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I missed the April 15th deadline to accept my grad school offer and wanted to accept it. It is now April 16th and I got an email saying they have withdrawn my consideration, is there anything I can do, anyone I can contact to accept the offer they extended to me even though it is now after April 15th?

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    1. Why did you miss the deadline? 2.Have you reached out and asked to be let back in? It is now the 17th. It is possible that literally every hour decreases your chances of success.
    – Damila
    Apr 17, 2020 at 14:19
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    Just FYI, it looks like your real name is attached to this post. If this isn't desirable, you can change your user display name, but a mod may need to scrub your real name from the question / question history.
    – Johndt
    Apr 17, 2020 at 16:29
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    One true answer is: you might as well ask them to make an exception for you, because even if they don't, you're no worse off at all.
    – Greg Martin
    Apr 18, 2020 at 1:05

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You have nothing to lose by reaching out -- the sooner the better. The best person would be a professor who recruited you (wants you in their group) or informed you of the offer. But I would also reach out to:

  • Any administrator who contacted you

  • Any other professors you are interested in working for

  • Whichever faculty member in the department is in charge of graduate admissions

The email doesn't need to be long, but it is important. Just apologize and say that it was a mistake, but you had intended to accept the offer. Unless they are looking for an excuse to retract the offer, there is a good chance they still want you. They may see missing this deadline as a bad sign; however, being proative and apologizing for your mistake will make it more likely that they forgive it. Follow up and reach out to new people if you don't get a response.

P.S. Bryan Krause makes an important point in the comments about programs that have wait lists:

The biggest issue is that any program with a wait list is likely to go to those applicants as soon as possible, which is the fairest thing to those applicants. They may not have a funding slot for you if someone from that list accepts, and they may feel they should give them priority over you[.]

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    I would add to that list: whichever faculty member in the department is in charge of graduate admissions.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Apr 17, 2020 at 1:26
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    It depends whether they have a directive about "fairness to other applicants". If this is not a priority and you have a strong application, you might get in. Some places, however, they enforce deadlines to not be vulnerable to this accusation.
    – Captain Emacs
    Apr 17, 2020 at 2:22
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    @CaptainEmacs how is fairness an issue here? If they have already offered OP’s slot to someone else, then obviously there’s nothing to be done, but if they haven’t and the slot and funding still haven’t been allocated or offered to someone else, the thing that’s both rational and fair for them to do is to give it to OP as they originally intended. There wouldn’t be any “accusation” that anyone can (reasonably) make against them for behaving in this way.
    – Dan Romik
    Apr 17, 2020 at 3:55
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    It seems perfectly "fair" to kick out somebody who can't be bothered to meet a deadline which is known for months in advance. Some people have to learn the hard way that their actions (or lack of them) have consequences.
    – alephzero
    Apr 17, 2020 at 13:39
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    Re the "reaching out", it would also help to mention any extenuating circumstances. If a close family member is currently ill with coronavirus, for example, they may understand that your application was not top of your priorities.
    – Graham
    Apr 17, 2020 at 21:07

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