<p>Scenario:</p>
<p>School A gives out offer, and there's a deadline to accept/decline it.</p>
<p>School B (the dream school) has yet to reply</p>
<p>Can you just "accept" school A, and then later tell them you changed your mind after school B accepts you?</p>
<p>Is there some kind of legally binding contract that prevents people from doing this?</p>
<p>No, you can do that if you wish.
I don’t really think it’ll come back to bite you, under most circumstances.
I would try to avoid it, though, unless you absolutely need to do it.</p>
<p>The vast majority of grad programs have signed on to the April 15th deadline. As long as you are resolved by then, it is all okay - nothing is set in stone until then. If you change your mind AFTER that, the only recourse they really have is to badmouth you to other people and programs, but depending on your field they just might do that.</p>
<p>I would use the offer from the School A pushing school B for a decision. if you don’t mind going to the School A anyway…</p>
<p>Definitely email and/or call school B and ask them if they could please tell you if you are high on the wait list and have a chance or if you are unlikely to receive an offer. Tell them you have another offer and would like to be honest with them. My schools were very receptive to my request and got back to me within a couple days.
It’s very poor taste to accept an offer then decline later and it leaves the school in a serious lurch if it’s too late for them to get another student.</p>
<p>why not just stay patient? Unless you school typically takes really late to notify students, which you can find out from previous years at Gradcafe, your school would likely notify students real soon</p>
<p>Actually, if you change your mind after the deadline, you are required to get a written release from School A to accept the offer from School B.</p>
<p>What are your/their thoughts regarding jobs vs graduate school? If you apply and are accepted into a graduate program, then later (after the deadline) you discover you are accepted into a paid full year internship program or temporary employment (that would last past the class start), do most graduate schools allow you to postpone starting until the following year? Would they require that you re-apply, and more importantly if so, would they count that against you?</p>
<p>All of those things change from program to program. Some places only allow deferring admission for really extenuating circumstances, while I imagine others would be more ok with it if you’re going to be gaining skills that will be useful in your graduate career.</p>