<p>Let's say I get into a school ED, but decide against going OOS and want to attend a school closer to home. Or I decide that the tuition would be too much. What would happen if I refuse?</p>
<p>If you decide the financial aid package is insufficient, you have an out, but there may be some hoops to jump through to prove you can’t afford it. Short of that excuse, the school you just jilted may inform other schools you backed out of the ED agreement, your HS may be blackballed by the school for all future applicants, and your GC is likely to be not be very helpful when applying to other schools and they call about you. After all, you just made his life miserable because he signed off on your ED application and his name is mud at the jilted school, threatening his job and future jobs. Other than that, not much can happen.</p>
<p>Don’t be a donkey and mess with ED like that. If you can’t be serious about going there, then don’t do ED.</p>
<p>You signed an ED contract and colleges have remedies in the contract to go after you for breaching that contract. As Mr.Mom62 has told you; don’t back out because it will only hurt you and has the potential to hurt other students too.</p>
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Theoretically, yes, but that would never, ever happen in the real world. And it’s highly unlikely that a college would ask you to prove that your financial aid package is actually inadequate when you decline an ED admissions offer–your assertion to that effect is usually enough. No school is going to go to great lengths to force an unwilling applicant to attend. Why would they want someone like that on their campus? It’s the other concerns cited in post #2 that you have to worry about. And your conscience.</p>
<p>You won’t “pay” for it – others will.</p>
<p>Your HS will be blackballed and future applicants will pay for your impropriety – if you just drop out of the ED w/o a valid reason (deciding OOS is too far away is NOT a valid reason). Your classmates who will apply RD this year and those of future years can be pretty much assured of a rejection. Colleges take this very seriously and won’t blink an eye blanketly denying kids from your HS for several years.</p>
<p>Oh, and since this crap storm will fall on your guidance counselor’s head, whose assistance you’ll need for your other applications? Guess what? That hearty recommendation will disappear. I also hope you don’t have younger siblings at the HS too.</p>
<p>Since these are real issues, then you should NOT apply via ED and apply via RD instead. You’re about to be an adult. You need to start taking adult actions with adult responsibilities. You can’t take advantage of the benefits of ED and then screw them w/o paying for it.</p>
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I think it can happen in the real world. From CC “Ask Dean”
Even if you use the financial card to get out of your ED, other schools may not admit you because if you couldn’t afford college X then most likely you wouldn’t be able to afford college Y, especially for schools which meet full need.
I know at my kids’ school, no RD supporting docs (except for in state and rolling admission schools) go out until ED result is in because their GCs do not want to be burned.</p>
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<p>Let’s get real. If the ED school is unaffordable, you’re released from the contract, no questions asked and with no adverse repercussions.</p>
<p>And if your concern about leaving home is genuine, my guess is that you’ll be released from the contract with minimal, if any, consequences. The school doesn’t want force you to attend if you don’t want to be there. And, despite the contract, you’re only 17 (or thereabouts) and stuff happens that you can’t always predict. So, if your change of heart is genuine, and you thereafter limit your applications to schools closer to home, you’re probably fine. Despite what everyone says, your GC isn’t in this to screw you over either.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you approach ED with the attitude that you can do whatever you want, for any reason you want, and the rest of the world be damned . . . well, I’d guess you may not end up with the outcome you’re hoping for.</p>
<p>We didn’t have to sign a contract for D2’s ED school, but there are schools which require parents to sign the agreement. People do change their mind and circumstance do change, and if you are honest and upfront, your ED school may release you from it without any consequences. But the key here is you should try to be released from your ED school, or you may end up with no school to go to. If the school you are interested in do share their ED list, once you are released you would want to contact other schools so you would be considered for RD.</p>
<p>I think the bottom line is do not do ED unless it is your #1 choice.</p>
<p>Having insufficient aid is a good reason to withdraw from an ED offer, however, it only works if you are indeed not having sufficient aid. The reality is, you are likely not knowing the financial aid package from the other schools (except for some merit scholarships) before you need to reply to the ED. If you have already submitted application for ED, you may still contact the adcom to change it to RD before they start the evaluation.</p>
<p>At 2159 posts long, the answer is probably in this thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/826733-decline-early-decision-acceptance-offer.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/826733-decline-early-decision-acceptance-offer.html</a></p>
<p>Short version - They can’t make you attend. They can keep your deposit, if you made one. They can tell other schools they accepted you. They can tell other schools you declined your ED offer due to financial considerations. They can make it difficult for you to get accepted to other schools or to get FA packages from other schools. They can blackball your school and refuse admission to other grads now and in the future. (This does happen.) If the school has grad programs, you can probably forget about attending them. They won’t take you to court. The do have the ability to brand you as unethical and make life for you and anyone who allowed you to apply ED unpleasant, but they may not. Those who’s life you have made more difficult will have the right to be mad at you and in turn make your life even more difficult. If you get another offer you want to accept before they notify you, contact the ED school immediately and withdraw your application or switch to RD. Getting and ED offer with a FA package that would make it impossible to attend is a good reason to decline. Getting a “better” offer is not, unless they just happen to cross in the mail.</p>
<p>Take ED seriously, it’s not a game. Treating it as such can have serious consequences for you and others.</p>
<p>I’m thinking what the OP has in mind is having it both ways. The ED boost in admission odds is nice, the OP will take that, but then wants to wait until the spring when the other schools reply before making a final decision.</p>
<p>In the real world maybe this works and maybe it doesn’t. As other posts have pointed out, schools may share info on who they admit. At more savvy schools the GC is wise to this game, as pointed out in post #6. They won’t send out anything to your RD schools until they see you have pulled your ED app. They may even notify RD schools that you have an ED acceptance.</p>
<p>But don’t you have to tell them upon ED acceptance that you are unable to attend school due to finances? I don’t think you can wait until March when other aid packages come in.</p>
<p>Don’t apply ED if you 100 percent about the school, can afford based on the net-price calculator and are willing to pay the difference for THAT SCHOOL even if another comes back with more money.</p>
<p>@turtletime, I’m thinking OP’s scenario is this: He accepts the ED offer, keeps his other applications open, then after May 1 decides to tell the ED school he can’t afford to go after all and accepts elsewhere.</p>
<p>@old fort, I was commenting that no college would ever use its legal contract remedies–i.e., a lawsuit–in the event a student backs out of an ED commitment. I also suspect that it is exceedingly rare that anyone from admissions goes to the trouble of contacting other colleges about a broken ED commitment. Surely they have more pressing matters to attend to. I’m not trying to minimize how ill-advised it would be to take the OP’s suggested path; I just want to put some reality into the discussion.</p>
<p>You might be correct about no retaliation, with one exception - blackballing of the school the applicant came from, depending on how the back-out occurred. By holding the threat of blackballing of a school over a GCs head, they can exert considerable pressure with little to no effort on their part. The last thing a prestigious prep school needs is for word to leak out that if you go there, you have no chance of getting into Ivy X. I’ve heard rumors one of our most prestigious prep schools here in flyover-country was in the penalty box for 3-5 years with a certain East Coast school, but I’m not exactly sure of the circumstances.</p>