I’m a European student, currently on a gap year.
I already hold an unconditional offer for a university in England. Although it’s for a university and course I really want to attend, I consider applying to a few US schools. To me, I think living on a US campus would maybe be more of a fun experience.
Anyway, I do not want to apply to US schools if it means I’ll lose my unconditional offer.
Do you think I would have to give up my unconditional offer in England if I were to apply ED on a US university?
If I apply ED in the US and is offered a place, could I still turn down that offer and choose the one in England?
I know the Early Decision deadline is very soon, but I have most of the application ready (including the SAT and English proficiency test).
You can only turn down the ED US university offer if the financial aid is unaffordable. Even if you have other offers already in hand from rolling, EA, or colleges in other countries, you sign an agreement binding you to the ED school if you get in. Unless it is a school that “meets need” for internationals, it is probably best to assume financially that you’d have to pay full cost – so you really have no excuse for being surprised at the FA offer.
So if you aren’t willing to drop yourvother acceptances if you get into an ED school, don’t apply ED. But you can usually apply to both (check the website of the US college to be sure, rules can vary for a few schools). Just if you get into the ED school, then you are bound to it.
The ED agrrement is not an enforceable legal contract. It is a moral contract between you and that college or university. Some UK universities respect the ED agreements, and will not admit students who have formal ED agreements with places in the US. The only way to know if an ED admission here will affect your status at the UK university, is to ask the UK university.
Instead of applying ED, why don’t you just wait and apply in the RD cycle? Then you wouldn’t have to worry about this.
ED is binding unless you apply for financial aid and do not receive a sufficient amount. I’m not sure how a UK university would handle it, and I’m not sure about international enforcement, but in the US it would be considered to be an extremely serious ethical and legal breach to back out of the agreement. A school might try to require payment, I don’t know, but wouldn’t be surprised if it pursued payment from a student who did not provide sufficient evidence of an inability to pay. Usually schools will let a few students out of ED agreements for inability to pay, but that, or illness, are the only valid reasons, and these cases do undergo close scrutiny. I very much suspect it could have an impact if you ever wanted to study at a US university, including for grad school. It really is also very unfair to your peers who are putting great effort and some money into their applications. It also would reflect poorly on your school and country and could affect future admission of students from them. If you were in an admissions office, and an international student walked away from a commitment and then said, well you can’t enforce it, would you be enthusiastic about taking another student from that school next year, when you may have many other applicants? It would be a very poor decision–on many levels–to apply ED and then walk away.
@intparent@happymomof1@TTG
Thank you so much for your responses! You have convinced me - applying ED is NOT something I should do.
So I won’t do it.
I might apply RD, but I will first do more research and only do it if it won’t affect my UK offer.
Not sure if the timing is of needing to accept U.K. offers. Many top US colleges release RD decisions in March, and you need to give a final answer and deposit by May 1.
@iamsearching, just reread your OP and wanted to make sure the first part of your question is answered: you don’t have to give up your unconditional place to apply ED. The ED commitment is just binding, so if you were accepted, and financial aid were sufficient, you would be expected to attend and then would have to give up the unconditional offer in England. (I’m assuming the English university does not have any rules about other applications.)
And point above by intparent is helpful. Timing can be tricky. You’d probably hear about ED or EA in December or January, but it is usually March (by April 1) for RD (unless a school has rolling admissions). Schools require students to let them know their decisions by May 1 (may be a few exceptions).
A US student might be accepted Early Action (EA) (non-binding) or RD on a rolling admissions and then, if they don’t accept a school’s offer, apply to an ED school. If accepted ED, they could just tell the other EA/RD school(s) they would not be attending
Also, you are probably aware that US schools have EA and ED options (and a couple of hybrid options, mostly at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, top Catholic schools). Some offer EA, some ED, and some both. EA is not binding. One of mine applied EA to three schools. They were accepted at two and deferred to RD at the other. They were did not respond to the two EA acceptances until April 1 when they were accepted RD where they had been deferred. They then took that offer and told the other two schools they would not be attending. Good luck!