Should you tell a college you won't be attending?

Hi, I’m committed to a college and I applied to 9 total. I was wondering if it’s appropriate to email them and let them know I won’t be attending. Some of them call me multiple times a day but when I pick up it’s just an automated message. It’s honestly annoying, and a bit rude of them. However some have not contacted me at all. Should I just send an email to all the colleges? Thank you

Yes, you need to tell them you won’t be attending. It’s the polite thing to do.

You are not obligated to let the colleges know you will not be attending and they will assume you will not be coming if they don’t get a deposit. HOWEVER, it would reflect well on you personally and your HS if you take a couple of minutes to inform schools you will not be attending – some colleges give you an easy way to let them know (a portal, a postcard) or else it would suffice to send a brief email to admissions.

It is rude of you not to contact them and decline the offer.

@TomSrOfBoston I would find automatic messages annoying too – the commitment deadline has not passed and it is highly unlikely that a robocall woudl sway someone towards attending a particular college. And from the post it seems like the OP has every intention of notifying colleges.

@TomSrOfBoston Yes, it is annoying when colleges call me 3 times a day and at 10:30 at night. I have picked up the call and it’s an automated message. Also, I have just notified all of the colleges I will not be attending.

@happy1 The simple way to stop the robo calls is to notify the school that you are not attending.

@TomSrOfBoston Which I just did.

@TomSrOfBoston That was not my point – my point was that from the post I don’t think it was right to imply in any way that the OP “rude” for not replying 10 days before the deadline and that it seemed that he/she had every intention of replying. And replying may not stop the robocalls immediately as things can take a while to go through the school’s system.

In any event it seems this topic is done and the OP has done what we both believe is the right thing.

@blackkitteycat Best of luck at college!

“Do we have to tell applicants that they’re not admitted? If they don’t hear from us by April 1st, won’t they just assume they didn’t get in?”

If you wanted to hear from them, assume they want to hear from you.

@Chedva I actually had a college that didn’t notify me that I didn’t get in. Apparently it’s pretty common for that college.

Either way, i’ve notified them. I wasn’t asking if I should because I didn’t want to. I didn’t know if it was appropriate. I’ve notified all of them via email.

Great to hear, @blackkitteycat . I was trying to make a point, not necessarily directed at you.

@Chedva
Yeah, I know! I just thought it was funny that you mentioned that when it happened to me, haha.

You should. I remember my D forgot to decline the admission from one of the 5 schools as there was not an option on the web, she got a follow-up e-mail from that school. Most schools probably would not follow up with you like this, but it would nice to let them know. The other schools my D declined online, a couple of them want to know the reason.

Well at least you’re not like me, where colleges are still giving me random crap in my email after I’ve declined their offer of admission and returned an actual PHYSICAL letter written to politely decline the offer…