<p>I applied ED to NYU. At the time, I believed NYU was THE school for me. When I was applying, I was blinded by my passion to attend NYU. However, after I was accepted, committed, and recieved my financial aid package, I realized early decision was not a good thing for me.
I didn't even withdraw my other applications, knowing I most likely wouldn't attend NYU.
Now, I don't know how to tell the admissions office this situation. HELP ME!!</p>
<p>Typically you can withdraw from ED if the financial aid package is inadequate. </p>
<p>I recieved no scholarship and only loans if 64k. That’s pretty inadequate.
Would I be reprimanded for disobeying the ED agreement?</p>
<p>I suggest posting in the parents section, but I think if you call and say that your parents cannot afford the cost and you are withdrawing, that would be ok. </p>
<p>If your parents TRULY can’t afford it you have an out. If your parents made $1M last year NYU won’t believe it. They can’t MAKE you attend but its possible no one from your HS will be as accepted in future years. That Bering said, you were supposed to take your name out of your RD schools once you could afford NYU. You can’t play both ends of the admission game</p>
<p>I also want to point out that your decision not only impacts you, but your guidance counselor and future students at your high school that want to go to NYU. Your guidance counselor signed off on your ED application, that this was the ONE school you wanted to go to. If you truly can not afford to go to NYU, based on the financial aid package they have provided you, then you can usually get out. But if you use this excuse to get out but then go full-pay at another school – word gets around… admissions offices talk to each other. Be careful.</p>
<p>It is very late to withdraw for this reason , when did you get your FA package? You have the right under the ED agreement to wait to accept or not until you have your FA package, but after that you really are supposed to make up your mind fairly quickly (not wait to see what your other offers look like). You should probably talk to your GC on Monday and call NYU to tell them you are withdrawing for financial reasons on Monday, too. And hope NYU doesn’t take it out on future applicants and that your other colleges don’t find out…</p>
<p>It speaks of your deceit in that you did not withdraw your other apps, as required to do in your ED agreement with NYU. Your high school will be affected, possibly dramatically.</p>
<p>Very bad form to not honor an ED acceptance for anything other than inadequate financial aid. Do the rules not apply to you? Not an advisable attitude to carry into your adult life.</p>
<p>You committed before receiving your financial aid package?</p>
<p>It is generally allowed to back out of ED if the financial aid offer is insufficient (but check the fine print). But doing so this late (as opposed to shortly after seeing your insufficient financial aid offer) is likely not a good thing to do.</p>
<p>If you truly had financial concerns, you shouldn’t have applied ED, since NYU is notoriously stingy with aid (and applying ED to anyplace when you have financial concerns is a bad idea).</p>
<p>You need to go to your GC asap Monday. You had a chance to decline right away when you got the FA. Now it is a delicate position. Confess the situation to your GC and let him figure out what you can do with the least damage to you and the school.</p>
<p>When did you receive the financial aid package? If you did not say a thing at that time, you should have withdrawn from all other schools already. Think again what “binding” means when you signed the agreement for ED. For my D’s HS, the GC would only let you withdraw from ED for a financial reason and then attend an in state public. Otherwise, they would not even cooperate to submit any school report afterward.</p>
<p>billcscho, it honestly depends on the GC. They may or may not handle it that way. Certainly the GC will be unhappy if the OP is planning to attend another expensive school with minimal aid. But that does not mean they will refuse to send year end reports, etc. The GC should been tipped off when mid-year reports were due, though, since they must have known the OP applied ED. And I don’t know why the low-cost option would have to be in-state – there certainly are privates that give very good merit aid packages that can bring the cost down close to in-state, depending on where the OP lives.</p>
<p>
Have anyone ever seen proof–i.e., a statement from an actual admissions officer at any college–that this could be the case? I see many posts where a potentially negative impact on the high school is cited, but I find it hard to believe that one student’s screw-up of an ED application would reflect badly on an entire school. Perhaps if there were a pattern of guidance counselors at a school abetting this sort of behavior, but one student, one time? I realize posters are trying to scare kids about reneging on ED commitments, but a “dramatic” effect on OP’s high school seems like nonsense. </p>
<p>OP made a mistake. What 17 or 18 year old hasn’t? It would be exceptionally stupid to compound that mistake by attending an expensive school he or she has no interest in. OP should notify NYU and the guidance counselor ASAP, make apologies all around, and get on with life. </p>
<p>MommaJ - yes, 17/18 year olds make mistakes. My son lost his cell phone once. My daughter ordered something online and didn’t understand the 30-day return policy ran from the date of shipment rather than date of delivery, so she couldn’t return the item. She also bumped into a car in a parking lot and scratched it - and even left a nice note apologizing along with her contact info. and insurance company. </p>
<p>Those are “mistakes” - esp. typical of 17 or 18 year olds. </p>
<p>Applying ED to a college and then changing your mind is not a “mistake”. It’s a failure to plan or take responsibility; the result of an impulsive action; maybe due to parental pressure, but could also be peer pressure, boyfriend/girlfriend problems - it could be all sorts of things, but you cannot accurately call it a “mistake”. </p>
<p>OP you made a firm commitment and you’ve not given us any clear reason why you want to back out of it now. NYU is expensive and you knew that when you applied. The school is not known for generous merit aid. </p>
<p>Is there anything you can offer to show that you are in an unexpected situation or perhaps unexpected circumstances force you to change course? </p>
<p>I’d like to offer constructive advice but I’m not sure how to do so without more information. </p>
<p>MommaJ: If you examine it, the actual “blackballing” of any particular HS would be very easy to do informally by any college. Every applicant from that HS could easily be rejected w/o any explanations given. Individuals would suffer but the college would benefit (plus, the college knows that applicants aren’t shut out – if they are viable applicants, they’ll have a variety of admits from somewhere). But the benefits to the college – an enforcement/punishment tool – would be great. Otherwise, why wouldn’t devious or stupid GCs all over, not take advantage of ED?</p>
<p>I would guess that the OP isn’t too worried about what will happen to his high school next year. He is concerned about what will happen if he backs out of NYU and his new school finds out. </p>
<p>Of course, such “blackballing” will only fuel negative perceptions of corruption and unfairness about the admissions processes at those colleges, so it is not necessarily cost-free to the college. The counselor does not have complete control over the student who backs out of ED for whatever reason. Nor does a student have control over the student a class ahead who backs out of ED. Indeed, the student who backs out of ED probably does not care what happens to the high school, counselor, or students in following classes.</p>
<p>@intparent
I also don’t know he rationale behind it, but that is what they told the students as this is the school policy. One need to know the school has the control to send the final school report and transcript to the college the student is matriculated and the GC has also signed on the agreement.</p>