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If you applied to a graduate program and are still waiting to make your decision, I would strongly recommend you do so immediately if you have a good funded offer on the table. These offers may not be good until the usual deadline since universities are freaking out about budget.
Many/most universities are looking at huge budget shortfalls next fall due to Covid-19, and graduate funding is an obvious and easy place to cut, in part because at most places graduate funding is tied to enrollments in first-year writing courses, which are expected to drop.
I never thought I'd have to say that a university could pull an offer before the deadline, but they absolutely can, and some will. It won't happen everywhere but it will happen somewhere.
If you're still waiting on a spot to open up at Dream Program X before committing to Great Program Y That Would Be Great, you risk losing both of these pathways forward if you wait too long.
Plus—and you know this—others for whom Great Program Y IS Dream Program X are waiting on you to make this decision.
As someone who's been in charge of admissions for a small MFA program that makes its decisions early, it's always been frustrating to wait on people waffling on offers and holding out hope for something better, even as I understand this is the game. But this year's different.
I know it's hard to make decisions like this while the world is in the state it's in, but now is the time to pull the trigger. Having a clear pathway forward will also remove some anxiety and help remove some anxiety from another person's life. We could all use less anxiety.
And, again, if you wait too long, you risk losing out. Great Program Y may lose out. Even Dream Program X may lose out. It's a game in almost nobody wins. Plenty of us have bigger problems at the moment. Let's not make this one of them if we can avoid it.
