<p>Question: Does the gc notify other schools if the S is accepted? Or is this the responsibility of the student? (I assumed student has the responsibility)</p>
<p>^^YES - we had the same questions, how can an ED be truly binding? Our GC explained that they are obligated to notify any other schools they have sent transcripts to. It is in their best interests too, to ensure that no one from their school is “gaming” the system. And the schools do talk!</p>
<p>re: waiting to decide in the summer</p>
<p>Students change their minds about college attendance up until the first day of class. No one will put a gun to the kid’s head and force him/her to attend. The family will probably lose all deposits, but that is it.</p>
<p>re: other colleges/universities paying attention to an ED decision</p>
<p>The institutions that are playing that game do pay attention, and they do care. However, the majority of institutions in the country don’t play that game and simply do not give a rip about it. If the student wants to play the ED game, it behooves him/her to pay attention to which colleges/universities on his/her list are also playing it.</p>
<p>Sybbie knows what she’s talking about, but let me add a few observations of my own.</p>
<ol>
<li> It’s true that the ED “contract” is somewhat less binding than is often pretended, but it’s a lot more binding than the father in the OP’s story thinks.</li>
</ol>
<p>As a practical matter, anyone accepted ED is free to turn down the acceptance in the 2-4 week period provided in December-January. In theory, only inadequate financial aid is a proper ground for non-acceptance, but I don’t think any college is going to get tough with a student backing out at that point. </p>
<p>However, it’s a pretty tough decision to back out at that point. Most students will not have another equivalent acceptance in hand, and won’t be in a position to compare financial aid offers. Regardless of gaming, most students apply ED to colleges very near the top of their lists, if not always #1. When a student turns down an ED admission, that’s that for the college – he can’t go back into the RD pool. So turning down ED means turning down a great choice and great opportunity (not to mention a free pass out of all kinds of anxiety and tension) for a big black box that could have nothing good in it. When push comes to shove, very few students/families make that choice.</p>
<ol>
<li> There’s little question that if a college admissions office gets any sense that students at a particular school are playing games with ED, and especially if the GCs at the school are aiding and abetting, it will be very tough to gain admission from that school. If I were in admissions, I would be absolutely ruthless with this.</li>
</ol>
<p>Knowledgeable GCs feel a lot of pressure to protect the ED system. They should refuse to send rec letters, profiles, transcripts to any other colleges on behalf of a student who has been accepted ED and not turned it down. They should enforce informing colleges with outstanding applications that those applications are withdrawn. There may be some unsophisticated GCs (and homeschool GCs) who don’t understand this, but they are not going to get many opportunities to screw up again.</p>
<ol>
<li> The father in the story was talking about making a decision in the summer. He can do that. He’s right that colleges will not go to the mat to force a reluctant student to attend, or to force a reluctant parent to send his child AND pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege. But the consequence will be that the student will not have a college to go to that year, or will only be able to go to a college that is essentially open enrollment. At highly-regarded colleges, this is something that happens in one or two cases a year.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>At that point, ED has nothing to do with anything. The student will have made a deposit and agreed to enroll, and will be backing out and losing his deposit just as would happen if he had been accepted RD.</p>
<p>I’m sure many more people think of doing this than actually do it. Assuming the kid in the OP’s story gets accepted ED, I bet his family won’t do this, either.</p>
<p>The OP mentioned that the kid already has his regular decision applications in. I would think the part that will trip him up is the mid-year report (due before the final transcript). Hopefully the GC will refuse to send them to the other schools if the kid has accepted an ED slot and paid a deposit. If I were a GC, that is what I would do! This kid could end up really POed at his dad (rightly so).</p>
<p>
You can’t legally bind someone else to a contract. </p>
<p>For example, I (the parent) cannot sign a contract that forces my kid to enlist the army.</p>
<p>The kid is the one legally responsible for paying the bill (assuming they are 18 by the time the college starts), and the parent can’t sign a contract that commits the kid to paying it.</p>
<p>IANAL, this is just my analysis of it.</p>
<p>I think there is general agreement that the contact is not legally enforceable, and if the kid wants out they will get out, losing only their deposit. It seems like the firewall against dishonest parties like this is the GC… they have something to lose AND some ability to control pieces of the puzzle. Of course, the parents probably end up mad at the GC in this situation if the GC refuses to play along… hoping the GC has strong administration backing!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In addition to all of the caveats listed by sybbie and JHS, if those other schools are Common App schools, I’m not sure it’ll make any difference that he’s already submitted for RD. If that’s the case, I think the dad is playing with fire. Losing the deposit is the least of it. He may be setting his kid up to have all acceptances withdrawn, including the ED offer.</p>
<p>
This is sort of a vague threat that gets waved around, but really in practice how many schools will actually do this? </p>
<p>Maybe the Ivies or a few other top-50 schools.</p>
<p>My guess is that most schools don’t care, and don’t have the man-power to try to track this anyway.</p>
<p>notrichenough, sure, it might end up being an empty threat. I can’t understand why anyone would bet their child’s future on that. Just not worth it.</p>
<p>The issue would be that the GCs would not send out mid-year transcripts or final transcripts other than to the ED college, and would inform any other colleges that the student had been accepted ED at X College and had agreed to enroll. It would be unlikely that any other college would accept him at that point, and completely likely that any previous acceptances (which would certainly have been conditioned on things like getting transcripts) would be withdrawn.</p>
<p>There may be some colleges that would accept the kid anyway, or not withdraw an acceptance, but not the sort of colleges that might have their own ED program.</p>
<p>Every morning, there’s a long single-file line of cars at the highway ramp, waiting for the left-turn only signal. And every morning, as I wait, several cars drive up and force themselves into the line close to the signal, reducing their wait by 10 minutes. This morning, within a minute, three cars cut the cue, including a guy in a E500 Mercedes and another in a new Rolls Royce.</p>
<p>Seems a certain personality feels that rules, and matters of general civility, don’t apply to them - because they’re self-entitled “Master of the Universe”. Seems this dad’s the same.</p>
<p>OP, keep us in the loop on how this turns out… gotta say, it would be a moment of shadenfreude if this guy gets burned (just as I would like to see the “line cutters” in higgins’ example get a ticket!). Although I feel bad for his kid if that happens… My guess is that in the end, either the kid does not get admitted ED anyway, or he gets in and the GC and the kid put the screws to the dad… and the kid ends up attending.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There was a study, I think by someone at Stanford, that showed that the optimal traffic flow occurs when 2/3 of the people wait in line, and 1/3 of the people cut. </p>
<p>In other words, it would be faster for you if 1/3 of the people cut because people can merge better when they are moving. Slowness occurs because everybody has to start from a stop one at a time. So if nobody had cut in line in the minutes before you got there, then the line would be a lot longer for you. </p>
<p>So next time, thank the guy that cut you off! (it may be me). </p>
<p>I can’t remember all of the details, but it was an interesting article.</p>
<p>As far as the ED think goes, I agree with you. Can’t take it lightly.</p>
<p>
I think it actually means it’s faster for the line in total. One individual already in line will either not be affected because the mergers will seamlessly get in or he will be moved back in the queue. It is certainly faster for the people who cut!</p>
<p>Years ago, 3 kids from my offspring’s old high school matriculated at the same college. That college started its academic year before the high school did.</p>
<p>For some reason, the high school hadn’t sent the final transcripts showing the kids had graduated. Thus, when the 3 got to college, they were not allowed to register. They tried to contact the high school but nobody was there. The 3 got together and went to see the registrar together. The registrar let them tentatively register, but by that time a lot of the best classes were already full. The ONLY reason the registrar permitted it was because since these were the only students matriculating from the high school and they all had the same problem, it was probable that it was the high school’s fault. However, the registrar said this usually happened–no transcript–when a student had applied ED somewhere else. No transcript, no registration. </p>
<p>I vaguely remember an old thread on this in which someone identified one particular college that would admit you in these circumstances…but it was one.</p>
<p>The GC does sign saying (s)he is aware of the application and will not send transcripts to other schools. If that agreement is broken–legally enforceable or not–nobody from that high school will ever get in ED again. Most GCs won’t do it.</p>
<p>In discussing school options with our Jr.D, our GC waved us off a particular school. He said that a previous student had pulled that ED stunt and now the college in question was reluctant to look at any current students. I could tell the GC was still burned up about it. If someone tries this, they better not have any younger sibs depending on the good graces of the GC. Trust me, word gets around.</p>
<p>I think it’s disgusting that any parent would want to participate in the kind of behavior that the OP talks about. If a student applies to a school ED, the only acceptable moral and ethical reasons not to withdraw other applications and not to attend are financial or illness or injury that prevents the student from going to college at all. No wonder some kids grow up to be so self centered and try to get away with stuff, if it benefits them, with no thought to how it affects other people!</p>
<p>The studies I’ve seen say that everyone should merge at the last possible minute and do a seamless zipper merge. I’ve seen it happen from time to time and it really does work.</p>
<p>This particular case isn’t about two lanes merging into one, or it wouldn’t be a couple of cars cutting in at the front.</p>
<p>These people are coming down a lane not intended for left turns and then cutting in. The light is green for a fixed period, only a certain number of cars will make it through because they are all starting from a stop.</p>
<p>I see this on the highway sometimes when the EZpass lanes are wide open but the cash lanes are backed up. One or more morons will drive down the EZpass lane and try to cut in to the cash lane. The people in the cash lane won’t let them in, and now the EZPass lanes get backed up because these a-holes are blocking the lane and you can’t get around them easily.</p>
<p>It has nothing to do with efficiency of merging. It is about rude, obnoxious behavior from an entitled few.</p>
<p>I believe I have read previously in another thread that a particular high school was “penalized” because a student reneged on their early decision, for a reason other than financial. The rather prestigious university “refused” to accept students from that particular high school for a number of years. Although the family in the OP may not suffer immediate consequences, there could be repercussions for students from that high school for quite some time.</p>