I am currently a MSc student and I have applied to the same school for a PhD. I have some connections in the department, but nobody from the admissions committee.
On the admissions page, the standard procedure states that applicants shall receive an answer within 1 to 3 months from the deadline. So far, just over a month has passed.
The problem is that I have an interesting offer from a company, and is unreasonable to ask them to wait 2 more months for me to decide. Would a polite email to the official email of the admissions committee explaining this situation be perceived negatively? Is there any chance it could help speeding up a reply?