Do I Need to Tell the College I was Accepted to that I'm Not Going?

<p>I was accepted to two schools. One of which I will be attending. Do I need to tell the other that I will not be enrolling at their school?</p>

<p>It would be polite to do so, no? therefore, they know your spot will be unused and if need be, offer it to someone else. Why keep them wondering? One note or post card from you keeps them from guessing your status.</p>

<p>If you don’t accept the offer by May 1st, they will assume that you will not be attending.</p>

<p>However, the courteous thing to do would be to let them know. Whether that’s on May 1st, or if it’s tomorrow (assuming you have your mind made up and your finances are in order).</p>

<p>Alrighty then, I’ll let them know tomorrow! (: Thank you very much.</p>

<p>Yes.</p>

<p>Why? First, it’s the right thing to do. </p>

<p>Beyond this, notifying a school of the withdrawal of your acceptance indicates your understanding that the school you will not be attending will have load management issues which it will want to address by offering your place to someone else as soon as possible. The school will be grateful of your notification. Following on from that, as you might imagine, a student who is given and accepts that place will be grateful, too.</p>

<p>In other words, you would be grateful to know that an offer you extended wasn’t going to be accepted, instead of being left in limbo.</p>

<p>There is another reason. It is an entirely self-interested one: someone who is handling your file at the school you are now declining may be someone you run across again someday. Think not? You’d be surprised how funny life can be sometimes. Even if it seems unlikely, why take the risk? What if you decide sometime that you would like to attend this school after all? Maybe it has a graduate program? Or maybe you decide to transfer, not to this school, but to a school that has just hired a person from the school you’re declining and they remember your name from a list of students who were accepted but just, kind of, sort of, never got back to them. Or did, finally, after the school chases them, tells the school they aren’t attending. Stranger things have happened. </p>

<p>For all these reasons, you’ll feel better that you took the time - which will be far less time than it took for you to ask CC for advice on this question, by the way - to send a quick e-mail saying that you do not intend to accept the place. And thanking them for offering to accept you in the first place.</p>

<p>Thank you for your reply, Weetbixmum. (:</p>

<p>I never thought about e-mailing. So, I just sent an e-maill off to the Undergraduate Admissions office.</p>

<p>I feel like I came off incredibly formal. I even went through a de-formatized it and it was still too formal, in my opinion.</p>

<p>But, I was polite.</p>

<p>My only issue was that, with the school I’m going with, I received an identification number right off the bat. I never did with this school that I am not going with. So, I gave them my mailing address and home phone and told them that, if they needed more information, to let me know.</p>

<p>Generally, they will have you on file through your email address.</p>

<p>

Don’t think it works like this. All US universities have a yield under 100%. For most, it’s under 50%. They have to take this into account and offer more acceptances than they want students to enroll (if they have an average yield rate of 40% and a freshman student body of 2000 to fill, they offer 5000 spots). The OP would be a part of the percentage assumed to not enroll, and so that “spot” won’t go to anyone else.</p>

<p>Good for you, Jelynn. In my opinion, in these situations formal will never be inappropriate and responding is always better than not responding at all. Good luck with your studies.</p>

<p>Thanks, too, BillyMc. Yields may always be under 100%, but the number of spaces available will depend on the university being discussed. Perhaps I have misunderstood your point entirely, but if a student would be declining, say, HYPSM, etc., presumably that “place” might be offered to a non-likely letter student who has not yet been notified of acceptance or a waitlisted student (who could well be exceptionally grateful for the opening), depending on the number of other acceptances. In any event, even if one is not declining a highly selective university, it still seems to me that one loses nothing by doing the institution one is declining the courtesy of notifying it as if it were a high-yielding institution.</p>

<p>

Agreed .</p>

<p>I personally wouldn’t, just in case something makes you change your mind before the deadline or something major occurs that would make the other option preferable. Colleges understand that students need to have options and already account for the number of acceptances they give out from the projected yield. By declining admission, you really are just doing a disservice to yourself.</p>

<p>Jeredweaverfan - I am 100% sure I won’t be changing my mind. I’ve already put my dorm deposit down and selected my room preferences and meal plan. :stuck_out_tongue: Even paid for my orientation date to set up classes and what not. So, I’m okay with telling the other school I won’t be going with them. (:</p>