Financial Aid and the Council of Graduate Schools

Once you start receiving acceptance letters, you still have some decisions to make. Unfortunately, you won't receive all of your acceptance letters and offers of financial aid on the same day. This means you may be trying to decide whether to accept one school's offer when you don't even know whether another school has accepted you.

Fortunately, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has addressed this issue. The CGS is an organization dedicated to advancing graduate education and research. More than 500 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada are members of the CGS. To make it easier for you to decide which graduate school to attend, the CGS passed a resolution concerning financial aid. According to this resolution, you have until April 15 to respond to financial aid offers. If you accept an offer of financial aid, you can later withdraw your acceptance with no repercussions until April 15. After April 15, however, your acceptance becomes a commitment and you will need a written release from the first program if you decide to switch to a different program. In fact, programs cannot offer you a financial aid package after April 15 unless you show written releases from previous offers you accepted. This resolution gives you time to review all of your acceptance letters and financial aid offers and choose the best one for you.