So I got accept into Penn State Erie with Honors for their Engineering Program and University of British Columbia (UBC) Computer Science Program, and was wait-listed into NYU Polytech.
I am currently taking:
IB HL: Econ, Bio, Chem
IB SL: English Lang&Lit, French B
AP BC: Calculus
My current situation is:
- Penn State requires me to accept their offer before May 1st
- NYU wait-list decision comes out after May 1st
- UBC requires me to accept their offer before June 1st.
- UBCs offer is conditional as they require my IB grades in July to determine whether to give me the official admission (which I’m not sure if I am capable of meeting their requirements)
My questions are:
-
Am I allowed to accept two offers (Penn State & UBC) as they are schools in different countries while I wait for my decision on NYU?
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Can I withdraw my decision to go to Penn State (will lose the deposit but its ok) after May 1st if I do get into NYU?
-
If I happen to go with UBC and then turns out my IB scores are below what they ask for and get denied from there school in July, what should I do? Can I still accept Penn State’s offer of admission?
If you know the answer to any of these questions please comment!!
Thank you!! 
In this case, yes. You MUST accept one offer by May 1st. You ARE allowed to inform that first school that you got off the waitlist at another school, which you will be attending. Accept UBC’s conditional offer (in this case, it functions as a waitlist, ie., not unconditional admission but “perhaps admission”).
NYU will only admit you if you can be full pay and they may not find you a space in the dorms, so forget about it and focus on Penn State Erie and UBC.
Are you Canadian? If you are, go to a Canadian university. They aren’t obsessed with universities like in the USA and prefer their own.
Listen to MYOS1634. Forget about the NYU waitlist. The odds of getting off of it are incredibly, incredibly slim. I don’t know how Canadian provisional acceptances work… surely they can’t expect you to commit to them before you have your final grades back and know you’re really in? It sounds like MYOS is right that it’s more like a waitlist (not a hard acceptance) but perhaps you should check.
Regarding #2, yes. If you get off the waitlist at NYU you can decline Penn State and lose your deposit with no other penalty.
I think you should call UBC and ask them to clarify what you should do in this situation. I am sure there is a normal procedure. You can’t be expected to decline all your other offers if you aren’t 100% certain they’ll let you in after final grades.
If you decline Penn’s offer now, it’s lost forever. So find out what the story is with the UCB acceptance before buring that bridge.