<p>SIGNED BY A MINOR, ENDORSED BY TWO ADULTS, THAT MAKES THE STUDENT ACCOUNTABLE</p>
<p>Qwertip, what in your mind has Penn got to do to make a contract legal. It is an entire document. That is like saying anything that doesn't come directly from the government doesn't need to be taken seriously because it isn't "official"</p>
<p>halopeno ready my post!!! The National Association for College Admission Counseling says that ED "contracts" are essentially only "honor-bound agreements" that have absolutely NO LEGAL STANDING. It wouldn't matter if the minor signed it and got it endorsed by all of the supreme court justices.</p>
<p>I have never heard of a college taking a student to court and FORCING him to attend. What can happen is that the college can contact the colleges where he has been accepted, and inform them that this student reneged on an ED contract. Some colleges participate in an ED list where they screen kids they intend to accept, and if the name and ssn appear on an ED acceptance list, the applicant is dropped from consideration, and if he is already been accepted, the acceptance is rescinded. Many ED contracts have the college counselor at your high school sign he contract as well as the student and a parent, so that pressure can be placed there to get information as to where else the student has been accepted. Counselors generally cooperate with college admissions offices because their future careers are greatly affected by their relationships in that area. In would be a huge problem to have a school designated as one where the ED contracts are not backed by the college counselor there. </p>
<p>Having said all of that, there are colleges that do not worry about ED contracts, and some who will accept nearly any reason a student gives to get out of a contract from another school. However, many college admission officers know each other, have worked together, may work with each other in the future, and they tend to support each other. So even though a college cannot force you to attend their school because of an ED contract, they can narrow your options. I have heard of a couple of cases where students who reneged, not only had other colleges withdraw their acceptances, but the ED school also withdraws its offer. And I don't think anyone caught this way is going to get far taking those colleges to court even though there is no "law" regarding such a case.</p>
<p>A) Penn would never sue. It would be a public relations nightmare.
B) When you apply ED, you should be prepared to follow through on your word.
C) If you don't, don't be surprised if the other schools you are applying to rescind their offer.</p>
<p>Found an old Harvard Crimson article about early decision:</p>
<p>Some interesting passages:</p>
<p>"Early decision commitments are practically impossible to enforce legallythey are an honor-bound agreement that doesnt have any legal standing, according to Martin A. Wilder, vice president for admission, counseling and enrollment Practices at NACAC."</p>
<p>"The only remaining method to keep students honest is for colleges themselves to police early decision contracts. But because they are prohibited from sharing information, they typically dont know where else students are applying. We dont ask, and its rare that we even know, says Marlyn McGrath Lewis 70-73, Harvards director of admissions. We dont check later. We want to operate on trust.</p>
<p>"According to Professor of Law Einer R. Elhauge, this defense would be likely to hold up in court, limiting the legal options for attacking early decision. Just because early decision is not contractually binding on the student, that doesnt mean other people cant take it into account, he said. If you promise to take me out to dinner, [thats] not legally binding, but you cant sue me if you dont come and I never talk to you again. People are entitled to make their own inferences when people break agreements.</p>
<p>Ok then, this girl was not operating on trust, she lied to Penn, I still have a problem with that.</p>
<p>this girl has what is comming to her. she can just go for one year and transfer. i would imagine going from penn to wisconsin isnt too hard. and it's not the end of the world to go to penn for a year, ask the number one person on the waitlist. the thing is that she is not only hurting herself by not going to penn after getting in ED she is hurting future applicants from her school. if she was more of an adult she would just go. what is the worst that can happen?</p>
<p>Whoever posted this thread, did this really happen, because I've never met anyone that irresponsible applying to such a good school. I just don't believe she didn't understand ED enough to know the circumstances.</p>
<p>Personally, whoever this girl is, I would freaking kill her. She may be nice and all that, but who really breaks from ED? especially from Penn and wants to go to Wisconsin. And maybe she would even LIKE the school after a few days of going there. Its not an ugly campus by any means, and there are perfectly nice people going there. Also I got rejected ED so that gives me another excuse.</p>
<p>This really happened. She backed out of her Penn ED because she thought the atmosphere was too competitive and there were too many cutt throat nerds on campus.</p>
<p>i'm surprised penn is trying so hard to keep her when she so clearly doesn't want to go there. was she really THAT special and worth pursuing? I think it would be fairer to ditch this girl and instead take someone who was waitlisted and would love to come to Penn</p>
<p>oops maybe i was harsh</p>
<p>I agree...since when does Penn, the #4 university in the nation that is obviously getting many, many outstanding applicants, care so much a/b one person?</p>
<p>That's why the story is so fishy. Parts of it doesn't seem logical. There's no reason that Penn would force her to attend.</p>
<p>You can believe what you want, but why would I honestly lie about something like this? What do I have to gain from it? I talked to her again today about it. I just made this thread to let anyone who may have had the idea "let me apply ED, and if I don't like it I can always use the financial excuse" that they will hunt you down and try to force you to come.</p>
<p>her not going hurts their yield. Also, penn is making an example of her to the kids who might use Penn ED in the fall, and if they get in, apply to Harvard/MIT/Yale/Caltech only. In effect this would give them an ivy as a "safety". </p>
<p>But yield is most likely the primary issue</p>
<p>1 person wont hurt penn's yield. it may hurt a school with 500 freshman entering, but not a school that big with a big yield already. also, if people backed out of ED then there would be no point to offering it. soon colleges would get rid of it and maybe EA too meaning no more notification that you got into your top choice early. you have to respect ED and SCEA or that destroys the goal the universities have, and that is to admit students. almost every single other penn student who applied ED and all the others who got in ED know that they had to go to penn once notified in December that they were admitted. all i can add is that if she does end up not going to penn atleast freshman year, she can kiss away any top post-undergrad program because she will probably be black listed. med, mba, and law programs are so competitive now that a school will take annother qualified applicant over someone who cant keep commitments. </p>
<p>also, she got in, so her "why penn" essay must have been good, or she never would have been admited early. and her "why penn" essay was good because she wanted to go to penn. you cant fake it. she wanted to go to penn and cant be so fickle that one brief visit at the college made her change her mind and want to go to wisconsin.</p>
<p>Um I dont get u trying to warn people about ED and such and such, because most of the time when they apply ED to a school, they LIKE it. I mean if you apply ED somewhere, you at least should have been smart to visit the school before you applied. Oh and I agree with the above statement</p>
<p>I think she applied ED because she thought "hey, this is an ivy league school with prestige that a student with a 28 ACT can get into!" Shockingly, she got in, mainly because of her ethnicity, and then she checked this school out, and said "I don't want to go here!" and decided to go to Wisconsin (which ironically, she didn't visit either until Orientation.) Yes, she was irresponsible, she knows that, but i'm just letting everyone know, don't apply ED unless you are 100% certain.</p>
<p>I'm sorry for not feeling any empathy but your friend does get what she deserves. She can choose to go to some other school, but I hear that she'll be blacklisted from many good institutions and her high school will suffer immensely. </p>
<p>And lastly, I think on the contract it says that you should only apply ED if you are absolutely sure you want to attend. I may be wrong but does absolutely sure=100% certain?</p>