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<p>For most students and families, the cost, financial aid, and scholarships are a big deal.</p>
<p>“I have to wonder what bad manners are meant here. Colleges just state the deadline and requirements for the application process.”</p>
<p>Just a few examples:
- Need blind that is not truly blind
- Misrepresentation of graduates success
- Misrepresentation of campus facilities
- The single became a double and the double became a triple
- We admit you if you promise to attend our school
- Tell me the other schools you applied to
- We will nitpick your spelling, Adcoms famous sacred cow
- You do not have Chicken McNuggets in your essay you are out (I am exaggerating here)
- Promotional activities to encourage applications even though the school wants to admit less students
- Our “optional” essay is actually required
- Financial aid that is not truly aid, and merit that is not truly merit – it is just price discrimination/discounting/enrollment management</p>
<p>I have others examples, but I think those are enough.</p>
<p>“No, they don’t have one bit of power. Unless you let them. You can walk away from (insert selective school of your choice) any time.”</p>
<p>I am sorry to say, but they do. Provided some people out there care about the school you graduated from, and some opportunities may be easier/more difficult based on the name on your diploma, they have power. They shouldn’t, but they do.</p>
<p>“Aside from finances” may join “other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” In the lexicon.</p>
<p>^Tufts dropped their optional essays because they were unable to convince applicants they were optional. Too bad, because my son really enjoyed writing that essay - it was part of the reason why he wanted to apply to Tufts.</p>
<p>That said I don’t disagree that many schools do play fast and loose with the truth sometimes. Given that all colleges overaccept (even Harvard!) because they know from history that a certain percentage will turn them down, I see no issues whatsoever for kids to wait until they are absolutely positive where they want to attend. And they shouldn’t feel guilty if that day is April 30 - which it was for both my kids.</p>
<p>and there are kids like my son. We did not have the means to go on college tours. Based on all his internet research, he applied SCEA and was accepted. While he is about 90ish % sure he is going to attend, he has never stepped foot on any college campus; therefore, he has several apps still open. He has already been accepted early write at Amherst and is waiting on Rice. He wants to at least have the opportunity to see his SCEA school before making the decision to go there. I think that is wise. He said to my DD last night when she found out about Amherst, “I want to make the most informed decision possible.”</p>
<p>If I understand the thrust of this thread it was about “trophy hunters.” Not people who want to compare financial offers, or aren’t sure of their decision. It’s the, “I’ve sent my deposit into X, but let’s see whether or not I get into Y.” Are they really “robbing” someone else of a spot at Y.</p>
<p>I have the same question as SteveMA. Does student X who says “no” before the RD decisions go out cause the college increase who they admit by 1? I have a hard time believing that. I think their yield calculation takes into account people who know early on as well as people who only decide where to enroll at the deadline, so the fact someone rejects them “early” doesn’t make them accept more people.</p>
<p>I don’t see that schools have any incentive to drive themselves crazy and track 30,000 applications on a day by day basis. The adcoms meet according to a schedule. They accept a set number of kids based on historical yield. If they are over-enrolled they accept less next year. If they are under enrolled they go to a waitlist and maybe accept more next year. I think colleges are much less sensitive to the timing of admissions than kids and their parents are.</p>
<p>You got it, Schmaltz … Er, SomeOldGuy. Welcome back to CC!</p>
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<p>Just an observation that it is often VERY expensive to travel to accepted student’s days because of the short timeframe between acceptance and May 1. You essentially have to buy plane tickets on only about 2 weeks notice. And if a parent wants to go (which you might, since it is likey some of your money they are spending!), then the trip gets even more expensive. I often hear this comment about no money for visits prior to accepted student days, but the down side is that you then pay even more to visit later (or the kid attends sight unseen, which is very high risk.</p>
<p>@intparent. I do understand what you are saying about last minute trips. Fortunately, my son’s SCEA school funded his trip for accepted student days. This was very helpful financially. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that he really loves it. On paper, it seems like the perfect match for him. There must be kids out there on the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum who attend colleges they have never visited. Given the low acceptance rates at the top-tiered schools, it didn’t make fiscal sense for us to visit before being accepted. Waiting to visit was actually the advice given to us by the Admissions Officer when I explained our financial situation and asked about visiting prior to acceptance.</p>
<p>Do the colleges and universities actually make any additional offers to wailisted students after acceptance letters have gone out but before the May 1 deposit deadline? I didn’t think so. I don’t see a problem with waiting until May 1 or just before to inform the college of one’s decision to not attend, because I am not sure anything happens before May 1.</p>
<p>For me this is pretty easy. All my kids can control is their behavior. If they get in EA (or rolling admissions early) they have two choices about the other schools to which they applied and that they now know there is NO chance they will attend.</p>
<p>1) They can keep their application live … know their application is absolutely alive in the application pool of these schools they will not attend.</p>
<p>2) They can inform these schools are no longer admitted … they have no control of how the schools handle this information … but by informing the school they no longer interested they have given the school a chance to update it’s applicant pool to remove their application … and their action MIGHT help someone else.</p>
<p>Or said another way … my kid can sit on their butt, do nothing, and know they did not do something that might help someone … or … they can spend about 1 minute to send an email to a school and maybe help out some fellow seniors. </p>
<p>Of course YMMV, in my family the discussion pretty much sounded like the last paragraph I just wrote … and I would be very disappointed if my kids were not willing to spend 1 minute to possibly help out other applicants.</p>
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My d’s attitude towards particular schools changed dramatically once she was admitted. Before admissions, she was a supplicant. After, she was a purchaser, and looked at a school with a different eye. It went from “Please let me in!” to “This school is so [small], [big], [whatever]. Would I really be happy here for 4 years?”</p>
<p>The comments regarding the schools not acknowledging the withdrawals are interesting. I am thinking that they might not want the withdrawals - they want to keep their application numbers high so the acceptance rates are low. This is especially true of the most competitive schools. Not sure if they can technically count the application if it is withdrawn under the reporting rules. So perhaps the schools are content to keep all the applications in play.</p>
<p>It is a kindness to the remaining schools and their overtaxed administrators to withdraw your app if you are certain you will not attend. But it really doesn’t affect your fellow applicants either way.</p>
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<p>Shouldn’t she have thought about the school being too small / big / whatever before applying? That’s what I’m not getting. The school didn’t magically grow or shrink between application and admission.</p>
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<p>It would still seem that the appropriate thing to do is withdraw. Why waste someone else’s time having them read an app when you know you’re not coming? Do you cancel dinner reservations when you’ve decided to eat at home, or do you just figure, eh, they’ll figure it out when I don’t show?</p>
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PG, your kids seem to have been absolutely certain what they wanted in October, applied ED and never looked back. Not every kid is like that. My younger son thought he wanted a school bigger than his high school, but was impressed enough by Vassar to leave it on his list, even though he suspected it was too small. He applied to Georgetown, even though he wasn’t quite sure if it was too Jesuit. He applied to Chicago, but he’d never been to the midwest and didn’t want to spend the time and money to visit unless he got in, and then when he got in early, didn’t want to go visit in the dead of winter and be prejudiced against it. He waited till April to make the final decisions. Vassar seemed even smaller by spring senior year, but he wanted to keep an LAC in the mix. Chicago was stunning in April, and they’d sent all sort of enticing materials for six four months. He still loved American and it would have cost half of what his other choices cost. Deciding on Tufts was not easy. OTOH he didn’t apply to his second safety, since he figured he’d go to Chicago over it. </p>
<p>You cancel your dinner reservations on whatever timetable is appropriate. The colleges tell you they don’t need to know until May 1. We all know they over accept. If you are positive you aren’t coming sure, withdraw the application, but many kids aren’t, and many may be embarrassed to tell their friends that the reason they are waiting is because money is important.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to a variety of schools and thus far has been fortunate enough to be offered full ride scholarships from a few public institutions and granted acceptance to so called “elite” schools.
As a responsible adult, minding the zeitgeist, I feel that the best decision will be made only after all the financial information is given from these schools. Only then a true “pros and con” discussion can be made. IMO this is especially true in cases where the young adult has graduate or medical school aspirations. Would you really want a huge debt out of undergrad knowing that you may have to take on even more loans for grad school? I don’t think so. That’s why I guess I’m in the “show me the money” mode. The best overall pros vs cons will get the deposit and the rest a nice thank you for recognizing me letter.</p>
<p>“Shouldn’t she have thought about the school being too small / big / whatever before applying? That’s what I’m not getting. The school didn’t magically grow or shrink between application and admission.”</p>
<p>I didn’t realize that a small college was too small for me until after I’d actually enrolled, and I was 20, not 18. People change their minds for good reasons over the course of senior year.</p>