I have been accepted to an American university under early decision. I have been accepted at an university outside the US with about 1/3 of the tuition fee. I realize it was a mistake now, as I wish to not attend. This is because I did not apply for financial aid and my parents would be able pay; however, it would put a lot of strain on them financially, and going to the university outside the US would be much more viable.
Is there a chance that the USA university will allow me to do this without serious consequences if I explain this to them?
If I don’t explain this to them, and just go to the university outside the US, is there any chance that universities outside the US would actually rescind your enrolment if they are notified by the US university?
The non-US university isn’t going to care – they’re happy to have you and your tuition. Call your US college immediately and tell them you can’t go. What may happen is there will be ramifications to your HS. Basically, the college may likely see your HS as complicit in breaking the ED agreement.
There can be a range of consequences for future applicants from your HS – like zero admits for many years.
If your HS is smart, they’ll throw you under the bus and point out that you misled them and call you every name under the sun in order to preserve a good relationship with that college.
That’s the reality of it. But whatever you do, inform the US college TODAY – it will lessen the damage.
Yes, some colleges with ED may take revenge on future applicants from your high school, because they cannot do anything to you in terms of punishing you for or deterring you from breaking the ED agreement. So tell your high school to warn future applicants that their chances of admission at the college you are backing out of ED for may have been reduced to zero. Of course, that reflects badly on a college that does that as well as you.
I’m just curious what part of “withdraw all other applications” in your ED admission you didn’t understand? Did you get admitted under ED2 and have the non-US admission come in at the same time?
You can “sugarcoat” this situation all you want (and your initial post certainly does so), however the facts are simple, straightforward, and unambiguous:
You applied ED to an American institution without requesting FA, you were admitted, and your family can afford the expenses (albeit with some strain).
You found an less expensive overseas institution and have opted to matriculate there, in clear, direct, and KNOWING violation of your ED commitment.
It’s possible future students from your secondary school will be penalized for your duplicity.
Please explain to us how your conduct is anything other than reprehensible.
Which school did you apply ED?
Did you read what ED’s agreement is?
School trust you and you throw that trust to the trash. You needed to think, before applying, what consequences this would have if you don’t wish to attend that , but what’s done is done.
Fwiw, even in the days prior to Common App Ed language, schools understood that financial priority might change. While the release was at the discretion of the ED school, the process was simplified when the target school was a public school or a lesser ranked school. The language used by Columbia might still be found in the arcades of CC.
Schools DO factor a small attrition rate in ED as the yield is in the high 90s but not always 100 percent. They won’t lose any sleep about a student opting for a foreign school. They might not like losing a full pay student but will not force anyone to attend.
On a personal basis, I happen to think that the HS retaliation is just one of those OWT. There are schools among the cc darlings that are engaging in poaching ED students and are at times on the other side of the poaching. Schools have np much better things to do than spending time maintaining relationships with GCs and high schools, let alone keeping tabs on ED rejections. Adcoms come an go and the traveling junior ones rarely stay around for a long time. It is a young person game, and the days of drinking tea with a GC in some wood-panel clad library are part of last century. Today it is all about computers and purchased lists from the four corners of the U.S.
For the OP, be clear about your decision and notify the schools in earnest. Your situation is not ideal, but stuff happens. This is not unusual in my old neck of the woods when students get late admissions to prestigious schools abroad.
Feel free to violate the ED agreement, but understand that your younger peers at school will be blacklisted from the school you made the ED agreement indefinitely. You’ll be ruining any chances they would have of being accepted to that school. People like you are the reason Brown has not accepted a student from my school in over 10 years.
My school was “blacklisted” four years ago after a recruited athlete chose not to attend the ED school that she was admitted to. I don’t know if your’s is the same situation, but no one has been admitted to the school since then as of today, including several URMs and one legacy who TOTALLY should’ve gotten in. Then again, it could have just been a coincidence.
If you really want to put your school at risk, you may do so. However, I wouldn’t expect an invitation to a reunion or something like that in the future.
@happymomof1 Obviously, I do not have that kind of relationship with the Brown admissions department. However, our guidance department openly acknowledges that back in 2003 a student was accepted early to Brown, but (unbeknownst to the guidance department) also applied regular decision to Harvard, was accepted, and went on to attend Harvard. Despite their attempts to convince Brown otherwise, Brown was very open about the fact that they were not planning on looking seriously at any applications from our high school. This is why our guidance counselors actively discourage us from applying to Brown; it’s essentially a waste of a hundred bucks, regardless of how incredible you are. Plenty of kids (myself included) do it anyway, and we’re all rejected. We’ve had plenty of kids go to other Ivies, MIT, and even Stanford (which is notable because we’re in MA, where most people only have a vague notion of what Stanford is). However, not a single one of those kids (probably upwards of 100) has been deferred, waitlisted, or accepted. Maybe it’s a coincidence. I was under the impression that this isn’t uncommon at elite schools because our guidance department is so open about it; maybe I was wrong.
I was the second person to apply to an American university from my school ever. So it doesn’t matter about blacklisting. Nobody will be applying to the same school again.
Thanks for all your responses. I know it’s morally wrong. It was a mistake to apply ED, but now, I have to look out for myself. And being selfish is necessary
If they really want to put more teeth in the ED agreement, they would require that ED applicants include the enrollment deposit with their applications and sequester the net price calculator parameters and result at that time. The enrollment deposit is only refunded if (a) the applicant is not admitted, or (b) the actual financial aid with the same financial parameters as the sequestered net price calculator run falls short of the net price calculator result.
Putting the high school on an automatic-rejection list just causes collateral damage to others at that high school but does nothing to deter unethical students from breaking ED agreements, since no penalty accrues to the unethical ED applicant who backs out.
Good grief TopTier! Every single year students have changes in their lives that result in them bailing out of ED agreements and after formally committing to regular admissions. The colleges and universities are fully aware of this. It is called “summer melt”.
Given that few students have applied to US colleges and universities from the OP’s secondary school, it is likely that no one there had a clear understanding of what ED is, and it is also entirely possible that the OP and family didn’t truly understand the costs of attending a college or university here. Even if they felt that they had the money last fall, by now they might not be in a position to pay - or able to justify paying the cost of the university. Not to mention of course, that to get the F-1 (student) visa, the OP would have to present documentation that the money was there for at least one full year of studies. If the visa officer didn’t like the figures there would be no visa, and no studies at that particular college/university in the US. Period. ED admission or not.
@ucbalumnus for most of these students (who can afford the high prices at these schools) a nominal cost of a deposit would not be a deterrent. The only teeth the schools have is in following up with the schools. In this case those teeth may already be pulled if no students ever apply in subsequent years.
Those teeth are no teeth at all. There is no deterrent against wrongdoing if no punishment is applied to the wrongdoer but punishment is applied to an innocent third party that the wrongdoer cares nothing about.
If the amount of the enrollment deposit is not high enough to be a deterrent against backing out of ED, then make the enrollment deposit higher for ED applicants in this case.
So what you’re saying @ucbalumnus is that ED should be even more wealth favoring since now in addition to being unable to shop FinAid families must also pony up large enrollment deposits at the time of application?
I too recall being told about schools black balling schools when I was applying. I think the logic is that since guidance counselors are the gatekeepers of sending application materials to the various schools that if a student applies to additional schools/doesn’t withdraw that it is the fault of the counselor and thus they punish him by blacklisting the school.