We are in the fortunate position of having a child who was offered several generous merit scholarships. What is the appropriate procedure for declining those for the schools she is not going to attend? Should we send handwritten thank yous, etc.? Obviously time is of the essence so they can be offered to other deserving applicants. Thanks for any advice!
A gracious email message will suffice. Time is of the essence. Email arrives sooner and can more easily be forwarded to team members managing various lists and processes.
Thanks @CaliMex - we are still waiting for information from one more school. Do you think if we let them know within a few days that that will be ok? I will still have her follow up with handwritten notes. I’m very proud of her and want to make sure she acknowledges each offer appropriately.
Fine to wait a few days. Once you have clarity that a school is out of the picture, it’s right to decline. But no need to rush that process.
As you can see, many to most kids ended up with at least 2 options, so the schools expect to be turned down. It’ll help them if you do it sooner but they also want you to seriously consider your options.
Thank you. We need to review all of the paperwork. Sadly there was no scholarship offered at her first choice school. 
It is going to be a little painful to turn down the others, but I don’t want to make her choose a school she doesn’t love over it. Still tough though. Especially with twins.
^^We went through this more with college than BS. I didn’t feel it was fair to ask DS to choose a school he liked less because of the $ because we hadn’t set it out that way at the outset. It felt dishonest to him to have said we’d support him wherever and then to throw those scholarships into the mix when it came time to decide. Bit it was real money! It’s a tough one for sure.
The lesson I learned was to set the parameters up front. Not saying you will ever need my lesson, but putting it out there just in case…
@busymommyof4 I suggest you contact the financial aid director of your daughter’s top choice school. They may be willing to match another school’s offer. Good luck!
In terms of declining offers of generous merit or FA, I (the mom) personally called the admissions officer with whom my DD interviewed. I was able to provide some additional information about fit and personally express gratitude. This was mainly for the schools where DD revisited; the others I recall we sent an email.
How long is too long to wait to decline?
We have been fortunate to receive merit/FA from choice #2 but are working with choice #1 to see if we can even get FA. If not, we will attend choice #2.
I don’t want to drag out the process any more than it needs to be, but school #1 said we may have to wait a month.
Thank you for the advice. I spoke with the directors of enrollment for both schools and they were both very gracious. I assured them we would like to keep the door open to revisit with our younger children. We will follow up with handwritten thank yous.
@FirstTimesACharm , take as long as you need (up to the final decision date.) You are not in a position to respond earlier.