<p>I backed out of my ED contract with Cornell this year. It was because I didn’t get enough (or any) financial aid. My family didn’t expect to get enough financial aid from cornell though, but we thought it was worth a shot for me to apply ed and see what happens, since regular decision wouldn’t be any different. </p>
<p>There wasn’t much interaction between cornell and me. I emailed the head of admissions and he emailed me a short letter, saying that I will be mailed confirmation of the withdrawal and that he was sorry the financial situation was not able to work out but that I will do well in whatever college I attend. My friends and guidance counselor were disappointed, but they totally understand.</p>
ED isn’t a handshake. It’s a signed contract. The student signs, and in my D’s case the parents had to sign. I think the GC had to indicate she was aware of ED as well. </p>
<p>You may like or dislike ED, but it clearly states up front what you are committing to - it’s not like anyone is trying to deceive an applicant about what they are committing to when they apply ED. If you do not intend to enroll when accepted, then don’t apply ED. Its that simple. If you aren’t sure yet, that’s fine: don’t apply ED. No one is telling 17 year olds that they HAVE to decide their future in September. ED is for those who ARE ready to decide.</p>
<p>If you have to renege due to financial concerns, that’s fine. Otherwise, if you are not 100% positive that you want to attend College X, do not apply ED.</p>
<p>My D was accepted ED, and our biggest ethical temptation was to not formally withdraw her other applications - after all the hard work of 4 years of high school, hours spent on applications and listening to everyone else talk about where they got in, the temptation to wait until she had an answer (EA in all cases) from her other colleges before turning them down was strong. It wasn’t a matter of wanting to collect “trophies” or to consider other options. It was just pure curiousity - COULD she have gotten in someplace else? In the end, we withdrew her other apps a week after receiving her ED acceptance. Two of the withdrawals crossed in the mail with EA acceptances, but the other two colleges… we’ll never know if she’d have gotten in there. It’s a choice she made when she decided to apply ED.</p>
<p>She is very happy at her ED school. It was a terrific fit for her - if it wasn’t, we wouldn’t have allowed her to apply ED, and we wouldn’t have signed the ED agreement.</p>
<p>As borntodance94 noted - when you are accepted ED you are filling a slot that would have otherwise been offered to some other student. Those students are now deferred from what was their top choice school which changes the entire trajectory of their college decision process. The idea that no party is “harmed” is only taking into account the unethical student (and parent who signed) and the college or university in question.</p>
<p>Sorry to burst your bubble but a handshake is indeed a binidng contract.</p>
<p>Typically, in order to be enforceable, a contract must have
A meeting of the minds - both sides agree
offer and acceptance - a specific deal being made
mutual consideration - something for both sides
delivery - one side needs to perform their part before they can enforce the contract</p>
<p>Since a minor cannot form a meeting of the minds (since they aren’t of legal age) that is why a parent needs to sign the consent form.</p>
<p>As a practical matter, a school will never seek to force a person to enroll because it is just too much effort, but they will take whatever steps they feel are practical to make the students life uncomfortable - eg informing other schoolsl.</p>
<p>Since NACAC considers ED a legitimate practice, why don’t they have a common database by which all ED applicants in a year can be pooled and which could be consulted to prevent multiple ED applications and enforce withdraw of other applications after ED acceptance? Such a pool could allow for financially-motivated declines of ED offers by a certain date, but flag any subsequent applications made after the date. NACAC has a “space-available” data pool like this post-May 1. It seems the resources for an ED data pool would be similar.</p>
<p>Such a pool would partially curtail the privacy of an application, but such curtailment seems implicit in the ED agreement–if applicants apply ED, are accepted, and renege for non-financial reasons, it should be understood that their ED participation can be made public and that penalties might follow as a result.</p>
<p>I assume, too, that NACAC ethical practices make it the case that a school practicing ED also makes it a point not to leverage the commitment in their FA offers. Such schools should assure all ED applicants that FA offers extended are equivalent to those that would be made to RD applicants given the same set of financial factors. If this is not part of NACAC ethics, it ought to be.</p>
<p>My son applied ED at his long-shot school, number 2 on his list. They traditionally provided great financial aid, and with a brother in college, we figured they would come though financially. Unfortunately. he got the reject letter. It did, however, get him going on all his essays, etc., so when he applied to all his other schools, it was a breeze…</p>
<p>Wow I guess I missed the memo that ED wasn’t “really” binding in the case of financial aid. My D2 did not apply ED to her dream school because IF the financial aid package isn’t there we cannot afford to send her. Historically the regular pool is much more competitive so now she’s sitting in the RD pool with her fingers crossed. It’s a shame that more and more kids and families aren’t “playing by the rules” of ED. If you can’t afford it without the package DO NOT apply ED it just seems simple.</p>
<p>Descartesz–Back when I worked at Smith, the COFHE (Consortium of Financing Higher Education) colleges shared ED admitted-student lists, although I know that some schools have dropped that practice since. (I actually think Smith may be one of them, though I’m not sure.) While the broader exchange that you suggest (all NACAC members) certainly does seem to make some sense, I suspect that it has been discussed and dismissed … possibly because of the privacy issues you raised but perhaps more likely because it would be an unnecessarily cumbersome process, given how relatively few ED applicants bail for non-financial reasons (even if those numbers do seem to be climbing a tad). But I’m just guessing here … I have no inside scoop on this.</p>
<p>But re the financial aid issue: Although formula-based need-based aid is probably pretty consistent for Early Decision and Regular Decision applicants, I also know that some need-aware colleges will accept a borderline ED candidate who needs a lot of financial support but might deny that same candidate if he or she were to apply RD. NACAC does NOT allow colleges to give any special incentives to ED candidates that aren’t available to RD candidates, too, but I suppose that the consideration I just mentioned doesn’t officially count as an incentive. It’s not like saying, “If you apply Early, you get your own bathroom with jetted tub.” </p>
<p>The colleges would probably insist that need-based aid is the same at ED and RD time, if the candidate is admitted. And while, in theory, I suppose it’s true, the RD kid with high need may get tossed out of the pile before the aid awards are even handed out.</p>
<p>I thought my dd was VERY lucky.
She wanted to do ED at a school where I can get the Tuition Exchange Scholarship.
She knew from Junior year that she could go to the college I work at for free or we were going to choose from the list of TE schools and nothing off the list. We live in NY and there were great schools in PA but we also looked in DE and CT.
Her ED choice in PA told her they would do an early read on her before she applies ED/Tuiton Exchange. We sent in all the necessary paperwork (her school had the girls complete their CommonApp by Oct.) and her HS college advisor sent in her transcripts (along with her SAT scores). Three days later, my dd received an e-mail, outlining that she would get the tuition exchange (plus a little extra) if she applied ED.
We (School, parents, student) had to “sign” an ED agreement and off she sent her CommonApp and all other information.<br>
She only applied to one school since she “knew” she wanted ED and she “knew” her ED school was going to be an admission yes. Her acceptance was sent to her about a week or two before Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>I would hope that guidance counselors would refuse to cooperate if a student is submitting two or more early decision applications - if they keep track of it and notice it.</p>
<p>My son got accepted to a good Liberal Arts University on the East Coast. He has grown up in Southern California all his life. The university is in a rural town that he fell in love with. Since he got accepted early decision, however, I have noticed that he has not been mentally very stable. I am concerned he may have bipolar disorder and definitely has depression. Now, I am worried that he should not be attending school so far from home. He also got accepted to some local universities, but he does not even want to consider going anywhere else. He is refusing to seek treatment. If he gets worse emotionally, I am hoping that the university would let him opt out of the ED agreement. I am considering telling them that he has developed a mental illness. Any thoughts on this?</p>
<p>I’m so sorry to hear about your son’s difficulties, DadofSenior. It is hard to imagine a school not releasing a student in the face of medical concerns such as those you describe. I wish you luck as you attempt to find your son the help he needs. You may wish to see if the websites for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) or the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have some information on overcoming an individual’s objections to seeking treatment.</p>
<p>Thank you very much. I’m working on it. In the mean time, my S is still planning to go there. Hopefully, he won’t have to back out of the ED offer because he loved the school so much.</p>
<p>The reason that it’s not a binding contract in the sense that the person has to then go to the school is that is not how contracts work. If you renig on a contarct the party (the college) has to prove damages against the party who breached. If they will only allow say 500 people in the class and get 500 people after this person renigs there is simply no damage. End of story folks. </p>
<p>And it is very easy to get out of these things without any penalty. I have seen it done several times.</p>
<p>@9194Mom I don’t understand why you think that people aren’t playing by the rules if they back out of their ED contracts because of financial reasons. All of the ED policies I have seen clearly state that a student who is accepted ED may back out of their contract if they receive their financial aid package and are not able to afford what the cost will be for them. I don’t think that backing out of an ED contract for financial reasons is wrong if the college clearly states that doing so is allowable.</p>
<p>ED rules allow the kids to apply EA to other schools and plenty of people do that. For example those applying to Columbia/Penn/Cornell/Brown etc may also put in an app to MIT or Chicago. </p>
<p>One is breaking the rules if they apply to SCEA or ED school along with the original ED school. However, I think ED school allowing a student to apply to other schools can cause some issues. I knew a kid last year who got into an Ivy and one of the open EA schools, both in top 10. The kid did need to forgo one of the admissions right away and it could have gone either way.</p>
<p>Backing of of an ED agreement is just wrong plain and simple. It is a contract and if you value your word than you make sure you know what you are doing ahead of time and that means knowing what the financials will be. </p>
<p>The above statement DOES NOT apply to DadofSenior----If your son needs to back of of attending his ED school even for this year you should be able to do so by providing documentation of medical need. I wonder if your son in a gap year could get treated and start medication and than return to his school. That might be a way to convince him to seek treatment sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>I’ve seen several families back out of ED for financial reasons this year. D’s top choices didn’t offer ED so I didn’t have to think very hard about it myself…but I’m curious. I think parents can’t bear to tell their kids they really can’t afford a school, so they encourage them to apply, and say they can go if the FA comes through. In fact, they need more FA than they could really hope for, and they may vaguely know that, but their kids don’t. But the parent is then able to feel the school is disappointing the student, not the parent. </p>
<p>It’s wrong from a million directions-- it doesn’t help a kid think realistically about life, it’s borderline unethical to the college and the other applicants, etc. But I have sympathy for people who have been hamstrung by the economy and can’t bear to disappoint their kids. There really aren’t that many people who can afford to spend $200,000 on anything, and colleges make emotional appeals to these impressionable young people. </p>
<p>A few years back a mother told me her son had been accepted with full aid at both Columbia and NYU, and was making a decision. After I congratulated her I realized that he must have applied ED to both. He went to an entirely different school and I wondered if he was caught…or…? And if he did apply to 2 schools ED, didn’t the Guidance Counselor know? I’ve wondered, but there’s no way to ask.</p>
<p>"Wow I guess I missed the memo that ED wasn’t “really” binding in the case of financial aid. My D2 did not apply ED to her dream school because IF the financial aid package isn’t there we cannot afford to send her. Historically the regular pool is much more competitive so now she’s sitting in the RD pool with her fingers crossed. It’s a shame that more and more kids and families aren’t “playing by the rules” of ED. If you can’t afford it without the package DO NOT apply ED it just seems simple</p>
<p>This is exactly why my D did not apply ED to her dream school - we didn’t know what kind of financial aid package would be offered and knew we would have to commit regardless.</p>