<p>We just found out that another student at my D's small public HS just backed out of her ED agreement with a university that just so happens to be at the "top" of my D's wish list (a different major, if that matters). My D is expecting to hear news from this school in the next few weeks. </p>
<p>I have heard anecdotally that schools may retaliate against a HS when this happens, and deny admission to other students from that HS. Does anyone have experience with this? Is there anything we can or should do pre-emptively? Should my D approach her guidance counselor at the HS? Advice please!</p>
<p>My S's former guidance counselor said some schools do retaliate. She said that after a student backed out of an ED for no good reason, that year and the next year, the college refused to accept other students from that high school. This included the college rejecting students who had the stats for the college and favored it as their first choice. The GC also said that the admissions counselor called her up and blamed the GC for what happened even though the student had never told the GC about her ED acceptance.</p>
<p>I've read that some other colleges do not retaliate like that.</p>
<p>If a college is the type to retaliate, I don't think there's anything you can do to prevent that except softening the blow by seeing the good points in colleges that are more likely to accept your D.</p>
<p>Yale did it with my school...they haven't admitted a single student for 8 years, and believe me, there are highly qualified students applying. I'm not saying that there are magical statistics that let students into ivies, but there are some high GPA/SAT/ACT kids that are rejected... and it's a sore subject in my school guidance department, they always avoid talking about it if you try to bring it up. One of my teachers told me when I asked.</p>
<p>care to tell us the specific university? might be able to produce a more concrete answer.</p>
<p>the thinking goes that breaking the ED agreement reflects badly on the school, showing that counselors don't put a high priority on honesty, etc. This shouldn't apply to your student, but the idea is that it may hurt the credibility of your GC, etc.</p>
<p>but if you're expecting a decision within weeks, then the adcom may have already read your app, and I would guess it's easier to factor in this issue before making a decision than revoking the move afterwards.</p>
<p>I heard that Penn retaliated against a high school and didn't admit any students for the next 5 years after one student backed out of an ED acceptance.</p>
<p>It doesn't sound fair to punish all the other students for one student backing out. The student who backed out of ED should be punished by not being admitted to any four year college.</p>
<p>MIT retaliated against our school (at least according to the counselors). 6 years ago, someone backed out of ED. No, no one has been admitted to MIT during these 6 years. (We had many well qualified candidate; [USAMO, Siemens, Arkansas Presidential Scholar, Male],[Valedictorian, 36 ACT, 2400 SAT, International Science Fair, Math, Female],[A lot of others with top scores/GPA/EC]</p>
<p>Last year, 8-10 kids from my school got into Columbia, yet not one of them matriculated. Hopefully they won't retaliate against this year's applicants, as I have some close friends who really want to go there.</p>
<p>Remember that the student may have had a very good reason for breaking the ED agreement (often financial), and the school may have agreed. If so, there is no fear of "retaliation".</p>
<p>And even if there were, there's nothing you can do about it at this point, so there's no reason to worry about it. Your d will get her decision, and that will be the end of it.</p>
<p>Thanks Chedva, for the reassurance, and hope you're right that the school agreed. In this case, I know of the family, and they are not in any financial difficulty by any means. If you have no or minimal financial need, but another school offers you significant merit money (just guessing here), is that still considered an acceptable "financial" reason to break an ED agreement?</p>
<p>"s. If you have no or minimal financial need, but another school offers you significant merit money (just guessing here), is that still considered an acceptable "financial" reason to break an ED agreement?"</p>
<p>Put that way, generally, no. The student should have withdrawn all her other applications before the other schools gave her any scholarships at all. However, sometimes this does happen despite the student's best efforts.</p>
<p>Even knowing the family, unless you are privy to the ins and outs of their finances, and of other farmily and personal issues, you can't know why the student wanted out and what arrangements were made with the school. So let's give her the benefit of the doubt and believe that this was negotiated with the school. There seems to be a lot of rumors going around (for example, how did you "find out"?). And even if the student herself told you, she may not be telling the entire truth.</p>
<p>My suggestion to you stands: Forget about it. If the school does not retaliate, your d may not get in anyway. If the school does retaliate (so that a rejection is a given), you have no way of knowing whether the retaliation affected your d's decision or whether she would have been rejected anyway. Since it is now out of your hands, and the decision in your d's case may have nothing to do with the other student, why worry about it?</p>
<p>Thanks, didn't think so.
So then I can't see how the school might have agreed to this. Are there other circumstances under which a school will let you out of an ED agreement to attend a different school? I'm really concerned that my D will be disadvantaged because one of her classmates did this.</p>
<p>Sorry - cross-posted with you.
It's a SMALL high school. We heard back in Dec that this student had been accepted ED to School X. The student added it on her facebook status page at that time - attending School X next year, accepted ED, or whatever. A few days ago, student changed facebook page to say attending School Y next year. My D asked student about it and student replied that yes, it will be School Y, and that student's parent had spoken with School X about it. That's all we know.</p>
<p>In terms of the family's finances, you're correct that we can't know the gory details. But both parents work, at very prestigious jobs. There can always be circumstances that do not appear on the surface, but on the surface at least, there's no evident financial need.</p>
<p>You are also correct that the decision is out of our hands. But my D is applying for MT, where the odds are slim in the best of circumstances. I would hate for the MT dept to say yes, but the admissions dept to say no because of something stupid like this. If she does get a 'no' from this school, we'll never know why, of course, but she had a very favorable audition experience at this school and it is her top choice, if she even alllows herself to have a favorite in this process!</p>