Is it okay to accept more than one admission offer?

[maxxxxx li]

I am still waiting for couple more decisions to come, but some of my ads' will be due in a week. Is it okay if I accept one offer now and wait for other decisions ? The thing is I might choose other program if I receive a better offer. Will there be any bad consequences other than losing the deposit?

 

[CasanovaJ]

No... you'll just lose your deposit. Plenty of people have done it before, the programs all know it to be part of the game, and it's why they all have waitlists-- once you pay their (often quite exorbitant) deposit, you don't owe them anything, and you shouldn't feel at all guilty about backing out if you end up getting into a better program.

The only thing to feel guilty about would be if you unnecessarily take your time telling them, because it wouldn't be particularly courteous to the next person on their waitlist.

 

[CasanovaJ]

Before you do that, though, you should consider just sending an email to whatever program you're waiting on along the lines of "I just got an offer from another program, it's time-sensitive, but I'd much prefer yours" and see if they'd be willing to provide you with an expedited decision... in a lot of cases they won't, but it doesn't hurt to ask.