How do you tell a school it is not your first choice?

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ChoirGuy
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:43 am
Location: Bangkok

How do you tell a school it is not your first choice?

Post by ChoirGuy »

Has anyone been in the situation of having one offer (at a good school) but waiting for one from your first choice?
Question is: how do you ask the school that has offered to "wait"?

I am not in this situation yet, but foresee that it MIGHT happen in the next few days/weeks. Will a school wait for 2 weeks? 1 month?

I'm worried about letting one opportunity go for the sake of another, but the job I'm waiting on will not be making offers until mid-Feb (I assume) at the earliest.

Any replies appreciated.
gr8teach
Posts: 92
Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2011 2:52 am

Post by gr8teach »

If you are in touch with your current number one choice you could politely email them. Inform your contact that you have another offer pending but school A is your true top choice. Perhaps apologize for the informality, but ensure the school knows its because you really want to work for them.
wrldtrvlr123
Posts: 1173
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:59 am
Location: Japan

Post by wrldtrvlr123 »

[quote="gr8teach"]If you are in touch with your current number one choice you could politely email them. Inform your contact that you have another offer pending but school A is your true top choice. Perhaps apologize for the informality, but ensure the school knows its because you really want to work for them.[/quote]

Good advice.

Also, for the less desired school, how long they will wait is dependent upon many factors: Where they in their hiring season, how many have they attended/plan to attend, how desirable is the school/country in general, how badly do they really want you?

At worst, you can ask them their time frame for definitely needing/wishing to have the position filled and maybe send up a trial balloon about needing more time to sort things out before giving a definite answer (if the position is offered of course). The response you receive could tell you a lot about where you stand with them.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10793
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Tough

Post by PsyGuy »

Just be open with them. explain that you have an offer pending at your first choice school, and see what they say. if they really want you they will wait a little while a few weeks maybe. If they dont then they didnt really want you specifically that bad. What i do is advise them of my situation and what im waiting on, and that i will have a final decision made in X number of days, but tif they wish I would have no problem with them withdrawing their offer, for another candidate.
ChoirGuy
Posts: 137
Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:43 am
Location: Bangkok

Post by ChoirGuy »

All of it excellent advice. Like I said, I'm not even in this position yet...maybe I should get a job offer first!

Thanks to all for the advice.
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