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Early response date?

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 12:48 pm
by quark314
So, just to be completely, totally clear... Schools that are members of The Council of Graduate Schools aren't supposed to make you respond before Apr 15, right? Even if it's a Canadian school (but still a member of said Council), and for a master's program not a PhD?

The reason I ask is because I was accepted to a Canadian school (and CGS member) as a masters student, but the letter "requested" a response by March 22 (a mere three weeks from when I received the letter). I like the school a lot and I feel there is a good probability I will end up going there, but I would prefer to have time to visit before making a final decision and I am still waiting to hear from a couple of schools which, depending on a number of factors, might win out over this school for where I want to go. Basically, I would prefer to have a chance to visit and hear from certain other schools before having to decide without risking losing my spot or my funding.

Obviously I need to call/email and ask them if I can have more time, but I'd like to know going in to the call what the rules are that they're supposed to follow. Makes it a bit easier to push for more time if I can (gently/politely) give the impression that I am aware of the rules.

Re: Early response date?

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:26 pm
by grae313
If it's a member of the council they can "request" whatever they want but your offer of admissions stands until April 15th.

Re: Early response date?

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:31 pm
by mobytish
On the form that they send out with applications, notifying us of our rights as students to take until April 15th to respond, it states that schools are required to give us this right for positions which involve funding (fellowships, teaching assistantship, etc). This does not require them to give us the right if the offer does not include funding (which may be the case with your Master's program).

Re: Early response date?

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:33 pm
by grae313
thanks, mobytish. ignore my previous post.

Re: Early response date?

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:36 pm
by quark314
Thanks for your responses. I feel much better now.
(There is funding...one of the great things about Canadian schools: funded masters).

Re: Early response date?

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 4:07 pm
by quark314
Interesting... upon further scouring of the CGS website, it appears that not all of the universities that are members of CGS are part of the April 15th agreement. So you can't just look at the list of members, you have to look at the list of schools that actually "signed" the April 15th resolution if you want to know whether your school can make you decide early. It looks like the list of schools bound by the resolution is a smaller subset of the list of member schools.

Or is this inaccurate? (please tell me that's inaccurate)

Ahhhh! March 22 is very very soon!

Re: Early response date?

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:12 pm
by meggo
Well, from what I hear from the people on the grad admissions committee here (Penn State A&A), a lot of schools this year are not doing what they would normally do. Usually, if they can fund 10 people, they accept 20, and expect 10 to accept. But if more or less than 10 accept, then it's still okay.

But this year, because of all of the funding problems, if they can only fund 10 people, they have only so far sent out 10 offers and have to wait for those 10 people to respond before they can send out more. This leaves lot of schools backed up waiting for their "first choice" admits to respond.

Thus, I expect that they're asking you to respond early so that they can try to move down their waitlist. I don't think they're requiring it...more like they're nudging people who are sure they're not going to accept to give them a decline.

Re: Early response date?

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:18 pm
by mobytish
quark314 wrote:Interesting... upon further scouring of the CGS website, it appears that not all of the universities that are members of CGS are part of the April 15th agreement. So you can't just look at the list of members, you have to look at the list of schools that actually "signed" the April 15th resolution if you want to know whether your school can make you decide early. It looks like the list of schools bound by the resolution is a smaller subset of the list of member schools.

Or is this inaccurate? (please tell me that's inaccurate)

Ahhhh! March 22 is very very soon!
Well, it should actually be easy. All schools that are part of the agreement are required to include the notice informing you of your rights when they send you your offer letter (the paper version). If you did not receive this notice with your offer, then I am guessing that your school is not part of the agreement.

Re: Early response date?

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:46 pm
by admissionprof
If you google: council-of-graduate-schools-resolution.pdf

you will find the complete listing of schools that signed the resolution, as well as the precise wording of the resolution. It does only apply to offers of financial aid. Looking through the list, I do not see any Canadian schools at all, so it probably was not signed by then. Of course, you could accept, and then change your mind later---there's not much they can do to you (especially if you change your mind before April 15th, since then they can get more students).