College Acceptance Decision

I was planning to go to University of Illinois for Fall 2015 but have recently been considering University of Washington. However, after completing both applications I realized that I won’t get my acceptance decision until April for University of Illinois and June/July for University of Washington. For both colleges, I have to make my decision within 3 weeks of receiving my acceptance. Now this is a problem because I won’t be recieving Washington’s decision for at least 2 months after Illinois’. I really want to go to Washington but I am not 100% sure I will get into their mechanical engineering program.

Does anyone know what I can do in this situation?

I was thinking of accepting UofI’s decision and if I do get into Washington, I could pay the fee to decline UofI’s. However, I cannot find any information on the topic of acceptance cancellation. If anyone could give me some insite on what to do that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I would email UI about this situation and ask them what to do about it. However, don’t mention which school it is; just mention that “this other school’s decision comes in the summer/June/July” and say that you would just like to know if they could extend your reply.

Given this, if I were the admissions person, I might be thinking (unless you’re really qualified for UI) that you might not be as interested in the school as someone who actually really wants to go to UI. Therefore, I actually wouldn’t send this email until after your admissions decision. Here’s my reasoning for this:

  1. If you get denied or waitlisted, you wouldn’t even have to send an email.
  2. It doesn’t affect your admissions decision if you get admitted.

I would just craft an email right now and wait until April to send it. Remember to send it right after you get your decision though.

Good luck!

Hmmm. That is a very good idea. Thanks for the advice!

I forgot to mention I have guaranteed admission to UofI’s college of engineering due to this program I was in at my community college.

Why wouldn’t you hear from Washington until June/July? Their website says decisions are sent out in March.

That is for incoming freshmen. Unfortunately, as a transfer student, the deadline isn’t until June/July

https://admit.washington.edu/Admission/Deadlines#transfer

Are you in-state for either school? For instance UW costs $48K/year for an OOS student. http://www.washington.edu/students/osfa/prospectiveug/costs.html

http://admissions.illinois.edu/faq/admitted.html

I’m not sure if this is the right college, but if it is, #17 might be helpful to look at? I looked at the Chicago campus FAQs and found out that you can “change” your intent to enroll online as well (by logging in with your NetID).

I live in Illinois. UofI would be around 30k UW would be around 40-50k.

Yes, that is the college!!! Thank you so much husky1212 and thanks everyone else for you help!

Is there anything about UW that makes it worth $10 - $20K more than UIllinois? I wouldn’t mess around – I’d accept the offer from UI and if you get accepted to UW decide to switch to that school you can do so (although you’d have to give up your deposit at UI). People switch colleges before the term starts for example when then get in off of wait lists to preferred schools. IMO most huge state universities aren’t equipped for making and tracking exceptions for one specific person. Plus you could have difficulty getting the housing you want if you delay your acceptance to UI

The Univ of Illinois decision day is Friday, Feb. 13th this year. Where are you getting your dates from? Unless you are not a first time freshman? Or are you a transfer student?

What people usually do in your situation, is accept the first university, pay the deposit, and plan their lives around attending that place.

Then if they are accepted at the second one, and they decide that they prefer to attend it, accept it, pay the deposit, and inform the first one that their plans have changed.

If the deposit to the first university is refundable, they get that money back. If it isn’t refundable, they lose it.

@annwank - OP stated he/she is a transfer on post #4

^oops sorry. Failed to see that OP was a transfer.