeting them in person, if they offered me any advice, etc... to make it more personable and to show you really appreciate their investment in you.

Dear Professor _______,

Thank you so much for reaching out to me. I also want to thank you for extending an offer of admission offer to ________. However, after a long period of deliberation, I regret to inform you that I have accepted an offer of admission to another PhD program (or Master's program). In any event, I want to express my extreme gratitude for the opportunity to attend ________ and your offer to assist me through this process.

 

Thanks,

____________

If the no one from the school has really reached out to you, then feel free to just reject it online via their site.

Edited April 7, 2017 by MarthUser

[Patrick_K]

Thanks for the help! Your opinions helped me a lot.

 

Actually, I've been notified via admission system at first, and POIs of all three schools reached out to me few days later. Thanks to your advice, I've decided to send short messages   Especially, thanks @MarthUser for the template !