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How long do you have to accept an unconditional offer for an MA?

tg1991

Hi all! I'm an international student from the USA, and I will be moving to the UK next year for a masters in human rights/international relations. I've applied to a number of schools, as one does, and I've already received one unconditional offer from one school, Kingston. I got it literally the day after I applied, so it was far quicker than I was expecting!

I'm still waiting on responses from City, Goldsmiths, Essex, St. Andrews, Brighton, etc., but I cannot for the life of me find anywhere on Kingston Uni's site a deadline by which I need to respond to this offer. I did find a PDF of Kingston's admissions policy from 2017-2018 that said offers made in response to direct applications to the university needed to be accepted to declined within 10 working days, but that sounds extremely fast?

I also reached out to the school, but the auto-response I received said I might not get a response for up to five working days which... doesn't help me.

Obviously I'd like to wait and see what the other schools say before I jump and accept this, and I don't think I can firm one place while I wait for the other schools — especially since I'm international and will need to work through applying for loans to show proof of funds to the school for visa purposes to confirm my place.

So, anyone have any insight?

Reply 1

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by tg1991

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You can accept straight away, it isn't binding, unless they ask for a non-refundable deposit. The convention is to accept everything and then reject when you've got the best offer you are going to get.

You should read into Kingston's swift response, that they are all about the money and not the academic quality. If you are a credible candidate for St Andrews, you shouldn't be wasting your time or money on Kingston (and probably not City, Goldsmiths or Brighton for IR).

Reply 2

tg1991

Original post by threeportdrift

A non-refundable deposit is required for most international students, but if you're from the USA — which I am — they don't require it if you're going to pay by loans. I'm going to do this, but they require you to show proof. I THINK that involves filing for a federal loan form, but I'll have to look into that in the next few days I suppose. On my offer letter, Kingston does say that if I accept the offer, I have 14 days after to "cancel" my acceptance — but I assume you can cancel after this?

Yes, I'll be thrilled if I get into St. Andrews. But my approach was to apply to a couple of safety schools (Kingston was one of these), a couple of higher-ranked schools that I think I'll be able to receive an offer for, and then a very high-ranked school that I may not get an offer for. I've had a good amount of success in my career since finishing undergrad in 2010, but my GPA from that time isn't as high as St. Andrews generally requires — so it could go either way.

Reply 3

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by tg1991

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I don't know how familiar you are with the UK university system, but Kingston isn't a back up for St Andrews, or even Essex for IR. i'm not sure quite what the US equivalent would be, something like saying, if I don't get into Georgetown, I've got Podunk Technical College as a back-up. We have a very wide range of quality in Universities. overseas students pay enormous fees, and generally need/want/deserve a name that will travel and be of use to them outside the UK. Kingston doesn't have an encouraging reputation outside it's own local bus service.

For IR, intrinsically a global subject with global applicants and the high academic standards, if you are slightly under St Andrews GPA, then Essex, Exeter, Sussex might be options, but I'd take a punt at Warwick and Aberystwyth as well. Thereafter, anything in the Russell Group - Bristol, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester, Durham, York etc.

Reply 4

tg1991

Original post by threeportdrift

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Fair enough. I actually chose Kingston as one of the backups because I have great respect for the leader of the Human Rights MA programme and his career — the school overall isn't top tier, but the programme seemed to have a solid output of successful grads, and I'm looking at things like that in addition to rankings. TBH, having been out of uni for a while, I've never found that the name of my school made a difference in the success of my first career. I did undergrad at a state school in California, but I work with people who went to Columbia, NYU, Yale, etc. The programme itself and the connections I made while at the school did make a difference, however.

Reply 5

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by tg1991

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IR is a bit different though, because more than many other degrees/careers, it is open to a global competition for jobs as a matter of routine. Many roles are also advisory, so a bit like consulting, your skills are being 'sold' to organisations who do the work you are advising them on, so you have to offer a strong pedigree. Of course, you may have a very specific sector/role you are looking at that doesn't have those concerns.

Reply 6

tg1991

Original post by threeportdrift

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Yes! Those concerns are definitely valid for something like IR or law. I'm deeply interested in IR, but my focus is going to be more on the intersection between human rights and identity, as well as on advocacy and activism (and particularly social media's effect on the latter). I mostly mentioned IR above because they are aspects of many of the courses I applied to, but human rights are generally the focus of the programmes. So it's a bit more niche, and I think I have options because I also have a background as a journalist (the past nine years of my career).