My son is narrowing his decision down and there are some schools he was accepted to that are knocked out primarily due to cost. Regardless of the reason should he drop the admissions counselor a note informing them? I figure this might help a wait-listed student right?
Most sites seem to have a button to press on their tracker to decline. Try not to think of this as some kind of philanthropy as your kid can’t actually attend all the schools he applied to
I always think its nice to shoot the admissions counselor an email. It only takes a few minutes, its good manners and it never hurts future applicants from your child’s school to have kids from the school well regarded. Notifying sooner will help the counselor and college manage their yield and wait list.
The number of students who decline is programmed in the enrollment model. While a high number of acceptances of the offer of admissions can create havoc, the fact of notifying the school of declining the offer is hardly relevant on the WL process on an individual basis. The schools count the positive answers and go to work to squeeze a few more enrolled students, if needed or projected.
Declining is a waste of time. Move on.
It will help future applicants from your child’s school, which will in turn increase their acceptance rate which will help the value of your house if you own one. In a very small tiny way of course.
D declined a couple she’s definitely not attending the other day. It was nice for her to be on the deciding end of things and she thought it was good karma for her own wait list positions to do it promptly.
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It will help future applicants from your child's school, which will in turn increase their acceptance rate which will help the value of your house if you own one. In a very small tiny way of course.<<<
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Why would anyone believe there is any truth beyond this theory? The important part is that someone does NOT accept an offer and not the “sugar coating” in the form of a note. Inasmuch as it might make the applicant feel better for being polite, it will not change a darn thing. Now or in the future.
Admissions is a cold business, and many of the goody two shoes stories are simply non-sense. Schools know students apply to many schools but can only attend one.
Nothing wrong with extending courtesy, especially in instances where an admissions counselor has shown the same throughout the process.
@xiggi why do you believe the admissions process is so cold?
I addressed both the issues of feeling better through courtesy and the IMPACT on future generations of students. Hardly the same thing!
Depends on the relationship your school has with their regional rep. Admissions counselors are not machines, they have feelings. It is the regional reps job to advocate on your behalf if they think you are a good candidate, sometimes it works, sometimes not. Sometimes they advocate well who knows about the other times. There is tremendous power in a note and it costs nothing. You can have a form letter.
I think it is particularly important if you really bugged err “showed interest” the rep a lot during the process.
Although there is no harm in sending the letter of declining your admissions, I feel that the assumption that your seat will go to some Waitlisted applicant is false.
A couple of seats never matters to the admissions departments. This is because there is no definite projection of a college’s yield. Most colleges will accept waitlisted students only after May 1st. So, whether you send your email for declining the admission today or next week, it won’t really make a difference.
Xiggi’s absolutely right here.
No benefit, but it’s the polite thing to do. Do it if you like.
It’s still the polite thing to do, and a 20-second email does it. It’s like deciding you want to go elsewhere for dinner after you’ve made reservations - you call the first place and you tell them you’re not coming.
But don’t kid yourself that the person on the other end who receives the email “cares” - it’s most likely a clerk and they’re just checking off a box somewhere. Polite and cordial is always best, of course, but this isn’t personal any more than when you call a restaurant to cancel dinner reservations.
pay it forward. it can’t hurt.
And I’m not advocating a “special email” As has been written, many more sophisticated colleges have a prompt on their app tracker. You click “no” and some prompt a survey for why and where you decided. For S’15, if there was no button? he wrote an email declining admission to his Rep. Most wrote back and said “good luck” etc…
I suspect that the employees have little time or desire to read more than a sentence regarding the decline…and maybe not even that much. They’re dealing with thousands of applicants, and thousands of declinations. They’ll likely get the yield that they expected to get, and if in the end they can offer a few spots on the WL, then fine.
I think this depends on the size of the school you applied to, and whether you interviewed or had a relationship with the admissions rep.
Our S applied to 10 small schools, and, in several cases, had met multiple times with the admissions persons.
So when he came to his decision and sent out polite emails, he not only received responsive emails, but all 9 also followed up, inquiring as to where he had decided to go, and wishing him the best success. Two of the reply emails also confirmed that they would keep his admissions file open, in case he changed his mind, or later wanted to transfer.
There is no reason to burn bridges, and not be polite about the process. Perhaps this is different at much larger schools…
When one of my kids was declining schools, he wondered if he should bother filling in the box where they asked where he actually was enrolling. I told him that since those schools had shown him the love in accepting him, he should pay it back by giving them that additional data that they were collecting.
Of course it is. We can’t generalize big research Us to small LACs.