That’s wonderful news!
Thank you!
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On the subject of ED, at a neighbor’s private high school, I was told that the college counselor’s kid (who attended the school) got into their ED college in December, failed to withdraw their UC applications and then switched to UCLA in April to save the ~$200K difference in cost. So now they don’t really have much credibility in trying to enforce ED.
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D24 got her first 2 acceptances from her safeties yesterday and it was a great way to start off the Thanksgiving celebrations as we have family visiting us!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!
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Great news!
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Curious - Was it Early Decision or Restrictive Early Action? If it was Restrictive Early Action (vs. Early Decision), then there is usually an exception for Public Universities.
It was early decision, the kid accepted the offer, then just dropped it in April. It’s certainly allowed to apply to the UCs (in November before you know), the problem is switching.
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Regarding ED - is it acceptable if a student applies ED but also applies early to rolling/EA schools and receives admission decisions before the ED notification, then accepts one of those and withdraws the ED application as long as they do it before they are notified? This would probably be uncommon because the ED school is usually the student’s top choice, but they may change their mind (for instance a second choice EA school offers significant merit).
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yes, if you are accepted EA to a school you can withdraw from the ED or change it to RD.
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I imagine that changing an ED application to RD before admission notification may be the kiss of death (rejection) for schools that really yield protect.
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possibly, but it is possible to do it and if you have an EA option that you prefer it makes sense. Situations change.
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That sounds far more invasive than what has occurred at my daughter’s and son’s schools. What I can say is that ED1 is taken extremely seriously, and often requires a signed affirmation letter to the high school from the parent, so it would be very bad form (and unheard of) to go with the EA school.
What I’m not as sure of is the ED2 situation. In most cases, students will have already filed EA apps with competitive schools when they decide to file an ED2 app on January 1st. If an EA school comes back with a “yes” in January before the student has heard from the ED2 school, can the student withdraw the ED2app and accept the EA school’s offer? Is this seen in the same light as rejecting one’s ED1 school?
I think you can decide to change from ED2 to RD as long as it’s before decisions have been announced. Maybe there is some cutoff (I.e. not 3 days beforehand) but I don’t know.
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Of course, I don’t think kids should do ED2 if that school isn’t their clear favorite among their remaining schools. Otherwise it starts to get into gamesmanship. S24 doesn’t have a clear favorite among his choices that offer ED2 (not many do) so he isn’t going to pursue that.
I’ve seen a lot of debate on this issue. My personal feeling is it might depend.
One issue is whether this might have long-term repercussions for your HS. That is a conversation you can best have with your counselor.
Another issue is whether it is ethical. People have different senses of what is ethical, of course.
I personally think if you know you prefer another EA college to which you are applying, the ethical approach would be to apply RD to the second choice college, but then if rejected by the first choice, contact the second choice and see if you can convert your RD to an ED II. They may be more than happy to let you do that, because why not? ED II is really a one-sided deal in their favor.
But what if something unexpected happens? Like, you get a much bigger financial aid offer than expected from one of your EA schools, and so it wasn’t your first choice when applying, but now you want to accept it, unless perhaps the ED II school also steps up. Under those circumstances, I think contacting your ED II school and asking to convert to RD, or just to withdraw if necessary, might be OK.
As usual with these situations, you get into line-drawing problems. Like, how unexpected was that financial aid offer really? That sort of thing.
But anyway, ideally this is a conversation you can have with your counselor, and then your ED II school if necessary, in the event something unexpected does happen. Otherwise, though, I would personally consider it unethical to apply with this as an actual plan, versus something unexpected that came up.
By the way, I am not saying everyone has to consider this fully binding, but the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) publishes a regularly updated guide to ethical practices, and my understanding is both counselors and colleges frequently consult or cite that guide when it comes to issues like this.
So here is that latest guide:
On Early Decision, they state (emphasis added):
Early Decision (ED): Students commit to a first-choice college at the time of application and, if admitted, agree to enroll and withdraw their other college applications. Colleges may offer ED I or II with different deadlines. Students may be required to accept a college’s offer of admission and submit a deposit prior to May 1.
That sort of thing is why I don’t think you should apply ED II knowing it is not your first-choice college at the time of application. Again, I personally think some wiggle room for unexpected changes is OK, but if you know up front it isn’t your first choice? I would think that is pretty clearly going outside the ethical boundaries.
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I think it’s pretty simple. If you can imagine that scholarship offers would impact your decision, don’t ED. That is why ED was not something we considered at all. The terms of the bargain are quite clear. I think the only reason to break it that is not obnoxious (and probably unethical) is if the need-based financial aid offered did not reflect the same offer as the correct information input into the NPC indicated.
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Small holiday gift idea for high school seniors with beloved pets: https://www.thepetpillow.com/ (There are several similar vendors out there.) I picked up pillow based on our dog for Christmas. I figure it’ll be nice for D24 to take to college, particularly if she leaves the state.
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This is what we are planning given S24’s top choice is
- ED1 school
- EA school
- ED2 school
If he gets rejected from ED1 school, we will still do ED2. If he gets in to EA by end of Jan, then request to change to RD knowing that it will likely results in rejection for the ED2 school.
The challenges for this scenario is if S24 gets deferred on ED1 and EA1 school.
I sent one of these to S19 shortly after he moved into his first dorm. He said it was the first thing that brought tears to his eyes since leaving home.
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