<p>Hi, I was recently accepted through early decision to my first choice school. However, I am unable to pay for it due to a lack of funds/poor financial aid package. How can I withdraw decline my acceptance? Also, I did not withdraw my other applications and was accepted to a more affordable university. Can i still accept their offer of admission?</p>
<p>You email the office of admissions, will probably need to ask to speak to the director of admissions or someone higher up, express that the financial situation does not work out and that you need to withdraw your acceptance. At least that’s how it worked for me.</p>
<p>Could i still accept the other school’s offer?</p>
<p>So you applied ED, then pretended it never happened and continued with your other applications. What the hell? </p>
<p>Why would you apply ED if you didn’t intend to go there? I get the finances thing (the very reason I won’t apply ED next fall), but if finances weren’t going to work, January was the time to tell them.</p>
<p>Recently accepted to an ED? In April?</p>
<p>■■■■■.</p>
<p>Or I don’t know squat about US college admissions. Not impossible.</p>
<p>@theunforgiven</p>
<p>OP applied ED and “did not withdraw [his] other applications”, which is technically “illegal” after being admitted ED. Now he wants to withdraw from ED to attend another school with a better financial aid package.</p>
<p>edit: On a more serious note to OP, here is a passage from the Peterson college guide website.</p>
<p>“However, the ED commitment is binding in the college admissions process, and if you are found to have applied to other colleges after having been admitted ED someplace, or to have applied to more than one ED school, or to give up your ED choice for another college that has offered you admission, you will face the usual consequence of being blacklisted by the ED college. The school will try to contact your high school guidance office and other colleges that have admitted you to notify them of your breaking the agreement. These other colleges will most likely withdraw their admission offers, and you will be left with no choices for the fall.”</p>
<p>“Could i still accept the other school’s offer?”</p>
<p>It’s supposed to be too late, since you were supposed to have already withdrawn your RD apps when you accepted ED. If the two schools communicated, you may be unable to accept the RD spot if you try. You might get away with it, or need to go to Comm. College, or take a gap year. Good luck!</p>
<p>If all of the enforcement mechanisms work properly, you are left with no choice but to wait a year to apply again to school. Your decision to apply ED when you were unsure of finances was incredibly foolish. Schools make very clear what the ED agreement entails, so you should certainly have understood what you were getting into.</p>
<p>You need help from the college counseling office at your high school.</p>
<p>“Your decision to apply ED when you were unsure of finances was incredibly foolish.”</p>
<p>No, that’s not the problem. The problem was accepting the ED FA offer and then changing your mind. You’re allowed to decline the ED FA offer, but after accepting it you are expected to stick with it.</p>
<p>Sounds like a belated April fools joke, folks</p>
<p>ED for all the hype is only as binding as you choose it to be. </p>
<p>Send a " thanks so much but I won’t be coming after all" email to the ED institution, and move on.</p>
<p>@happymomof1</p>
<p>That is some terrible advice. Depending on the school, you bet your ass school within the same conference/organization will have a shared blacklist for this type of behavior.</p>
<p>To be honest, you should never have applied ED to a school, even if theres a possibility that finances would be an issue. Never just assume that enough aid will be given to you. You’ll be lucky to get into the college you should have already withdrew from.</p>
<p>^Not really. That rarely happens. And it never happens when you pull the financial excuse.</p>
<p>Can the OP talk to the financial aid dept. of the ED accepted university? Maybe the financial aid department can adjust the package?</p>
<p>“you should never have applied ED to a school, even if theres a possibility that finances would be an issue”</p>
<p>No, that’s not the problem (again). ED is not just for the wealthy. The problem is changing one’s mind after accepting the ED financial aid offer.</p>
<p>OK, change the word “applied” to “accepted” and you’ve got yourself a true statement.</p>
<p>^ Right. Here’s the rule:
</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/ED_Agreement.pdf[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/ED_Agreement.pdf</a></p>
<p>This means decline and be released after receiving the offer, not after accepting it.</p>
<p>When were you accepted Ed? When did you get your FA pkg?</p>