You can judge all you want and/or shoot me the messenger, but I’m just passing along the information that our school college counselors are emphasizing to seniors to not hold onto decisions for schools that they’re not attending.
And for the record, my son has had schools email him saying if he’s no longer considering the school then due to the amount of applications, then to please withdraw his from consideration, and this is before he’s even received any decision at all. So clearly schools ARE concerned about this issue.
Also, plenty of students with ED acceptances tend to not withdraw either for the record. As they want to see where else they would’ve gotten in. Wrong as it may be, if the schools aren’t going to do the check or can’t, some are still going to do that and get away with it.
The way I see it, there are two categories of schools. Those that have seen enrollment numbers drop will do whatever they can to open back up. The other ones that have seen numbers rise will probably play along until their hands are forced to open back up.
We were told during UNC’s orientation that they are planning to be virtual this fall. Coincidentally, they also received 15% more applications having gone test optional this year. Thankfully, our governor is trying to open things back up. So, I am hopeful that they will amend their policy.
Colleges absolutely want accepted students to decline their other acceptances, IF they have chosen another school, especially if prior to May 1.
It’s even more important this year because many schools received more apps than normal. Generally, there is a place to decline the offer of admission in the portal. If not, just drop the AO an email, they appreciate it.
NACAC, one of the counselor professional organizations, has asked that counselors have their students do this. Also, Jon Boeckenstedt, VP Enrollment Mgmt at OSU, requested students do this, his post is linked above by kbm770 on Feb 4.
Syracuse did a fantastic job with their freshmen and other than a small outbreak in late fll they were on their game. Their orientation was also great. Second semester they’ve been very creative about where they’ve held classes so they can get in as many in person classes as possible. Cornell also has done a great job this year. Although they have had some remote classes, they have had many in person and hybrid courses as well, if you’re on campus many tests are in person even if the class is not. Many in person discussions in person PE classes and options. First class testing and now they’ve signed up to be a vaccine site. They did not do single rooms for freshman purposefully, although there are some that by default are singles. They just finished a successful greek rush and activities fair where kids have an opportunity to engage and meet more people. Things are obviously not 100% normal but much better for many of these kids than if they stayed home. I believe 20% first semester remained completely remote at home but many of those came back this semester. The did take away Spring break but instead built in days off throughout the semester which ultimately may be a nicer reprieve for some of the students than having a full week off. Obviously, not perfect because we all know fully in person is the best, but compared to my other daughter it’s 1000x better college experience.
It’s interesting that the survey did not include the distance you were willing to send your student depending on Covid outlook. I would think that would be important for yield. Though I heard get 2020s surveyed said they would disregard.
Regarding opening plans, I think it’s more helpful to look at what they did last year vs. what they say now. I hope that things are relatively better at all colleges this year. I do feel though by the Biden administration giving those summer dates, they are totally giving colleges an out to change plans late summer. The shots are contracted for but it remains to be seen whether they will be delivered on this schedule or how effective against variants. We are still a long way from controlling Covid globally. I’m still nervous.
@srparent - you are the one judging, not me - did you even read what you wrote: “TOO MANY kids are sitting with 7-8 acceptances AND THE REASONS THEY ARE SITTING THEM ARE NOT ALWAYS VALID”. The only “invalid” reason would be an ED or ED2 acceptance.
@1dadinNC re: UNC Are you talking about one of the virtual accepted students sessions? We attended one of the early ones and they didn’t mention committing to virtual or in person at that point. That is interesting and could impact my daughter’s decision – I have been watching what all of her schools are saying they’ll do this fall. It’s one of the reasons she’ll probably commit later than she may have otherwise.
I’m on the parent pages of a few selective NE SLACs. Isolation, loneliness, and stress have been consistent themes since the start of the school year. Student newspapers have had articles and OpEd pieces addressing mental health concerns being inadequately addressed during the pandemic. This piece ran in the fall, but is still relevant: No one is okay – The Williams Record
@homerdog To your point about the NESCAC schools with bubbles, here’s a quote from this week’s Amherst student paper, “Many first-years and sophomores who lived on campus in the fall 2020 semester left the college bubble unimpressed. Instead of returning to campus in the spring, about 70 students opted to live in Amherst, but this time off-campus.” Off-Campus Students Living in Amherst Note More Freedom But Higher Risk of Contracting Covid-19
The article doesn’t include the athletes who have rented houses in the same beach town rather than return to campus. (My friend’s child is doing this after being on campus first semester.)
No, you’re actually incorrect as you have no idea what I was referring to so don’t make assumptions as if you do. I know people who are keeping multiple acceptances, whether it’s people I know, people in here, or other forums I’m in, and their reasons are BS reasons. That’s not everyone of course, but there are many like that. For some, it’s as simple as a contest to see how many they can hold at one time, for others it’s a different set of reasons. I’m not at all referring to students who applied ED. Some of these kids just have a hard time pulling the trigger to decline and hitting the button. I just went through that with my own kid when he declined a $145k scholarship. He didn’t want to hit withdraw but he knew 100% he wasn’t going there. It is just something inherent in some and some very well know they will not be attending these schools.
And as @Mwfan1921 also just confirmed, schools are indeed also asking people to decline sooner than the May 1 or May 3 date if they know ahead of time.
Yes. We did the very first one and have already committed because it is our DD’s top choice. Maybe the message is different now? My DD was also looking at the summer programs there but decided against them because they are all virtual too.
I know several kids who applied ED who didn’t withdraw their applications to other schools when they were accepted so they could see where else they got accepted. I wasn’t pleasant when they were bragging about it when I called them out knowing the dates. No, this wasn’t waiting for a financial aid package either, this was just straight up wanting to brag about where they got in.
My son is very confused and keeps changing his mind, but I said today out of the 8 acceptances he has this weekend let’s pick 3 to cross of the list if we can. He hasn’t seen them, has applied for a reason, but two of them the money isn’t great I so I think we can let them go.
As for ED, my daughter that did ED 2 years ago, was also admitted to Engineering at UM right after she heard from her ED school because we hadn’t received our crappy financial aid package lol and submitted our deposit. As soon as she got that she declined and withdrew her other apps everywhere else. To this day she still sits and says “what if…” in regards to her other schools but that’s the way it goes with ED. It’s sad kids can’t be trusted to do the right thing. Too bad the school counselors don’t require those kids to sit in their offices and click withdraw in front of their faces or to prove it. It would make a huge difference for a lot of kids.
What part of this do you not understand - you are judging the reasons why 18 year olds haven’t withdrawn acceptances, I am not.
The ONLY reason an accepted student is required to withdraw an acceptance is due to an ED or ED2 acceptance.
While it may be the altruistic thing to do, it is not unethical or “BS”. It’s not like they are breaking the law or violating a written code of ethics - that would be wrong.
D applied to 12 schools, 8 were good matches, 2 were likely but a little stretch in terms of would she get good merit aid, and two are big reaches. She’s been admitted to the 10 she’s heard from so far with the two big reaches pending. Now that we we have the merit aid packages from these schools which bring them all to $30- $38K (or less for the WUE schools) and in state admittance to Cal Poly SLO ($30K), I will be hard pressed to be excited about her getting into a big reach schools and paying $75K/year. I didn’t feel this way about D19 who got into her dream school and is fully pay, but D19 was so confident in what she wanted to study…the school had such great programs for those areas…and so far, she’s taken advantage of all of the academic/research opportunities I thought she would and it’s been fantastic. D21 waffles constantly about what she thinks she wants to study and the options she considers are not going to earn her a high income. I think fate is going to decide this for us, and we’ll all be fine with it!
This is the wording I’m seeing. Asked to decline if you are sure you won’t be attending / no longer interested. We have a couple of these asking you to let them know while they finish up decisions.
There’s only one solid no and they have a 90% acceptance rate but our family will discuss letting a few more go after we get the mid-late March decisions in. My S is super busy right now and getting tired of getting asked by people at school about where he’s going so we aren’t tackling it in March. We won’t be able to fully shed until we know whether he can travel in April, then another round of shedding after spring break.
I think we could shed more earlier but as I mentioned I am still more concerned than most about the virus developments.
So my D is almost certainly not going to Montana State. I don’t think there is another student on the bubble and if my D lets them know then that kid will get in. MSU accepts a bunch of kids and knows a lot of them aren’t coming. I think we can agree on this.
If it’s important to Montana State to know for their own internal benefit, then why don’t they offer me something? I paid them to review the app, so fair is fair. Maybe a chocolate bar or a nice pair of socks…
We aren’t declining admissions until May 1st. That’s how long schools give us and that’s how long my S wants to take to decide. He wants to have all acceptances and FA pkgs in hand and attend accepted student days and then he’ll decide.