<p>I mean, lets say that you get into your 'dream school' early decision, but something happens, and you decide that you don't want to go there anymore. </p>
<p>So, you just don't pay your deposit and you apply to other schools? </p>
<p>What can they really do about it? </p>
<p>(I'm not planning on doing this, I'm just wondering.)</p>
<p>the college police come and accost you until you give them the check</p>
<p>hahaha.. </p>
<p>I mean, how would they stop you from applying to and going to another school? </p>
<p>sue you for breach of contract? haha</p>
<p>well the other colleges all have an agreement within themselves not to allow you to attend or admit you. there is no reason for them not to honor the agreement.</p>
<p>(1) You won't be able to enroll anywhere else.
(2) Legally, they can sue you.</p>
<p>No, they really can't sue you. Or they wouldn't. What they could do is inform other schools on their level that you've boken your agreement (particularly by failing to withdraw your other apps), and those schools can withdraw their acceptances.</p>
<p>The other issue is that most guidance counselors won't send out your transcripts & the counselor recommendation if you're breaking your agreement. And teachers often won't either, so there's no way your application will be complete.</p>
<p>So, they'll tell every single college in the country that you broke your agreement? </p>
<p>scary.</p>
<p>You can find out a whole lot of stuff on the Internet; what makes you think colleges can't?</p>
<p>I'm not sure if this is relevant, but I applied to a school ED and then decided in November that I changed my mind; they had no problem switching my app to RD.</p>
<p>EDIT: It did cause some confusion, though, which I think will result in my ultimate rejection. Oh well. =]</p>
<p>The usual result is that the student ends up at some school like {pretty good state university} or {regional liberal arts college} but does NOT get into any college that is plainly superior to the original ED college. Colleges lower on the food chain will admit lots of students, and colleges that don't have their own early decision programs or aren't in sports conferences (such as the Ivy League) where some colleges do usually won't care much about ED agreements. But top-tier colleges can, for the reason mentioned in a New York Times article: </p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/education/edlife/strategy.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/education/edlife/strategy.html</a> </p>
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<p>if u do keep ur app as ed & go somewhere else w/o talking it over to your college or telling them u wanna change to something other than ed, you've basically screwed over every kid in your school after you who wants to apply to that college. b/c now the college would have blacklisted your school</p>
<p>The subject has been discussed extensively before. Here are some threads:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/473601-what-exactly-happens-if-you-back-out-early-decision.html?highlight=Early+decision%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/473601-what-exactly-happens-if-you-back-out-early-decision.html?highlight=Early+decision</a></p>