Do I have to officially turn down every school that I applied to and will not attend? I am having trouble finding how to do this to a few of them.
Only if it was a binding ED acceptance.
I think it’s courteous.
You can simply email admissions, thanking them for considering your application, but letting them know you’ve decided to attend another school.
There may very well be someone with a deferral, waiting for them to know you’re not coming.
It’s thoughtful to let a school know that you won’t attend, but you have to take care of your own interests first.
Even if you have a clear winner, hold on to the others for now to see if your feelings change over the next six weeks. It’s too easy to be blinded by an acceptance that sounds impressive but that on reflection maybe isn’t as good for you as one of the other choices.
Right… you don’t want to jump the gun.
But once you’ve decided and sent in a deposit, I would absolutely send an email.
A lot of schools give you ability to decline admissions on their portal. It’s great to do this
It is a good idea to politely decline. Sometimes students eventually decide they want to try to transfer to a school where they had previously been accepted. Letting them know you won’t be attending helps them confirm their yield sooner and they appreciate it. If there is nothing on their portal or in paperwork they have sent you, you should be able to just email the main admissions office.
However… I encouraged my kids to keep their options open until at least mid-April. They checked out accepted student days to confirm their thinking, and then gave it another week or so to make sure they were making the right choice. Which college to attend is a big decision, and there aren’t any good reasons to close off your options earlier than you need to. Make sure you’ve collected all the info you can and are completely confident in your decision. So unless you have an ED decision and are required to notify them now, there isn’t really a cost to waiting. Just be sure you tell them by May 1.
Even though, I already committed to my school, I have yet to let everyone know that I will not be attending. As @intparent suggested, it might be a good idea to wait until maybe the middle of April just in case. I am still waiting for the final COA letter which will include my scholarship. These scholarships were awarded via email. Just want to make sure they are all in writing and included in the package. I did however, decline two schools that I knew for sure I was not attending. Both had offered nice scholarships as well and I thought that it would be a good idea to release the funds.
It likely doesn’t “release the funds” anyway. Schools offer scholarships to sweeten the deal for students they want. They offer more acceptances (with scholarships and without) than they expect will attend. They don’t usually then turn around and give the scholarship to someone else.
But they may give your SPOT to someone who has been deferred and is waiting for good news.
while what @intparent true, I still think it was correct, @Setter4life to withdraw from two schools that you have 0 chance of attending having committed to one already.
For OP, as others have said, it’s polite to formally withdraw but don’t feel that there is any pressure to do so, especially if you haven’t been accepted to a school you want with whatever aid you need.
For scholarship reassignment, it may occur in some schools for some scholarships. Early decline is not likely leading to admitting another student before the May 1 decision date. It is already factored in their estimated yield rate when they admit the students. They would have to wait till after May 1 to see if they need toake use of the wait list.