My daughter has decided to apply ED to a school and her transcripts and recommendations have already been submitted by the high school. However, she had not indicated when requesting them that she was applying ED, as she wasn’t sure at that point. Now the high school is telling her that she needs permission from them, in the form of some sort of special form that gets sent to the college. I don’t really understand why she would need this or why a school would have any control over whether she can or can’t apply ED somewhere - what if a kid decides to go ED II while on Christmas break while the high school is closed? It doesn’t make any sense, so I’m asking here: Does a college ask a high school for any kind of “permission” in order for a kid to apply ED? If they don’t get this “special form,” are they not going to evaluate the application?
(I’m sure we will get this sorted out and get the necessary form sent, but I’m really curious as to whether a college would be expecting this form or if this is just a high school rule.)
I know my GC has said that if someone goes ED, she has to sign some form alongside the student and parents, to say that all involved parties understand it is binding. That’s my only thing, I’m not doing ED, I just remember her saying that. I would contact the guidance office and the ED college to see if any special forms need to be sent.
We were in this exact situation last December. My S decided to apply ED2 during winter break. We were unaware about the “permission” aspect. We submitted the form as ED 2 and didn’t think anything of it. A week or two later we discovered this “step” and contacted the counselor. He submitted the form (albeit at that point a week or two late!) and everything was fine. In fact my S was accepted. Whew!
As for why…I don’t really know, but I think it’s just to be sure that a student doesn’t apply to more than one school ED. I guess the colleges are counting on the counselors to make sure this doesn’t happen. Maybe also to make sure the applicant understands the ED commitment.
It’s a high school rule, and not a universal one, but still a good one. Since ED is binding, it could reflect poorly on the HS and/or the GC if the applicant tries to back out of an ED acceptance. Additionally, the HS wants to ensure that the applicant is not attempting to skirt any ED/REA rules by applying to multiple schools. The HS is doing a CYA to ensure that both the applicant and the parent understand the rules.
Well it does make sense that the high school would want to make sure that the kid doesn’t do ED to more than one school (although that would be a mess of the kid’s own making) - wondering if the colleges all expect this kind of “assurance!”
I’ve read that some HSs have been blacklisted by highly-ranked colleges after a student applied ED, was admitted, and withdrew for reasons other than financial need not being met. Apparently the blacklisting lasts for several years, and so affects other students at the school.
Our high school requires a GC sign-off. They want to make sure kids don’t apply to multiple ED schools and that they understand the binding nature of ED. They’ve had situations where a college rejected all the kids from the high school who applied in the year or two after another kid backed out of ED there. A kid not honoring his ED commitment can hurt other students from the school in the future, unfortunately.
It is a Common App requirement. It was through the Common App that we discovered this missing piece of information (app not complete, post #3). The HS didn’t come to us with any requirement. We went to the GC after we realized this. Thankfully, the GC just approved it and moved on.
All this blacklisting and tracking is why the whole binding ED should be thrown away. It would be much simpler if the college just said “congrats you are accepted, please send a deposit by (date of regular application deadline). failure to do so rescinds your acceptance, and you will never attend this institution, trust us, we will remember” This way the school goes through the process and then flushes the system and moved to the regular cycle. If you want to be considered for the regular cycle, submit you application again.
Or just require ED applicants to include the enrollment deposit and net price calculator result with the application. Enrollment deposit is only refunded if rejected, or if actual financial aid with the same financial inputs is worse than the net price calculator result.
This. It reflects badly on the HS if a student does not commit after an ED acceptance. The adcoms have long memories. Even with RD applicants, colleges have long memories. One HYPSM school accepted several students my my children’s HS two years in a row several years ago—and NONE of them ended up attending. Guess what? That HYPSM school has not admitted anyone from this HS for the past five years.
That is a dishonorable practice for the college, and it is ineffective at deterring ED dishonesty, since the student committing ED dishonesty suffers no penalty, while inducing the college to apply penalties against other uninvolved students.
In high school when some college officers come to visit they strictly say that if finances are an issue do not apply Early Decision. We had to supply a financial statement showing we had the ability to pay and sign papers with the school counselor acknowledging the ED application and that we were fully aware of the costs so that if accepted we wouldn’t back out later. This was for a in state public school which many students from the same high school had applied so they wanted to make sure the candidates would attend if accepted. Since we wanted to compare financial aid offers and scholarships we decided not to apply ED but applied EA where possible. Our school counselor told us (parents) that it would reflect badly on us and the school if we declined an ED offer The signoff was to show we wouldn’t back out from an ED offer and were sincere in our intentions of attending if accepted.
Holy (*#$(#@(@#, that’s way out of line in my book. Having a serious talk with the parents about the costs and the implications of ED, yes, great idea. Asking to see your financials? Absolutely none of their business.
Both of our D’s had successful ED applications. We’re full pay. Our overriding concerns for ED were that each girl was aware of what it meant to apply ED in terms of making a well-thought-out choice, and that they were also aware of the financial implications (e.g. limited spending money).
^^We didn’t know any better and assumed that was the norm. Simply put the counselor did not want to hear the excuse we backed out of ED because of financial constraints so a bank statement was requested. At that point we changed our minds and thought to keep all options open. It seemed a bit unfair because for those who were ready to be full pay only they could apply ED. For this school the chances of acceptance were much higher ED. When you have at least 60 kids applying to the same school the chance of admission is better ED. Out of 60 I believe about 20 applied ED the rest RD.
I am reasonably certain the story about a college blacklisting a school is urban legend. Although I can certainly imagine a college being suspicious of ED applicants from a certain school if it thought the school’s counselors were advising students to break ED commitments for other than financial reasons.
Perhaps that (discouraging financially needy applicants from applying ED) is desired by many colleges – they have only a limited financial aid budget, so they may need to ensure that enough list price students attend while still claiming to “meet full need” and be “need blind for admission”.