<p>thanks dude. </p>
<p>you know, that's pretty reasonable. i mean, assuming you can land a decent job (and after graduating from one of these colleges, i think you can) that wouldn't take that long to pay off. most are around 17-20 thousand. that's less than 1 year tuition.</p>
<p>Claremont: 51% 10518
Williams: 39% 10900
Pomona: 53% 11250
Wellesley: 51% 11821
Amherst: 47% 12109
Swarthmore: 36% 12413
Colgate: 38% 13452
Harvey Mudd: 60% 16055
Haverford: 36% 16330
Grinnell: 61% 16744
Oberlin: 60% 16922
Bryn Mawr: 57% 17018
Smith: 69% 25023
Wesleyan: 35% 24338
Davidson: 34% 22954
Middlebury: 42% 20957
Vassar: 56% 19038
Carleton: 60% 17842</p>
<p>Students who do not matriculate at colleges that have accepted them ED for other than legitimate financial reasons jeopardize not only their own acceptances elsewhere, because ED colleges WILL and DO contact other colleges if you break the ED agreement that you AND YOUR COLLEGE COUNSELOR are required to sign when submitting the application, but they also jeopardize the acceptances of future applicants from your HS. Both ED colleges and HS counselors view this ED a binding agreement.</p>
<p>“Students who do not matriculate at colleges that have accepted them ED for other than legitimate financial reasons jeopardize not only their own acceptances elsewhere, because ED colleges WILL and DO contact other colleges if you break the ED agreement”</p>
<p>Is there ANY proof supporting this other than hearsay? How exactly would ED school X know to contact school Y about a student who has broken the ED “contract”?</p>
<p>“that you AND YOUR COLLEGE COUNSELOR are required to sign when submitting the application, but they also jeopardize the acceptances of future applicants from your HS. Both ED colleges and HS counselors view this ED a binding agreement.”</p>
<p>This is true. If a student breaks his ED “contract” with a school, his high school could face potential retaliation in future application years.</p>
<p>can you find out specific past acceptence info about your HS to the colleges you are applying to?</p>
<p>i mean, like how many have applied, applied ED, were accepted, declined ED,...?</p>
<p>kk19131, there is no difference between an ED contract and any any other contract. Any contract is legally binding provided there is "adequate consideration" involved. </p>
<p>
[quote]
How exactly would ED school X know to contact school Y about a student who has broken the ED “contract”?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>ED school X wouldn't know to specifically contact school Y. The solution is to create a database to which colleges add the names of students who have broken the ED Agreement. Then any college in the nation could search for the names of its applicants on that database and reject any students who are in the database. I have no proof that this actually does go on, but it is highly plausible.</p>
<p>"kk19131, there is no difference between an ED contract and any any other contract. Any contract is legally binding provided there is "adequate consideration" involved."</p>
<p>Found an old Harvard Crimson article about early decision:</p>
<p>Some interesting passages:</p>
<p>"Early decision commitments are practically impossible to enforce legallythey are an honor-bound agreement that doesnt have any legal standing, according to Martin A. Wilder, vice president for admission, counseling and enrollment Practices at NACAC."</p>
<p>"The only remaining method to keep students honest is for colleges themselves to police early decision contracts. But because they are prohibited from sharing information, they typically dont know where else students are applying. We dont ask, and its rare that we even know, says Marlyn McGrath Lewis 70-73, Harvards director of admissions. We dont check later. We want to operate on trust.</p>
<p>"According to Professor of Law Einer R. Elhauge, this defense would be likely to hold up in court, limiting the legal options for attacking early decision. Just because early decision is not contractually binding on the student, that doesnt mean other people cant take it into account, he said. If you promise to take me out to dinner, [thats] not legally binding, but you cant sue me if you dont come and I never talk to you again. People are entitled to make their own inferences when people break agreements.</p>
<p>Just don't apply ED, apply EA. Applying ED over EA doesn't even change your acceptance possibility much.</p>
<p>ummm</p>
<p>only harvard/yale offer EA of the ivies.</p>
<p>The ED college can and will pressure the HS college counselor to find out where the student is planning on matriculating- that's how they find out. Remember, the counselor signed the ED document, and no HS counselor is going to jeopardize future applicants for the sake of 1 student who chooses to ignore a document that both the college and the HS view as a binding.</p>
<p>Just so you know Klaus, EA is different from SCEA, if you didn't realize</p>
<p>Guidence Counselors can't just give that information out to people.</p>
<p>It's not "people", it's the college the student and the counselor signed a binding contract with.</p>
<p>Wow guys, there was a huge forum that just ended last week discussing this exact same thing. Please, lets use the Search feature. There really isn't a discussion here. No, a college can make you attend. Yes, they have been known to make other colleges rescind your offer of admission if you renig the ED agreement. And yes, anyone doing ED and deciding not to go through with it is irresponsible and shouldn't have done it in the first place.</p>
<p>well said halopena.</p>
<p>thank you menloparkmom</p>
<p>Some people may not know how to use the search feature.</p>
<p>I respectfully submit that if a person can operate a post in a forum, they can certainly look at the bar above here and see Search spelled out. Please don't pretend like no one has ever used a search engine before.</p>
<p>
[quote]
No, a college can make you attend.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Did you mean to say a college can't make you attend?</p>
<p>There are so many threads of discussions over the course of even a week that it's not so unusual to miss relevant and important topics. That said, if something is THAT important to anybody, do try the "Search" function located at the top of the College Discussion board. </p>
<p>Having spent many years in the business world reading and evaluating contracts, I always consider the practical implications of an agreement, as well as the legal ramifications. It is not uncommon to have documents that are "legally binding" to be impractical for many reasons. Many "legally binding" contracts are also not easily enforcible, and even then, the consequences of breaching an agreement may be relatively innocuous to the point where even an "injured" party may elect not to pursue damages.</p>
<p>In the case of defaulting on an ED acceptance/agreement, the concern to the student should not be whether or not the agreement is simply "legally binding", because for all intents and purposes it is likely not and moreso does not matter. However, the agreement is "binding", and thus submitting an ED application is one that carries an obligation. For those who decide with a willy-nilly arbitrariness to break such an obligation, there are repercussions. </p>
<p>There are a number of contingencies available to colleges to forestall the potential for what I'm sure they see to be capricious or dishonorable behavior to opt out of a moral commitment. This act of default alone creates the perception of a disorganized, uninformed applicant at the least, and at worse, a perception of an individual lacking in good character (i.e., honor). If one is considering one of the Ivy League schools as a "better" option, you should read carefully the "Joint Statement on Common Ivy Group Admissions Procedures". As you can see for yourself, the Ivy League takes the ED commitment very seriously, "legally binding" or not. The statement includes the following about December (early) notifications:</p>
<p>The College Board-approved Early Decision Plan, which is offered by Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton, requires a prior commitment to matriculate; thus a student may not file more than one Early Decision application among these or any other institutions. Financial aid awards for those qualifying for financial assistance will normally be announced in full detail at the same time as the admission decisions. An applicant receiving admission and an adequate financial award under the Early Decision Plan will be required to accept that offer of admission and withdraw all applications to other colleges or universities. All Ivy institutions will honor any required commitment to matriculate which has been made to another college under this plan.</p>
<p>Here's a link to the statement from Harvard's website (similar statements are made at each of the Ivy schools' websites):</p>