Deciding Between Multiple REU Offers: Is it OK to Ask?

[aznriceboi]

I have a quick question. Right now, I have an offer from an REU that I have to respond to by Wednesday. However, I applied to 2 other REUs that I would like to hear back from first, but whose decisions won't come out until mid April. I know that other people on this forum have mentioned emailing these places to ask about the status of the application, but it would be ok to ask these 2 places simultaneously? Since I won't have time to first ask one, wait to hear the decision, and THEN ask another. My worry is that in the admittedly unlikely event that I get accepted to both, I would then have to say to one of them, "Oh, thank you for going through the trouble of making an early decision on my application, but I actually ended up picking a different REU."

 

[twofish-quant]

Since I won't have time to first ask one, wait to hear the decision, and THEN ask another. My worry is that in the admittedly unlikely event that I get accepted to both, I would then have to say to one of them, "Oh, thank you for going through the trouble of making an early decision on my application, but I actually ended up picking a different REU."

I don't think it's going to be a bad thing if you just explain the issue in the e-mail and then ask for a status. There is a reasonable chance that they've already made the decisions so asking for the information in advance won't change much.