<p>My son will be a college junior this year. He applied and was accepted as a transfer student at another university. He was sitting on the fence, and waiting for a financial aid appeal from his current university when the deadline to accept and place a deposit at the transfer university came, so we went ahead and placed the deposit and sent in acceptance.</p>
<p>He has finally decided to remain at his original school. What is the best way to notify the transfer university that he will not be attending after all?</p>
<p>^ You give way too much credit and ‘rationality’ to universities. Any school big enough to have a grad school has better things to do than develop systems to trace individual student applicants over time and then override a graduate school program committee’s decision (almost always a separate entity from undergraduate admissions) based upon some kind of assumed character deficiency derived from a ‘withdrawal’ listed in a database.</p>
<p>Students change their mind all the time. Colleges do not expect all transfers to show up.</p>
<p>My kid was just notified that a single had opened up in the dorm she wanted to be in. I asked the housing director how it could happen so late in the summer, she said sometimes kids just decide at the last minute that they didn’t want to come. She also told me that too many transfers accepted their offers this year, and she is having a hard time finding rooms for them.</p>
<p>Note - don’t be surprised that you won’t get the deposit back.</p>
Highly unlikely. Graduate and undergraduate admissions are managed by totally different offices. And as noted above, universities understand that students change their minds.</p>
<p>In addition to a phone call, I would suggest a nice email or letter about the revised decision. Make sure your child gets a response. You could be getting bills and other correspondence for a while…</p>
<p>Agree HE, not we, did the applying. Especially for a student with 2 years of college life completed. Parents are there to remind him HE needs to let them know and that a phone call or email to find out the proper, official way to do it. Grad departments vet their prospects, not the whole U - it won’t matter at all.</p>
<p>Definitely S needs to call & talk with his current U and be sure he can continue via admissions & get written confirmation of this and THEN contact transfer U (phone and/or in writing), thank them for their time and interest, briefly explaining the he will NOT be transferring this fall.</p>
<p>Thanks to those who offered help and reassurance. </p>
<p>Between a full-time+ summer internship and a research position at his current (and future!) U, my son has been working 70+ hours a week this summer and asked for my help in finding out how to notify the transfer U. He has since contacted admissions as suggested. He never withdrew from his current U and is enrolled there, so that is not an issue.</p>
<p>It has been a long, stressful summer waiting for financial aid offers and then appeals and then a decision. I am grateful to be moving forward now. Thank you.</p>