<p>I have somewhat of a dilemma on my hands. I have already been accepted into a PhD program with rolling admissions. Additionally, a Professor from the program has just emailed me offering me a full research/teaching assistantship. The Professor wants me to confirm my decision by some time in February. The only problem is that I have applied to 5 other schools and probably won't hear back from them until March at the earliest. The school I've already been accepted to is a good school but the other schools I'm waiting to hear back from are also good and maybe even better. I'm not sure whether or not I should just accept this offer and forfeit other potential offers, or forfeit this offer and risk waiting for the decisions of the other schools. Any ideas?</p>
<p>Is that university party to the Council of Graduate Schools agreement on financial aid offers for graduate students? If they are, you should have until April 15.</p>
<p>That said, if push comes to shove, I would not give up a guaranteed funded slot for the hope that you might get in somewhere else.</p>
<p>Have you received a formal admission letter or has the Prof just sent you an unofficial email with the offer? I would assume it is the latter since formal letters give you until April 15th.</p>
<p>In my opinion this is an unprofessional and rather unethical attempt/strategy by a faculty to secure hiring good students before they hear back from potentially better schools. It is your right to receive and consider all offers until April 15th and then decide.</p>
<p>Here is my suggestion which could be a little tricky:</p>
<p>Wait until February and if still no news from other schools, confirm Prof’s offer (over email) at the latest time possible. It will take some time for them to send you the formal admission letter so you might hear back from other schools till then. If not, when you receive the formal offer, keep waiting on the other schools and do not sign/send it back. The Prof may contact you after a while to follow up on you accepting the offer, but hopefully by that time you have heard back from other schools. Prolong sending back the signed letter as much as possible. </p>
<p>If admitted to a better school, accept their offer and email the Prof and simply tell him you have change your mind based on some personal reasons, you do not need to specify the details and DO NOT mention to him which school it is that you are going to.</p>
<p>I understand this suggestion is a bit odd, but what you have to remember is that being in a better school may COMPLETELY change your life. So for you it is about your life, while this Prof is having a cheap shot at scoring better students. Rest assured that if he blows a fuse and tries to hurt your other offers or your academic status, a JURY will always find your reasons stronger and will definitely rule against this Prof. And yes, by that I mean if he decides to take it further you should consider enforcing your right through legal action.</p>
<p>I agree that the professor is taking a cheap shot, but I disagree with the previous poster’s approach. Academic worlds can to be small because it’s so specialized and this could come back to haunt you, and I don’t think you should start a research career planning on retracting an offer after accepting it. They might have sent out denial letters to someone else because they think you accepted the last TA/RA.</p>
<p>Email the professor, tell him/her your concerns, and point out the April 15 common reply date agreed on by all graduate schools. That professor should be reasonable; if not, you might want to reconsider whether you want to work for him/her for the next 5-6 years.</p>
<p>If we were talking about accepting a FORMAL admission offer I would have agreed with you. But in this case seems like the Prof is asking for a verbal/email commitment BEFORE sending out the formal admission offer. Changing your mind about such unofficial commitment will neither carry the same negative weight nor have the negative effect on other’s chances as accepting a formal offer and then revoking it.</p>
<p>I have to mention that my advisor has the same habit and that is why I understand the nature of what the Prof is doing. I have seen 2-3 cases where the students did exactly what I described and no harm happened to them. They verbally committed to my advisor but changed their minds before signing the admission offer. The Prof and the academic community understand that for the student it is his/her life and so it is perfectly understood to change your mind about an early unofficial commitment. </p>
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<p>This is a risky thing to do and I discourage you from it. Chances are the Prof will reconsider offering you RA. I was in a similar situation with a Upenn prof while waiting on other schools. I explained it to him over the phone and after that never heard back from him. </p>
<p>I think whether or not you want to take my suggestion about accepting the offer informally while waiting on other schools, for now you need to wait and try to prolong confirming with the Prof as much as possible WITHOUT insisting upon common reply date of Apr 15th. The Prof is well aware of that and if s/he wanted to allow you until Apr 15th he would have done it.</p>
<p>I appreciate everyone’s suggestions thus far. I took a look and the school is in fact a member of the Council of Graduate Schools. Also, to answer paxboyo’s question, the Prof had sent an unofficial email with the offer. I suspect paxboyo is correct in that the Prof is asking for a verbal/email confirmation before the official letter is sent. I would prefer not to make a verbal commitment and then change my mind later on, although I can certainly see why this is what some people may do if put in this position. My plan right now is to schedule a meeting with the Prof and then work things out from there. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to ask the Prof to possibly give me more time to make a decision?</p>
<p>Scheduling a meeting and going from there is a good idea. I wouldn’t suggest asking for an extension as the first topic of conversation; maybe a couple of days after the meeting via email. When you meet one of the grad students, you can bring up your dilemma if you feel like you can trust the person you talk to. They know the professor and could offer you some suggestions.</p>
<p>First, you MUST acknowledge the offer. Thank him for it (without committing) and tell him honestly that his program is at the top of the list, although you are still exploring your options. Next, setting up an in-person meeting is an excellent idea. It buys you both time and an ability to gauge whether you want to work with this professor.</p>
<p>Here’s what may be happening: this professor has funding for one graduate student, and you’re his top choice. (Some graduate programs/fields require faculty sponsorship/funding for admission.) The dilemma for him is that if you wait until April, then he won’t have time to accept another student. He is just trying to keep open his options.</p>
<p>Some programs may not offer an official letter until you’ve accepted the offer from the professor. I know someone (now a fourth year GS) who went on several interviews for single slots – that is, each professor had funding for one student – and afterward, she had to juggle her unofficial acceptances because they all wanted to know within a few weeks before they would send her admission notification to the graduate school. She then had until April 15 to respond to the official letter. In smaller fields, this may be the way it works.</p>
<p>Pastafarian, you need to determine whether this is usual or unusual for your field. You may have some “silent rejections” – schools that won’t notify you until the end that you were not accepted. Or you may be another professor’s second choice, and he’s waiting to hear from his first choice.</p>
<p>Same thing happened to my son last year from a school that was #2 on his list. The prof said that they had to award it or lose it by a certain date. He had a day to decide. He said he could not make that commitment yet and lost the big award. That was the deal and he went with his gut. He ended up going to a different program.</p>