Decline grad school for fellowship?

juillet
Fri, 13 Apr 2018 17:36:25 +0000

There’s nothing inherently wrong with committing to attending the grad school and then backing out if you got the fellowship. It’s not the greatest position for the program itself, but they can cope (that’s what waitlists are for) and most programs will genuinely understand you backing out to take a competitive fellowship with a late notification deadline.

So I wouldn’t feel guilty for accepting the school’s offer and indicating you intend to attend. Because, well, you do.

If this is a master’s program, I definitely wouldn’t worry about it. If this is a doctoral program and you maybe want to come back to it later, then I’d be really careful with how you message it to the school - but you also need to live your life, and the competitive program is likely to only make you a more competitive candidate and better student in the future.

Other schools won’t really know that you did this so it won’t hinder you there.