<p>I have seen a few threads talking about getting in to a college ED (both were for Ivys) and then turning down the ED acceptance. I have seen people say you can very well turn down your ED acceptance only for finaincail reasons. I have seen other people say you can turn it down no matter what. I always assumed that if there are no finanical problems, there is no way you back out of an ED acceptance, and if you try the college will take away your admission, and essentially black list you, hindering you ability to get into other peer institutions RD. What really happens if someone were to get into a college ED and decide he/she does not want to go? I was wondering if you parents had any insights.</p>
<p>Columbia University has publicly said what they do. They release 1 or 2 ED acceptees a year if 1) they can't make the finances work; and 2) ONLY to non-competing schools (they specifically said lower cost state schools.) They share data on acceptances with other members of the COFHE consortium (meaning all Ivies, virtually all prestige LACs, Stanford, MIT, Chicago, etc.)</p>
<p>I expect the other COFHE schools do the same. As for the rest, I've never seen any hard information.</p>
<p>from:</p>
<p>Joint Statement for Candidates on
Common Ivy Group Admission Procedure</p>
<p>
[quote]
The College Board-approved Early Decision Plan, which is offered by Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton, requires a prior commitment to matriculate; thus a student may not file more than one Early Decision application among these or any other institutions. Financial aid awards for those qualifying for financial assistance will normally be announced in full detail at the same time as the admission decisions. An applicant receiving admission and an adequate financial award under the Early Decision Plan will be required to accept that offer of admission and withdraw all applications to other colleges or universities. All Ivy institutions will honor any required commitment to matriculate which has been made to another college under this plan.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Numerous threads on this, including just yesterday. Search, and you will find :).</p>
<p>I asked a college admissions officer this online and she said that if you get accepted under early decision and decide not to accept, they will call your counselor and ask them what other schools you're applying to and then call the other schools to let them know what you're doing.</p>
<p>There was a chart in the July 30 New York Time Education supplement about Early Decision/Early Action. One of the columns was "Early Decision Enrollment" with a percentage. While some schools were 100% (Brandeis, Middlebury, UPenn, UVA), the vast majority were lower. Most of the percentages were in the upper 90s, but also: American 88%, Furman 71%, Johns Hopkins 91%, Syracuse 89%. So more kids back out of ED than I thought.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is what impact a decision to not honor an ER acceptance will have on the HS's guidance office and future ED applicants. An individual guidance counselor is not doing his job if she does not insist that you withdraw all other applications upon reciept of the ED acceptance and review of the finaid offer.</p>
<p>Having determine one's EFC by the time the ED application is submitted, there is no valid reason to break the ED "contract" if 100% of need is met. If a family does not agree with the FAFSA EFC for any reason, the student should not submit and ED application. There are plenty of fine EA colleges which the applicant can apply to with integrity under these circumstances.</p>
<p>sly_vt: I know of one possible explanation for the Johns Hopkins figure. Students applying ED to the BME program are given two decisions: one for BME, and one for the university as a whole. Students who wanted BME but are not accepted into the program may be accepted ED to the University overall, but not into their preferred major. Under these conditions, an applicant accepted ED is allowed to decline the admission offer. That likely contributes to the 91% figure shown.</p>
<p>venkater, I would be very hesitant about applying ED if there are any doubts in your mind about finances or if it's the right school for you. There may be rare instances where a student declines to attend an ED school without consequences, but I think they must be rare. Students DO sign an ED agreement -- it's not a good idea to make an agreement with the idea that you may change your mind later. Beyond the practical considerations, it's just not honorable.</p>
<p>I do not plan to back out of ED any time soon. I have seen people on CC saying that the ED agreement is not binding, that if you back out nothing will happen, no college will take you to court, and have seen a few people encourage the idea that nothing will happen if you back out of ED. I was just wondering if I was wrong in my idea that it is not allowed, or at worst frowned upon to back out of ED. I have just seen a lot of different stuff pertaning to ED policy, that I wanted a straight answer.</p>
<p>"I do not plan to back out of ED any time soon" is a very odd statement. If you are uncertain about whether you wish to go to your ED school, or whether you can live with a financial package which meets your EFC, then you should probably contact the ED school and withdraw your ED application. Before you find yourself in an untenable situation.</p>
<p>Some applicants find themselves in an unforseen circumstance after receiving an ED acceptance. Some of those have successfully negotiated a withdrawal of their ED commitment. There is no "straight" answer, because every circumstance is different; backing away from ED is rare. It is frowned upon at best, risky for the student and the student's high school. </p>
<p>The cases I am familiar with where an ED student was "unbound" from the commitment involved students who had every intention of honoring the commitment when it was entered, expected and wanted to go to no other school than the ED school when they applied. A significant change occurred after that. To go into an ED app in anticipation of backing out is not right.</p>
<p>Yes, there is no straight or universal answer, but the worst that can happen is to be blackballed (via COFHE or otherwise), perhaps by the school one would prefer to attend. This would seem like a disastrous outcome! Thus, there had better be a really good reason to back out, like job loss, death, etc.</p>
<p>I know of an area high school which was caught submitting two ED apps for a student; the school was blackballed by the two colleges for a few years. This isn't the same as backing out of ED, but is a similar violation.</p>