Contacting POI to avoid possible interview scheduling conflict

[denimfan]

Hello,

I need some advice on contacting my POI at a school. So I heard back from school A about an interview invite. They have given me about 10 days to respond to the invitation. However, the interview date overlaps with school B (lists interview date on their website already). School B is my top choice but they haven't gotten back to me with their decisions yet. Now, I'm thinking if I should ask my POI at school B to ask when interview invitations will be extended since I don't want to accept school A's interview invitation before knowing the decision from school B. I want to avoid having a scheduling conflict beforehand. If I was also invited to school B, I would attend school B's interview and try to reschedule school A's interview. What should I do? Would it make sense for me to approach my POI at school B asking about the interview invitation saying that another program has given me an invite that falls on the same date? Or do I just have to suck it up and wait for the decision to be made and act on it thereafter? i.e. cancel or try to reschedule school A's interview after accepting it.

I know that I may not get an invitation from school B but I don't want to look bad by cancelling or rescheduling the interview after saying I will attend it for school A.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[empathiosis]

Others may disagree, but I think you just have to wait. I think that contacting the POI to find out when invites will be extended makes you look desperate. You may or may not get an invitation to the program you really want, but that's out of your control now. Also you have no way of knowing if you do get an invite that their posted dates haven't changed ...

 

[futureapppsy2]

Others may disagree, but I think you just have to wait. I think that contacting the POI to find out when invites will be extended makes you look desperate. You may or may not get an invitation to the program you really want, but that's out of your control now. Also you have no way of knowing if you do get an invite that their posted dates haven't changed ...

This. Plus, it could make you look presumptuous about your invite status and that could backfire.

 

[denimfan]

Ok thanks for the advices. That's what I thought too. So I'll probably accept he interview and wait for decision from school B. I guess I'll just have to reschedule school A's interview if it does happen.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Honestly, I might actually contact the school B POI to ask for a quick update in light of trying to avoid scheduling conflicts, but that's just me.

 

[denimfan]

Honestly, I might actually contact the school B POI to ask for a quick update in light of trying to avoid scheduling conflicts, but that's just me.

This is what I want to do but I also see that it does might look presumptuous or even a little arrogant that I would be getting an invite at school B. Would it be better to send a quick email asking for decision updates excluding the scheduling conflict?

 

[psychRA]

This is just my opinion, but I don't think it's good form to reschedule an interview once you've committed to attending. It certainly tells school A that they're not your top choice, and some programs do try to take this into account when making offers - they don't want to extend an offer to someone who's going to hold it until April because they're on the waitlist at their first choice. It also creates additional work for everyone who has to reschedule you. Now, I'm sure that some folks will say "who cares about etiquette, this is your future!" but in my grad program the current students played a large role in both interview scheduling and the final decision process. You don't want to burn bridges unecessarily.

It has been many years since I applied to grad school, but in my experience, I heard back about interviews right away, while pre-interview rejections came much later in the process. Things may have changed since then, but I'd hate for you to be holding out on school A if school B isn't going to come through. I agree that bugging the POI is a bad idea, but if you do decide to contact school B, is there an administrative staff member you could contact instead of the POI?

 

[denimfan]

This is just my opinion, but I don't think it's good form to reschedule an interview once you've committed to attending. It certainly tells school A that they're not your top choice, and some programs do try to take this into account when making offers - they don't want to extend an offer to someone who's going to hold it until April because they're on the waitlist at their first choice. It also creates additional work for everyone who has to reschedule you. Now, I'm sure that some folks will say "who cares about etiquette, this is your future!" but in my grad program the current students played a large role in both interview scheduling and the final decision process. You don't want to burn bridges unecessarily.

It has been many years since I applied to grad school, but in my experience, I heard back about interviews right away, while pre-interview rejections came much later in the process. Things may have changed since then, but I'd hate for you to be holding out on school A if school B isn't going to come through. I agree that bugging the POI is a bad idea, but if you do decide to contact school B, is there an administrative staff member you could contact instead of the POI?

Like you said, I really don't want to hold out on school A because school A is still a nice program and good fit with me. I'm just as excited about school A's invitation although school B is better fit with me. I did email the coordinator but it appears she is out of the office for the week and will probably be back next week. Ugh. There's still the option of contacting my POI but I am really reluctant...

 

[LisaLisa86]

I would probably email school A, tell them you possibly have a scheduling conflict but you're trying to work through it and ask if you can let them know in a week or so- and also ask what your options would be if you do need to reschedule (have one or two people look this email over to make sure it has the right tone). You already emailed the coordinator at school B, so I'd just wait for Monday and call in the afternoon if you don't hear from her over email!