<p>Blueredbeaver, congratulations on your full-ride scholarship from the state school. </p>
<p>I think it is ethical and appropriate for you to decline the ED offer in this case. </p>
<p>I would suggest that you write a letter to the private school thanking them for admitting you and for their offer of financial aid. Then state, as you have here, that “on Dec __, 2 days before hearing of the ED offer, you learned that you had been granted a full ride scholarship from State U. As your parents are unable to contribute any funds whatsoever to finance your education, you must regretfully decline the ED offer and accept the full ride at State U, purely for financial reasons.”</p>
<p>You are right - this is a changed circumstance and the determination of what is reasonable or affordable is for you to make. Legally, the school cannot compel you to attend nor force you to pay tuition. Ethically, I think that you are acting within the rules since you could not have known that you would get the full ride from the state u., nor could you have known how much aid the ED school would offer. </p>
<p>You won’t get in any sort of trouble declining the offer.</p>
<p>Blueredbeaver, your reasons for declining are completely within the “contract” and you are not behaving inappropriately to go to the state school. Congratulations on the offer from them, too!</p>
<p>Am I the only person who finds post #20 incoherent? </p>
<p>I don’t mean to be mean, but I really don’t understand the course of events that you are describing.</p>
<p>You also mention earlier that your parents “have”–or does that mean will have to take out?–a big loan, but then say that the ED school will cover it. </p>
<p>I am really confused.</p>
<p>Can you explain the circumstances more clearly? It sounds as if U Penn may in fact be offering as much as State U–or maybe I’m misreading.</p>
<p>As to treemaven’s rant – I think ED itself is an unethical process by which a large private institution attempts to lock in naive 17 year olds into attending, under circumstances when they cannot reasonably know what the financial costs will be. The college wields the power over whether to accept the student and how much, if any, support to offer in terms of grants and loans. I wouldn’t support a kid who was clearly violating the spirit of the agreement, such as by submitting ED applications to multiple schools — but if the colleges want to have an ETHICAL binding ED system, then they should spell out the anticipated financial aid package BEFORE the ED decision.</p>
<p>That is, an ethical system would provide some sort of expedited financial aid review as part of the APPLICATION process. The colleges could protect themselves in the same way my mechanic does before having me authorize work on my car – they could be conservative in their financial aid estimates.</p>
<p>If they did that, then there would be a clear bright line that would governing the “binding” nature of the agreement, which in turn might make it be the sort of thing that would stand up in a court of law. That is, if Pricey U. told Applicant A that if admitted, they would give him $20K in financial aid, consisting of a $15K grant and $5K loan – and they held to that offer upon admission, than Applicant A. can’t say he expected better.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s abit incoherent. What I read (and Calmom responded to): applied to state school in August, then applied ED to UPenn. Got accepted to state school in October, got merit award/full ride offer a couple days ago, got accepted to UPenn ED yesterday or whenever it was in the last day or two.</p>
<p>Cross posting, but I totally agree with you Calmom. I find the entire ED process odd and totally for the benefit of the colleges. What you propose makes all the sense in the world to me.</p>
<p>Sorry, it still doesn’t explain the situation to me.</p>
<p>What is this “big loan”? Is it college related, a mortgage, or some other kind of financial obligation that colleges are not recognizing, thereby boosting their EFC?</p>
<p>We had a financial circumstance that caused our financial aid awards from schools to vary by at least $25K per year. And there was no way–and I really mean NO WAY–we could access the asset that created this situation. We tried everything.</p>
<p>“I think it is ethical and appropriate for you to decline the ED offer in this case.”</p>
<p>Give the OP’s explanation, I agree, except for the possibility asking UPenn if they can do better, if indeed UPenn would otherwise be the preferred school. There is no violation of the ED intent involved; UPenn’s offer was simply insufficient, and the Common App ED agreement clearly states that such a case provides for release from the commitment.</p>
<p>Hmom, it makes sense for colleges to want to lock in full pay applicants, but it also “makes sense” for your bank to raise to reduce your credit limit, raise the interest charged on your credit card debt, and increase the fees for late payments and other services. What “makes sense” to the bank is not necessarily what is fair and ethical to to its customers. </p>
<p>I don’t even think the ED system is fair to full-pay students, because colleges tend to raise their tuitions and fees every year, so even the parents of full-pay students don’t know in October of 2009 what their kid will be charge in September of 2010. The other ethical change I would make to the ED system is to require the college to lock in its first year tuition rate to ED applicants.</p>
<p>Calmom (post 25) is on the money - - but only b/c the state finaid offer came in just a few days before the UPenn ED acceptance. And, Penn is unlikely to be miffed w/ declining for a state school, as opposed to trying to get better packages from Penn’s peer institutions. If the state offer had come earlier, the ethical response would have been for OP to w/d the Penn ED application - - since Penn could/would not have met the state offer and money is the basis for OP’s decision. </p>
<p>It was, however, foolish for OP to apply ED if the parents can’t afford to contribute at all. In such a scenario, a student would need/want to see all offers and then make a decision - - that is precisely what finaid applicants give up by applying ED.</p>
<p>(Calmom, the school can’t reasonably predict the finaid offer - - or more importantly the composition of the finaid package - - w/o actual data re: the applicant family’s finances. Since most students are not applying ED in a vacuum, one hopes that parents or GCs advise applicants that if money is a BIG issue, they must forgo the admissions advantage of ED.)</p>
<p>I don’t like ED for the reasons others have posted. BUT no one is forcing students to apply ED.
I don’t understand about parents not able to afford UPenn, or the OP thinking that UPenn would “cover the whole thing.” Whatever gave them the idea?</p>
<p>The ED agreement says
“Should a student who applies for financial aid not be offered an award that makes attendance possible, the student may decline the offer of admission and
be released from the Early Decision commitment.”</p>
<p>It sounds like Penn’s offer makes attendance impossible in light of your parent’s financial situation. In that case, you are allowed out of your commitment. There is no set criteria for determining how much financial pain makes attendance impossible. I’m sure you and your parents thought long and hard about this. Clearly choosing your state school over UPENN indicates that the cost of attending exceeds the threshold of pain that makes attendance possible. An acceptance to UPENN is very much coveted. I appreciate that you are making a difficult choice. I think that if you explain the financial situation, UPENN will appreciate it also. They also might offer you more FA. I disagree with those here who judge you harshly. I think that you have plenty of integrity and are making a big sacrifice by forgoing UPENN over money. </p>
<p>I also noticed that you applied to MIT EA. Now THAT’s interesting. The agreement further says:</p>
<p>“If you are accepted under an early decision plan, you must promptly withdraw the applications submitted to other colleges and universities and make
no additional applications. If you are an early decision candidate and are seeking financial aid, you need not withdraw other applications until you have received
notification about financial aid.”</p>
<p>I can’t decide if you need to withdraw that before Wednesday. I’m thinking that if you are definitely declining UPENN because it’s impossible for you to attend, then I don’t see why you have to withdraw the MIT application. But if they offer you a comparable amount, as they are likely to, I don’t see how you can accept it. MIT will know that you got accepted to UPENN ED and will rescind your offer. However, it is possible that they will offer you a much better package. In that case, I think you will have to explain to both MIT and UPENN why you can afford MIT but couldn’t have afforded UPENN. It would get really interesting if UPENN matched MIT’s offer. </p>
<p>This is hard. Congrats, you’re going to college. I wish you the best.</p>
<p>“(Calmom, the school can’t reasonably predict the finaid offer - - or more importantly the composition of the finaid package - - w/o actual data re: the applicant family’s finances. Since most students are not applying ED in a vacuum, one hopes that parents or GCs advise applicants that if money is a BIG issue, they must forgo the admissions advantage of ED.)”</p>
<p>Ok. So how does it work? A school accepts a student and then asks for that student’s (and his family’s) financial records after the acceptance? Before telling the student how much the school will cost?</p>
<p>Confusion aside, I think that you and your parents should APPEAL your FA award from Penn immediately, and similarly your award from MIT if you get in and if it is low enough to be painful. </p>
<p>We found that some schools would change their award, and some would not.</p>
<p>Be honest with Penn - give them a call and talk to them about your situation. They may be able to ‘tweak’ your financial aid package in your favor. </p>
<p>In no event should you (now or in the future) apply to any other institution, regardless of whether you do or do not break your ED agreement.</p>
<p>Absolutely true story - I know one of the admissions officer involved in this:</p>
<p>One Ivy League institution that has ED admitted John Doe early decision. In April, John Doe contacted the admissions office (he had already put down the deposit and everything) and said that there was absolutely no way he could afford to attend the school and that he was going to work and go to a local state university and live at home (many states away). Ivy League #1 agreed that he could ‘get out of’ the ED agreement and wished him well. However AO at Ivy League #1 realized, when John emailed her back, that his email address was IvyLeague#<a href="mailto:2Classof20XX@abcd.com">2Classof20XX@abcd.com</a>. Hmm. That is strange, AO thought. AO called Ivy league #2 and asked them, have you heard of John Doe? Why yes, Ivy League #2 AO said. He was just admitted (this school did not have early decision) and just sent in his reply card accepting his space! The story got unraveled John actually really wanted Ivy League #2 but didn’t think he’d get in, but after he got into to #1 ED he decided he’d “try” to see if he could get into #2. When he did, he wanted to go there! Ivy League #2rescinded John’s admission, plus his guidance counselor ended up with egg on her face.</p>
<p>Moral of the story? ED is supposed to be for students who KNOW that the institution is for them. By signing the application, you are putting your good name and integrity on the line. Of course situations happen. Parents die, lose their job, foreclose on their house; applicants get chronic or terminal illnesses or qualify to make the national team in Olympic ski jumping. Colleges understand these things and are willing to work with people who are honest and have sudden changes in their lives.</p>
<p>Why is it such a big deal? It’s your integrity. How does a college know that, if you lie or ‘fudge’ or simply decide you’re no longer dying for the school (were you ever in the beginning?), that you won’t lie to your roommate, or plagiarize a paper, or do some other questionably ethical thing?</p>
<p>So if you really can’t swing it, call them and explain the situation. But do not apply anywhere else from here on out . . . . .</p>
<p>Lets see. State school, UPenn ED, MIT EA. Makes three in my book. And you’re looking forward to your MIT result this week.</p>
<p>I suspect something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Could it be you’ve just got buyers remorse and are looking to get out of your ED agreement?</p>