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I was wondering if it is appropriate to request an extension on the decision deadline date. The reason I ask is because I have yet to hear from W&M and Emory and FSU's deadline is April 1st. Honestly I'm much more likely to go to UF (whose decision is 5/15), but I would like FSU to remain an option at this point.

Is this a common or even an appropriate request?

You may already know this, and just don't want to do it, but most of the time when someone is waiting on other schools yet wants to keep an option open, he/she pays the seat deposit. I'm not sure if the school would take an email to the effect of "I am really waiting to (hopefully) get a better offer, but just in case it doesn't come, would you mind letting me keep the door open at your school to fall back on?"

If you really want the option available, you'll probably just have to pay the deposit, and if you decide to go somewhere else later, you just eat the money.

DukeHopeful wrote:You may already know this, and just don't want to do it, but most of the time when someone is waiting on other schools yet wants to keep an option open, he/she pays the seat deposit. I'm not sure if the school would take an email to the effect of "I am really waiting to (hopefully) get a better offer, but just in case it doesn't come, would you mind letting me keep the door open at your school to fall back on?"

If you really want the option available, you'll probably just have to pay the deposit, and if you decide to go somewhere else later, you just eat the money.

Damn, I didn't even know you could do that. Yeah I'll just do that, thanks.

DukeHopeful wrote:You may already know this, and just don't want to do it, but most of the time when someone is waiting on other schools yet wants to keep an option open, he/she pays the seat deposit. I'm not sure if the school would take an email to the effect of "I am really waiting to (hopefully) get a better offer, but just in case it doesn't come, would you mind letting me keep the door open at your school to fall back on?"

If you really want the option available, you'll probably just have to pay the deposit, and if you decide to go somewhere else later, you just eat the money.

+1. I can't think of a tactful way to express your intentions, so the deposit is probably the best route.

No problem. It can be pretty expensive though to do this. If you're already in at UF, you ought to consider how likely the chance is that you would go to FSU if none of the other schools took you. No sense is throwing money away if you wouldn't go there no matter what the outcome of your other apps. I'm assuming that in posting this thread you aren't sure if you'd rule FSU out, I'm just suggesting you might save a few hundred bucks if you could make the decision on the schools you've already been admitted to.

I did this, but they don't require a deposit and the school mentioned in its admissions letter that you could ask for more time if you needed it. I just wrote that I wanted to be able to know all my options before I make such an important life decision; haven't heard back.

I assume admissions officials know that students consider other schools and don't take offense at this sort of thing. If they do, I guess I'm not going there. I would rather forfeit one of my options than be rushed into a decision.

DukeHopeful wrote:You may already know this, and just don't want to do it, but most of the time when someone is waiting on other schools yet wants to keep an option open, he/she pays the seat deposit. I'm not sure if the school would take an email to the effect of "I am really waiting to (hopefully) get a better offer, but just in case it doesn't come, would you mind letting me keep the door open at your school to fall back on?"

If you really want the option available, you'll probably just have to pay the deposit, and if you decide to go somewhere else later, you just eat the money.

What's funny is that's essentially what schools say when they put you on a waitlist.

Do you have a scholarship offer or are you awaiting one from FSU?

The only time i've heard of people successfully delaying a deposit deadline is if they are awaiting to see if scholarship money frees up. I've seen one person successfully request this since the school he was interested in ran out of money and wouldn't have scholly money until after deposit deadline as a result of people withdrawing. The school gave him two extra weeks or something.