Have MS admission offer but still waiting for other Unis

[random_soldier]

So currently, I already have a graduate admission offer I am satisified with. However, there are some other US universities (I had only applied in the US) which still have to reply. I have to respond to the offer, I currently have, soon. I am not sure what I should do in case the remaining universities do not respond in time. How should I proceed?

 

[rootone]

Perhaps email those which did not yet respond and tell them that you do have an offer, but are still interested in them as an alternative.
That should impress them enough to at least give you some expected time scale for a decision.
Nobody wants to lose a potential customer due to their being a bit slow processing paperwork.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Perhaps email those which did not yet respond

Don't be pesty.

You have until April 15 to respond. Every school knows this. They aren't going to be sitting on applications on the 9th just for the sake of sitting on them, and they aren't going to change their minds because another school made the candidate an offer. You also have to be realistic - while you might get an offer between now and then, the odds are not great. It's rare to get an offer with less than a week to decision day. I'd wait until the 15th and accept either the offer you got, or a better one if it turns up.

 

[random_soldier]

I did some looking around. Is the April 15th resolution some hard and fast rule? Maybe the ones who haven't replied yet aren't all that serious about me, if it is.

Should I ask the University that has made an offer an extension for time? Unless of course the resolution above really is as serious as it is made out to be.

Also does the deadline of 15th April mean that the deadline is midnight on the night of the 15th (i.e. when it becomes 16th, local time) or is it earlier?

 

[Vanadium 50]

Hard and fast rule? Like can they drag the department chair to prison if it is violated? Well, no, but it's still adopted by a very, very large number of schools. You can read the exact text of the April 16 resolution http://cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGSResolution_Jan2017.pdf. It includes the signatories.

 

[random_soldier]

Hard and fast rule? Like can they drag the department chair to prison if it is violated? Well, no, but it's still adopted by a very, very large number of schools. You can read the exact text of the April 16 resolution http://cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGSResolution_Jan2017.pdf. It includes the signatories.

Hard and fast in the sense that anyone that violates it, prospective student or staff, ends up with baggage that they regret. Not something as extreme as prison time but maybe closer to being barred from certain institutions/organizations or having to jump a lot more hoops just to get the same thing done just because everybody knows that you broke a promise.

However, the document says April 15. Which is it April 15 or 16?

Also the offer that I received said that I have to confirm that I will be attending by April 15th but another letter came along with it giving me the terms of my financial aid which said to confim by May 1st. It is unclear from reading the letters as to whether April 15th is the deadline for confirming attendance and May 1st for accepting aid or if both have to be confirmed on April 15th. Should I contact the University about this? If I choose to do so, how should I go about it so that they don't all of a sudden take negative action against me?

Another thing for me to consider, I suppose, is that the universities that have yet to answer are signatories of that document. Wonder what I should make of that?

 

[Dr Transport]

if you haven't heard from a school by now, I doubt you're getting an offer, I'd take the one in hand and get on with it. As for dates, accept by April 15th as requested then get with them by May 1st for financial aid. If you wait until May 1st to reply, you might very well find out you do not have a slot at all.