<p>Like say a school tells you in early April and wants a decision by the end of April but all the other schools only tell you in mid-may, and so its just too far off from each other to call and ask for an earlier decision...what does one do?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Ask for an earlier decision even if it is far off. As long as they have all your application materials they could always surprise you and agree.</p></li>
<li><p>Ask the early school to extend its deadline for when you have to decide.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If neither of those work then I guess it’s just a tough choice. Schools really do have varying notification dates. I would hope they take that into account and let acceptees have some flexibility. The one’s I’ve applied to range from rolling(already heard from one) to May.</p>
<p>This is an important and common question/dilemma. It is covered pretty thoroughly in the Transfer Admissions 101 sticky thread.</p>