Michael Mitzenmacher has published a post about a book on the topic of being a female science professor. This book is a collection of random thoughts of the blogger. Although there are some entries from the point of view of a female, most are general entries. Since I mentioned academic etiquette in an earlier entry, I thought it would be useful to direct you to a whole list of academic etiquettes by the same blogger.
One nice point that is covered in the entry is that students should inform the relevant department as early as possible if they can’t take up a position in the university:
“(for grad applicants) If you wait until the last minute to inform a department of your decision not to attend that program, you are eliminating opportunities for students on the waiting list. If you really didn’t decide until the last minute, that’s fine. If you know your decision but don’t send the official declination of an offer until the last minute, that is selfish, however unintentional.”
The same applies to other cases too. For instance, I received a grant for a workshop in Italy last spring but the moment I found out that I was unable to go, I informed the organizers so that the grant could be used for another applicant.
Although timely communication is essential, sometimes one is not sure of the decision, which makes things tricky. For example, if you have received an offer from one institution, but you want to see if you can get an offer from a better university, you don’t want to decline the original offer beforetime. In that case, I guess it is justifiable to wait a bit more and keep one’s options open. What are your thoughts?
I’m sure people do not maliciously not inform an institution of their intent. I imagine the reasons it happens is because:
1) The student is awaiting a better offer.
2) The student doesn’t realise the institution require a response, whether it is an acceptance or rejection of the offer.
3) The student forgets to do so.
4) The student cannot be bothered to do so.
The first is intentionally selfish, but seems fair to me. You would do the same with job offers, so why not university places? Especially if you did well enough to be offered multiple places, shouldn’t you be entitled to take the time to decide between them?
The others balance against each other. I don’t think it occurs to people that although people would like you to come to the the course or event you are hosting, saying ‘no’ to them is just as useful for their organisation. I know this is a realisation I’ve only had recently, due to experiences in sports teams and organising events through Facebook: knowing that someone definitely cannot come, is much better than not knowing anything at all!
If the institution makes this clear, and sets a date to reply by, then the problem will be reduced.