<p>As a dad new to this whole college admissions process, I was wondering if our child were to be offered an acceptance at a college that was about 3rd on his wish list - could he still accept it since it is binding and await the results from his two top reaches ? He has until March 1 to do so and that does not leave enough time for the others to respond (possibly in April) What is a practical win/win answer out of this situation given that choices 1 and 2 are still above the 3rd.
Any thoughts - parents/seniors - Thank you.</p>
<p>Please explain in more detail. What do you mean by Early decision? If your Son applied Early Decision, he would have gotten accepted/deferred/rejected already.</p>
<p>Why would they accept now, in mid-Feb., and then givehim until March to decide? If this #3 college has not yet accepted him, like you say, surely they will give him until May 1st, like all other colleges.</p>
<p>It depends on the terms of the Early Decision program at the school where he has been accepted. If it is a binding Early Decision program, then he is obligated to go there already.</p>
<p>If it is just an early notification program where they tell him he is accepted early without any obligation on his part, then you have the option of sending the deposit to reserve his spot. If he gets accepted elsewhere, you would simply lose your deposit at the first school.</p>
<p>You haven't provided enough detail to really answer your questions.</p>
<p>Are you sure your son didn't apply EARLY ACTION? This is non-binding and he is free to wait to hear from other schools as long as it was not a single choice early action program (there are very few of those). In fact, most EA schools do not require a commitment until the May 1 reply date.</p>
<p>Thank you for your thoughts all - He had applied early decision to #3 in October; but in December changed it to regular application - however - they seem very nice and want him with so insist that he is bound since the orginal committment counts. Accepting this #3 is fine but the #1 & # 2 won't have their decisions till April. Can one sent a deposit to at least show goodwill and explain a change if desired latter on? Hope this clarifies.</p>
<p>He applied ED in October, then changed his mind in Dec, I presume before decisions came out. Does he have any proof? I would think that if he changed his mind after the deadline for the ED applications to be SUBMITTED, that he is out of luck. If he was accepted ED to a school that submits their ED list to other selective schools, they are not going to accept him, in fact he may be lucky if the ED school doesn't start raising a fuss. His GC needs to get involved immediately, if I am understanding what you are posting, your son and his school are in trouble. This may be a misunderstanding, but, ED is binding, the other schools may not admit him.</p>
<p>How did he change it to an RD? and why is school not accepting change?</p>
<p>Was there a form, and if so, is school ignoring it?</p>
<p>Oops, I'm sorry, I was playing around with the size of text, and thought that I posted and deleted. I guess not. Oh well :) did not mean to be as rude as that looks.</p>
<p>I don't know if it matters that he changed his mind after the ED deadline passed, (as it looks like he did, since the deadline for most was Nov.1/15). I would think that as long as he let them know, in a written document, with a copy that you kept, before he was accepted, that he wanted to switch to RD, he could be okay.</p>
<p>Have you got this written documentation; plus have you been in conversation with the admissions office?</p>
<p>If your son applied under a binding Early Decision program and was accepted, he is supposed to immediately withdraw any other applications he may have submitted to other schools.</p>
<p>The fact that the ED school notified him of his acceptance before April indicates that they believe he did, in fact, apply Early Decision.</p>
<p>If your son believes that he withdrew the Early Decision commitment before the ED application deadline, then you have a messy situation that you are going to need to resolve with that college, probably with a copy of the letter or e-mail he sent to the college.</p>
<p>The easiest solution is to withdraw the other applications and attend the ED school. If things are as you describe, any other solution is going to be messy.</p>
<p>You need to be very careful. The risk is that the ED school could revoke your son's acceptance. Then, what happens if two April schools do not accept him? If I were in your shoes, I would probably advise my kid to attend the ED school unless there were some very, very strong reason why it would not be a good fit.</p>
<p>Thank you for hearing me, dear mod.</p>
<p>Jaknap, I don't understand what happened here. When I come to the crucial part of your text that would explain the situation, the wording gets too vague for me to make any sense in what you have said. </p>
<p>According to the terms of binding Early Decision, it is possible to withdraw the application before the decision is made. If you have indeed done that, and you still get a binding ED offer, you need to talk to the GC at your student's High school and the two of you need to go over the predicament with the adcoms at this school. It is important because it is possible that your student's name is on the Binding ED accept list that is circulated among colleges, and if the other colleges check that list, they may just drop your students app, since the info indicates that he is accepted under binding ED. Then the other thing that could happend in tandem with this is that your letter withdrawing the app could be discovered in the admissions office, and that college could then withdraw its offer since your application was withdraw before the offer was extended. It could end up a mess that hurts your student. You cannot have it both ways with binding ED. If your student wants that colllege, he needs to withdraw his other apps. If he does not, he needs to find out if he is on that ED list, and have his counselor notify those other colleges that he is still under consideration.</p>
<p>Interesteddad & Jamimom - and the rest of the members - First thank you all for helpful brainstorming - I agree with you all - Deep inside I think he still likes his choice and it is just a matter of self actulization internally that it is a good fit. So I think we have the direction although it is always nice to know what the others would have replied. Again, many thanks you all!</p>
<p>Sooo,,, what does that mean? He is going with the ED school? He may never know wwhat the other schools would have decided? Did he really switch to RD? If so, why is school insisting it was ED? You have some explaining to do Lucy!!!! We are just curious because if we find ourselves with similar circumstances, we would like to know what the colege is saying, if the switch to RD was ignored, if your son did do the switch they way the school asked, why did school ignore it!!! Can't just leave us haning here</p>
<p>I don't understand why he would apply to a #3 choice school ED.
It has always been my impression that it was for your #1 choice school, and when fin aid was not a concern.
Perhaps thats just me?</p>
<p>Just second-guessing here, but maybe the son made the mistake of applying ED to a match school, and then had second thoughts, realized he could do better, or got new and improved SAT scores, and then decided to aim higher?</p>
<p>But really, jaknap, please tell us more, don't just leave us hanging and guessing.</p>
<p>No emerald, not just you, hopefully lots of us see ED exactly that way.</p>
<p>Self-actualization = buyer's remorse?</p>
<p>A few happy EDers, like my daughter, do not a good system make!</p>
<p>Something doesn't sound right. here. It seems odd to me that an ED I school (which this must have been if the son applied in October) is only NOW getting back to this student. Something doesn't add up - don't most ED schools send out their acceptances in mid-December? I hope the Dad will explain whether the switch to RD really was made BEFORE the acceptance was sent out and also fill us in on HOW the switch was made (Did he send an Email? Call the school? Did the school respond?)</p>
<p>In any case, assuming that the ED was withdrawn officially, both the son and the parents need to understand that MANY schools share their lists of ED acceptances with other schools --- so, in failing to work this all out with the school he may in fact be risking his chances elsewhere.</p>
<p>No sense speculating. I don't think OP really wanted to make the situation clear and that is his choice. But I can tell you that my son has withdrawn a number of applications, and we are still getting stuff. He got a call from one school just yesterday. The schools are at their busiest right now so things are not working so smoothly, I am sure. That's why I mentioned that after all the dust settles, and if they find that withdrawal letter or memo for that kid, they might just say," Oh, ok, we missed that" and then dump him off the list.</p>
<p>At least every ED form I have ever seen. You sign it exactly like a contract: if accepted, I WILL attend. And if I am not mistaken, someone else must sign it too - parent or GC - I've forgotten. Oh wait - this is the 21st century, where people's signatures mean nothing and their words less.</p>
<p>So 'fess up - exactly HOW did the student withdraw from this signed contract? And did the OTHER signer withdraw as well? Inquiring minds want to know!</p>