<p>Are your kids officially declning offers from colleges they will not be attending or do they just let the 5/1/08 deadline pass without any contact so the college assumes the student is not attending? My son has 5 colleges to decline and i feel he should do this officially ASAP in order to allow waitlisted students to be offered admission, but everyone else seems to think that will happen automatically after the 5/1 deadline. Any input from others?</p>
<p>Most schools, as far as I remember, ask to either accept or decline (and some include a postcard that makes it easy). If he knows where he will be going, it will certainly help others if he declines ASAP.</p>
<p>Yeah, every school I've gotten an acceptance from so far asks you includes a sheet to send back to say if you are OR aren't planning to attend, so it seems they would prefer you did it officially.</p>
<p>My son had postcards to send in to each of his schools. His two "safeties" he was able to inform earlier and did, but he didn't make his final decision until just before the deadline. He did send in all the postcards then and also filled out every questionnaire sent to him by the declined schools. I think the sooner the schools know they are being declined, the better. It's definitely the courteous thing to do.</p>
<p>Some schools give you an opportunity to accept/decline right on their website as soon as decisions are posted.</p>
<p>I fully agree with collegemomof1son in that if you know that you will not be accepting the invitation that you let them know as soon as possible. For some people it may already be decided from their EA's. If this is the case, move over and make room for the next person even if you have not heard yet from RD schools. It is the right thing to do and many on CC will thank you. If you are not decided yet, then take the time you need to make a thoughtful decision, but one you are 100% sure and have sent in your acceptance and deposit, let the other schools know asap.</p>
<p>We are starting to work on this. It weighs on us.</p>
<p>Ask your son this: "Suppose colleges didn't tell you that you were rejected but just figured that you'd know once April 1st passed. Reasonable?"</p>
<p>Then have him officially decline the acceptances.</p>
<p>We'll have to wait till apirl after we visit the schools, just on the safe side.</p>
<p>There's no reason to feel bad about declining acceptances.</p>
<p>The colleges expect that many people will decline.</p>
<p>It is courteous, though, to let them know. The more people who tell them promptly, the sooner they know how many additional acceptances to send out to people on the wait list.</p>
<p>just a neat little tidbit, there is actually a microsoft word template called "letter of decline for acceptance to institution of higher learning" if anyone thinks that's funny</p>
<p>Nice letters of regret can have some benefits. Two of the schools my daughter declined responded that they would keep her offer of admission open for a certain period of time, and one even kept her scholarship offer open.</p>
<p>Agree - if there are schools your son is certain he has no interest in attending, send them the note/card/web form and move on. Some kid on the waiting list may thank you!</p>
<p>should you tell the schools where you are declining where you are alternatively matriculating? is that rude?</p>
<p>BrooklynZoo, many of the schools request that info if you decline their offer of admission.</p>
<p>I made mine send notifications. Sadly, I doubt that they would have done so on their own.</p>
<p>if you are declining schools that you could not afford, write a nice note, tell them you are still interested but have committed to “state u” but they can contact you during the summer… you might be surprised by their wllingness to negotiate, especially the second tier LAC’s or even some of the top twenty privates’ with the yield going down tremendously this year for the expensive private schools.</p>
<p>In the absence of a preprinted card:</p>
<p>Dear so and so,</p>
<p>Thank you for your kind offer of admission. After much thought, I have decided to enroll at such and such college in August 2009.</p>
<p>Best regards,</p>
<p>Yourself.</p>
<p>^^^Brooklyn</p>
<p>I believe the notification cards request that information.
If you think about it, it is quite useful information for the college you are rejecting.</p>
<p>Thank you for your kind offer of admission.</p>
<p>This was a very difficult year in which my family and I had many excellent offers from which to choose. I am sorry to inform you but that, given the choices available to me, _____ University just didn’t make the cut.</p>
<p>I hope you go on and find other excellent candidates to attend your fine institution."</p>
<p>Does anyone know if the UC’s expect rejection letters? They didn’t include a reply card, and there was no mention of rejecting - just what to do if you’re accepting.</p>
<p>A friend wanted her son to go on-line to reject UMich but it turned out that in order to do that they would have to pay the $200 deposit first.</p>