<p>My son wants to write notes (emails) to the admissions offices of the colleges he is rejecting. Geez - I hate the sound of that term, but it is what it is.</p>
<p>Anyway - we were discussing this at dinner and he was wondering if he needed to mention what university he decided to attend and did he need to mention why (honors college, specific major)? Or - does he just need to do a nice "thanks, but no thanks" note?</p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>A simple e-mail saying thank you for your offer of admission but I have decided to attend a different college is adequate. If he wants to say where he is going and why - particularly if he is writing directly to an admissions rep that he has had some contact with - is nice, but not required. The main point is do it, and do it now, to allow other students the chance to come off a waitlist if possible.</p>
<p>I agree, but colleges do like to know where the student is enrolling. When S sent his first “no thank you” e-mail without saying where he would be attending, he got a nice note back asking for the information. But of course it’s not necessary to tell them.</p>
<p>If it’s a school you never visited and there’s no one with whom you’ve established a relationship, who do you e-mail?</p>
<p>I agree with rockvillemom. S wasn’t interested but was OK with me notifying the Us. I did so and also included reasons for S’s choice, where relevant. Specifically, for one school, he declined because they did not provide any merit award. For another, they would require/recommend withdrawal if he missed 2+ weeks in a quarter. I did tell both the U he had chosen & his field (tho didn’t have his specific major within the school selected at the time). Some schools specifically ask what school the student selected & major (I guess for their stats). Another U, we just thanked them & told them the U & school that he had chosen.</p>
<p>It is polite to let the Us not chosen know so they can adjust their prospective yields and possibly let folks know their likelihood of getting off the waitlist.</p>
<p>If you have not had any contact with a particular person - just look on their website for a general admissions e-mail address. If you received an actual letter of acceptance - there is probably some contact info on there.</p>
<p>When my son was turning down colleges a few years ago, some we used a postcard they sent, others, he emailed. If they asked, he put down why, especially if he liked the school, saying, he just couldn’t afford it, didn’t meet need, etc.
As stated though, you don’t have too.</p>
<p>We have only had specific contact with 2 schools, but he has gotten scholarships/honors college acceptance at most, so I told him it was important to let someone at those schools know his decision. </p>
<p>Also, since he is interested in a very specific field (which only a few schools really have) I felt it was fair to tell the “rejected” schools why. There are a couple of schools that he would have really liked, but when he really did the detailed looking - they just couldn’t offer him what he wanted or really anything close.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. Notes will go out tomorrow!</p>
<p>The admissions/marketing departments of every college will be interested in where you decided to go and why. If you liked the school, let them know so they can improve in the area that made you choose the other school.</p>
<p>You have a good plan, OP. It is considerate, and may help them understand their yield. But it also keeps a good relationship with your son. It is rare, but not unheard of, that a student may decide they would like to transfer. In such a case, I know a student who called the admission rep from a school she turned down so politely the year before and got a phone approval for transfer.</p>
<p>Congrats to your son.</p>
<p>madbean - one of the reasons I am encouraging him to write very nice notes is that I also have a junior who MAY be looking at some of those same schools!!!</p>
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<p>So … let’s say you haven’t decided where you will be attending, but you know it will NOT be School X.</p>
<p>Should you break this bad news to School X right away? (And put “undecided” on the response form that asks where you plan to attend?)</p>
<p>Or should you wait until the final decision is made, so you can share this helpful information with School X? (Even if this means School X doesn’t hear from you until May?)</p>
<p>That’s what ds did tonight – wrote “undecided.”</p>
<p>My son will also need to notify the schools that accepted him, especially those that offered nice merit aide or honors programs. But my H does not think it’s necessary to do that just yet. He figures we have until May 1st. </p>
<p>I’m kinda torn. Actually, I wish my son could accept several offers because it was so nice to get their acceptance in the first place. But I also can’t believe it’s all over.</p>
<p>Anyway, why should he do it now, when the colleges already anticipate students will not accept their offer?</p>
<p>To me, it just seemed like the right thing to do. One of the colleges he wrote tonight is pretty selective and many kids would give their eye teeth to get in there. I figure the sooner he says no then maybe the sooner one of these kid’s wish could come true.</p>
<p>He’s not declining at every school, however, just in case. He’s still considering three but wants to keep a couple of more as options, just in case. But four he knows he’s not going to, so why not go ahead and let them know?</p>
<p>Timely. My D sent the following letter today : </p>
<p>Dear ______Medical School Admissions ,</p>
<p>Please accept this email as my withdrawal from _<strong><em>. I was honored to be accepted and know that my years at </em></strong> would have been wonderful. I sincerely appreciate the faith you showed in me in granting my acceptance. It was a very difficult choice but I wanted to give a wait-listed student as much time as possible to consider an acceptance offer from a great medical school. I remain, Sincerely Yours, Curmudgeon’s D</p>
<p>She said “It was horrible, Dad”. I said it was the right thing to do.</p>
<p>My D sent an email to either the adcom she was dealing with or the person who signed the acceptance letter for schools she did not choose. They basically said that she was grateful for the offer of admission to XYZ University but with several wonderful choices she had made a difficult decision and selected a school which she thought was a better fit for her personally. As an athlete, she also made a personal call to each of the recruiting coaches.</p>
<p>She got a thank you for notifying us/best of luck email back from all of them.</p>
<p>As an aside, I also sent an email to a woman in the FA dept of one school that was a finalist that she did not select. She had gone so far above and beyond the call of duty that I felt compelled to tell her personally that although things did not work out for their school, D would have not been able to afford to attend had she chosen there without her help and that I knew she had really done a stellar job. Burning bridges is never a good idea.</p>
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<p>Is your son withdrawing? That’s what the letter sounds like. Or was he admitted and just chose to go somewhere else? </p>
<p>Since the topic of the thread is admitted and choosing to go somewhere else, I am guessing the latter. </p>
<p>I would recommend not sending letters or emails. Although it sounds like the polite thing to do, it simply creates more email to read and process or more paper mail to read. No one will save it, it won’t affect a future child’s admissions chance and, after wasting the time of all the people who have to process and read the email or letter, it will be sent to the trash. If they send a quick “Thanks for letting us know” reply, don’t let that confuse you that into thinking the letter is either necessary or helpful. It’s not.</p>
<p>People who wonder here why School X doesn’t have more money to give the D or S for financial aid, might want to consider how they are wasting School X’s resources with this kind of stuff. University admissions offices are busy places and even though it may seem like they care deeply and personally about you and your dear child, they really don’t. </p>
<p>If they want you to tell them where you’re going instead of to their school and why, they’ll ask – either in an email or some other online method, or with a postcard.</p>
<p>Otherwise, just don’t send in the deposit and move on.</p>
<p>I couldn’t disagree more, benny. Not for a school where you interviewed and had personal contact with admissions. Not how I was raised. Not how I raised my kid. But feel free to disagree.</p>