<p>Please help! Our son much against our wishes has applied for ED to John Hopkins 'for fun' just to 'see' what his chances are! We are international students hence will have to pay internt fees! $65000 per year which we cannot afford!! If he does get admitted how binding is it for us to accept? We are not exactly below poverty line but not billionares wither. Bottom line - we cant & do not want to pay the amount. He is adamant to apply ED anyway! Again can we refuse if accepted?!</p>
<p>If I recall several years ago when my son applied ED to a school we had to sign, as parents, that we had agreed to his applying ED. That being said, in my experience, ED is binding. We went into it knowing that if our son was accepted to the school (and he ultimately was) that he would rescind all his other applications and enroll. </p>
<p>I understand that some say if the financial aid package is not what you feel is reasonable then you can still get “out of” the accpetance. I would go back an read the fine print of the application.</p>
<p>I am almost positive that for every early decision program if you are unable to pay for the cost of admission you are no required to attend.</p>
<p>Cost of attendance, not admission</p>
<p>
[Johns</a> Hopkins University Office of Undergraduate Admissions - Apply - Frequently Asked Questions - Early Decision](<a href=“http://apply.jhu.edu/apply/faq_early.html]Johns”>http://apply.jhu.edu/apply/faq_early.html)</p>
<p>Did you, in fact, sign the Early Decision agreement? If so, you will clearly not be in a very good situation if he gets in.</p>
<p>If you cannot afford Johns Hopkins, then you cannot afford it. Perhaps your son can contact them before the decision date to withdraw his application, and then apply elsewhere under Regular Decision? But your son would need to withdraw his own application; I highly doubt that the university would or could let you act on his behalf in this matter. </p>
<p>I think your best, most honest course of action is to have a frank conversation with your son today, in which you explain that your family cannot afford to pay the full price of four years of Johns Hopkins, and then have him contact the admissions office about this situation. I can’t speak for Hopkins, of course, but it seems possible to me that if he explains the situation, they *might *let him switch from Early Decision to Regular Decision. Of course, that doesn’t really address the issue of cost. </p>
<p>Now, if he’s not admitted to Hopkins under ED, then your problem is solved. Even if they defer him to the Regular Decision round and admit him then, he’ll no longer be obliged to go.</p>
<p>@CrystalJ: trouble is, it’s pretty hard to make the case that you can’t afford it if you haven’t applied for financial aid.</p>
<p>@Bellamia: did your son apply for financial aid?</p>
<p>Thank you people for your replies! No as international students we cannot apply for any scholarship need based, only merit based that too only after acceptance.
They have come back to us asking us to provide proof of funds, signed by our bank. If that is on provided surelythey dont want to accept him?!!! Im not going to provide it. How can they still force us to accept when clearly their request hasnt been met with? We have had a brutally frank talk withour son but dealing with a very selfish buut bright kid here. I was not on board with the application process, so I dont know signed then. I was provided with the fund info doc. only today!</p>
<p>sorry for the typos! panicking here!. surely without any bnk endorsement(which they have asked for) they cannot take the ‘commitment’ of a minor ?!! also when actually had the parents, councelrs etc to sign the application? in the begining of the app process, at this stage , what? i havent signed for anything, yet.</p>
<p>You say you did not sign the ED agreement? It seems you must have or he forged your signature. That being said, you should immediately contact Johns Hopkins to ask your son’s Early Decison evaluation be switched to Regular Decision (and non-binding) based on current financial situations and the fact that the signature was forged. You don’t need to explain further other than to say that there is no possible way your family can honor ED agreement. JHU will most assuredly agree to that and release you and your son from the ED arrangement.</p>
<p>By the way, if he forged your signature think of a creative and severe way to punish him. I would.</p>
<p>Crossposted with T26E4 and he said it better.</p>
<p>Good luck with this whole mess!</p>
<p>OP, your son won’t be obliged to attend if you can’t afford it. So no worries there.</p>
<p>However, your son has seriously, seriously miscalculated. It’s one thing to apply to a school RD “for fun” and “to see what your chances are”. You absolutely don’t do that with ED. It’s a serious commitment. </p>
<p>Worse is the parental form being submitted without your approval. I’m trying and failing to come up with any explanation for how the parental ED approval form got sent in except by your son forging the signature. That’s not hard to do–the parent signs it electronically, from an email account. I did that last year when our older daughter applied ED. I like to think of myself as a patient parent who accepts that my kids make mistakes. But if my daughter forged my signature on a document indicating that I was fine with paying over $50k a year for college, without my permission and over my objections, I would be beyond furious. I’d feel betrayed and disappointed. And I’d be saying that we couldn’t trust her in many of the ways that she’d come to expect.</p>
<p>I am not sure whether you are aware of this but any ED application can be withdrawn or turned into an RD application before they issue decisions; you just call to do so and then send confirmatory letter. Thus, that option exists and I believe it is time for you and your son to have a serious discussion and you may want to mention to him that you, as a supposed signator on the ED agreement, have the right to call and cancel the ED application even if he does not agree.</p>
<p>ok mystery solved!.My husband signed on it eectronically!!! what can i say? my only hope that they dont accept him due to lack of 'funding’information from the bank! am praying hard!</p>
<p>Whew, I’m very glad I was wrong! 
But it does sound like your husband needs a refresher course in reading things carefully before signing. 
:D</p>