If I accept a college, do I have to go there?

My counselor told me that in order to get financial aide I was already accepted to, I have to accept, which turned out not to be the case. I was just interested in seeing how much I would get but now I’m worried that I will have to go there because it is my safety and I have other interests. Will my other college picks see that I accepted and will that affect their decision? Also can I accept other college offers along with the one I impulsively accepted?

nope, just email them ASAP and tell them that you’ve unfortunately changed your mind. If you really want to lie, you can say that you’ll reapply later after taking a bit of an educational hiatus for personal reasons. (makes it a bit less sour in case you apply in the future when you’re “ready”).

If you get into a preferred college you need to 1) tell the first school in writing (email is fine) that you have decided not to attend (you don’t need to give a reason – certainly there is no reason to lie) 2) once the first college is notified it is fine to deposit at your preferred school 3) you should expect to lose the deposit you paid for the first college.

What if your child has received a full merit scholarship (to a Tier 4), but you’re waiting on a regular decision from a kid’s dream school that’s a top LAC? Is it okay to accept the full merit, and then turn around and say ‘no’ if the dream school comes through with the money?

May 1 is the national accept date. You can wait until then to decide and see all your offers. Rare to get a few full rides but it happens. Get your child excited about the full ride school so if they other one is not affordable your ready to go.

Here are the rules;

  1. You can only be enrolled in one college at a time.
  2. Before May 1, you can change your mind.

If you enrolled in College A before May 1, and then now want to go to College B (that you were admitted to), you can tell College A you don’t want to attend and then tell College B you do want to attend. You may or may not lose your deposit at College A.

Thank you, @Knowsstuff and @bopper

We went ahead and put down the tuition and housing deposits ($200 total) for the Tier 4 last night. The deposits aren’t covered by the scholarship, and they’re not refundable, but we feel that security is a small price to pay if the LAC comes through and we end up switching gears.

That said, we’re not counting any chickens, and we’re now working toward getting our son excited about the scholarship school.

Congrats.!

The exception to the rule is if you applied Early Decision somewhere. Generally it saves a lot of hassle to wait to accept after you’ve heard from all the colleges you applied to. (However some colleges may then give you worse housing choices and the like, so it’s worth reading all the fine print.)

@Knowsstuff and @bopper My son did get into Kenyon, but it was all need-based grant with loans, so we’ve moved from a return on investment conversation to a risk/reward conversation. It would be so easy for the debt to spiral given that costs of college continue to rise. Glad we put down the money with the other school.

@buckeyeinbama Keep in mind that student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy so be very wary of taking out large loans. And you would have to cosign and possibly be responsible for those loans (over the Direct student loans)

@bopper My son told his AO at Kenyon today that he won’t be attending. We’re Dave Ramsey adherent’s in our house, and Kenyon isn’t budging on the offer. My son is taking the full merit at the less renowned school. He’s smart, motivated, adaptable, and pragmatic. He’ll make it work and he’ll be okay.

Drowning in debt is no way to start adulthood, and he very much understands this. He has his own Vanguard account that he puts 75% of his earnings into, so he’s already way ahead of the game. He’s stunned by some of the gaps his friends are going to have to cover. One of his friends is gapped to the tune of $120k over 4 years. (A Pell Grant kid who was accepted ED to Emory.) That just seems insane to me. But what do I know?