Masters acceptance

dango

I've been offered a place on a masters course, can I accept this course and then depending on what happens with other courses that i have applied to, decline it at a later date or would it be fairly binding?

SoldierForce

where are you applying? I have looked up a few masters courses in computer sciences and it seems that you can get either a conditional or final offer. In both cases if you accept it you will have a certain time frame to pay the deposit. I have no idea how much the deposit will be, I guess it should be written in your acceptance letter if you get one. Once you pay the deposit, according to my understanding, if you do not take up the course you forfeit the deposit. It may be possible to take up another course in the same university/institute etc without forfeiting your deposit but I guess that depends from one college to another.

Regarding conditional offers I think they too are binding but if you do not want to apply for that course you can refrain from fulfilling the conditions even if you meet them all. Like if the condition is that they want your final exam results to be at least 60% and you are in your final year, you can accept it and not give them the results by the due date which is after your exams even if you got the required 60% so they will reject your application and you will get your deposit back.

Overall I think the best thing to do is get in touch with the course director of the course that you are accepted on and ask them what their rules and regulations are.

pow wow

Assuming there's no deposit to pay you can accept and then decline later. I did it when I was applying for my first MA (only UL wanted the deposit though I declined their offer from the get go).

SoldierForce

In the three universities in Dublin which I applied, all of them state that after accepting an offer the deposit has to be paid in a certain amount of time! So basically paying the deposit is the main part of accepting a place. No Deposit No Place! It does become difficult as not all offers come at the same time. Like TCD might make an offer in April, UCD in May and DCU in June. You want the UCD course but TCD makes an offer which you have to accept and pay the deposit in two weeks which is before you know if you get a place in UCD. So here comes the problem, should I accept the place in TCD and hope that I didn't get a place in UCD or hope that I get a place in UCD and accept it but forfeit my deposit paid to TCD? Most universities are of the opinion that we applied only for their course but generally most students apply to different courses just so they have at least once place for the coming year.

Sweetcorn01

For my masters, paying the deposit was how you accepted the course....that was UCD btw

dango

Thanks for the responses. I've since accepted the place and have a telephone interview with the other place on monday!

Soldierforce, how much is the deposit? If you can pay the deposit to secure a spot then i would, nothing would be worse than getting nothing! but of course it depends on your financial situation!

SoldierForce

dango wrote: »

Soldierforce, how much is the deposit? If you can pay the deposit to secure a spot then i would, nothing would be worse than getting nothing! but of course it depends on your financial situation!

The deposit isn't too expensive but isn't exactly cheap either! In TCD and UCD I was asked to pay €500 if I accept the course so I think that will be the maximum you will be expected to pay. I can't see any university charging more on deposit...

Penisland

Pretty sure 500 is the standard.......DCU is 500 aswell

snubbleste

It's €1000 for some masters courses in Nuig

dango

Yikes. I like that english colleges haven't charged me for applications/deposits and overall fees seem to be cheaper than Irish colleges. And I've been accepted to that other course today. Woot! Looks like I might be rejecting that one I had previously accepted. Choices choices!

ERR!

I was wondering I have been offerd a conditional place in one of the courses I applied for.


The condition is that when I get my results that it must be a 2.1. I have gotten a 1.1 every year up till this year personal reasons I did very bad in first semester exams I passed but nothing great 2nd semester was a research project, have not got the results of that yet but I did good in it so am expecting the least about 67-70%. Overall I will be borderline 2.1 ... Just a question on how strict they are if I do get just under a 2.1 will I most defo not get the course? I dont wanna email them asking cos I dont know my results till July 1st

Anyone been in this situation before?

Odysseus

I paid a deposit of only 200 for a place on a MSc run by the Royal College and the Irish Hospice Foundation. It's a not bad price either 3,500 and 4,000 for the second year; also there is an option of paying the years fee in two parts.