S3 Blog: Two Offers, One Choice: Comparing Start Dates, Residencies and Cost

Start with your status clock: which start date works with your current dates. Then compare travel and attendance, program fit, total cost and accreditation. Pay one deposit and request a SEVIS transfer to only one school. We cannot tell you which school to choose. We can help you ask the right questions.

Students on our calls often held two or more offers and were weighing intake timing, a closer campus, doctorate versus master’s, or cost. Deciding on cost alone, or on one start date alone, can lead to a school you cannot reach, afford or finish.

 The comparison framework

Work through it in this order
1. Status clock first
Write down your hard dates: OPT or EAD end date, unemployment days used, H-1B end or grace period, program start options. Then see which intake each school offers. One student chose a different school simply because it let them begin sooner.

2. On-site rhythm and travel cost
Some programs require a campus visit once per term; others require monthly or more. Estimate the yearly cost: trips × (flight + hotel + meals + time off work). One student who travelled far for residencies looked for a school closer to home. Another declined a school mainly because it was an hour’s drive away.

3. Program fit
Compare degree level (master’s or doctorate), concentration and the courses that fit your job. Do not assume a concentration is STEM-designated; confirm with the school and your DSO.

4. Total cost
School websites show some costs per year and others per full program, so numbers are not always comparable across pages. Ask each school for tuition per credit, number of credits, fees, and the full program total.

5. CPT policy
Ask each school, in writing, how it handles CPT: who authorizes, what documents it needs, how long it takes, and how renewal works. One student found that a school had not mentioned CPT at all; another waited for answers. Do not assume.

6. Accreditation and legitimacy
Check the institution in the U.S. Department of Education’s accreditation database and confirm it appears in Study in the States’ school search as SEVP-certified.

One deposit, one transfer
• Pay a deposit only to the school you decide to attend. Ask the other school how it handles deposits and refunds.
• Request a SEVIS transfer to one school only, after you have decided. (Only one transfer school can receive the record.)
• Keep other applications open until you choose, but do not release your record early (see Article 4).

Declining an offer politely
Send a short note to the admissions counselor: thank them, say you have decided to enroll elsewhere (no need to explain), and ask them to close your application. If you paid anything, ask about refunds in writing. Keep it simple and professional.

Switching to a closer campus
If you have not paid or released your record, ask the school whether it has another location and whether your admission can move. If you have already paid or your I-20 has been issued, tell both schools immediately. Before the release date, your current DSO can usually change or cancel a SEVIS transfer; after it, the transfer can't be canceled, and the five-month rule still applies.

What not to do
• Do not pay two deposits “to be safe.”
• Do not release SEVIS until you have chosen.
• Do not choose by tuition alone, or by one consultant’s opinion alone.
• Do not ignore the travel cost.

Bottom line
Let your status dates narrow the list, let travel and total cost narrow it further, and then choose one school, one deposit and one transfer.