<p>Hi, I'm new to the forum. I've been accepted to two Phd Engineering programs...MechE. Both strongly indicated I'd be funded, however both places said there will be some delay in getting me funded. Both schools are top 20...one is top 5 or 6. I was even invited and went out to the recruiting weekend for one. I'm concerned that neither school will get back to me by April 15th. Should I be concerned about this? The official policy of one school is that they may accept and/or fund before or after April 15th....seems borderline irrelavent to them. When I was at the recruitment weekend for the 5/6 school, they indicated that virtually all in PhD program get funded, however it was very easy to find present students who were funded after April 15th. When I've read previous posts it seems that virtually everybody who was funded for a PhD program had funding offers after April 15th. So just how importat is this April 15th date? What does it mean?</p>
<p>If the delays in funding are because the funding is competitive, I could understand. I probably have the lowest grades of most if not all of the admitted students. I was even under the strongly suggested grade cutoffs where they say they only rarely accept students. I got in because I went to top undergrad and masters schools, have top GREs, worked for top companies, where I did good and extremely relevant work at them. Any thoughts?</p>