UMTYMP student

Although I agree that reneging on an ED offer for non-financial reasons is mildly unethical, I don't find it as terrible as some of the other posters because no party is seriously harmed. Although the colleges ends up accepting one more person which marginally increases the college's acceptance rate and decreases its yield rate, that doesn't seem like too serious of a loss for the college. Particularly, in the case of a change in career and academic plans the college would probably be better off with a different student as well.

marvin100

Colleges can revoke admission at any time, and ED is widely agreed not to be legally binding, so I don't see anything wrong with bailing on it. I actually find the collusion process Sally_Rubenstone claims to have participated in to be a far more ethically suspect convention.

absweetmarie

Okay, marvin100, let's review the so-called "collusion process" Sally_Rubenstone described:

This is not "collusion." This is a case where—surprise—someone who violated the terms of an agreement got caught! It is not "collusion" if one school shares information with another school in an effort to determine if applicants lied to them.

And as for this ...

Any philosophy professor worth his or her salt could wring a whole class period out of a discussion of whether an act can be "mildly unethical." Regardless, a school might well question your utilitarian conclusion that "no party is seriously harmed." You might not agree with what they consider to be "harm," but that's really beside the point. Accepting the terms of an agreement and then backing out on that agreement is not a good way for someone to start his or her adult life.

Bottom line: People should apply ED only when a school is the uncontested first choice. The terms are clear.

wmurphy126

I'm not sure why people are saying that the ED agreement is not a contract, it absolutely is a contract!

In the admission process, the school withholds the right to recind your application at any point in time.

Now, when you sign the ED agreement there are two parts of the agreement:

-The school may or may not accept you
-Depending on if the school accepts you, you agree to withdraw all applications and send in the non-refundable deposit.

The school agrees to this, the student agrees to it (by signing it), the parent agrees to it and sometimes even the guidance counselor signs off on it. so it is in fact a legally-binding contract!

Now, no school really would care enough to enforce this contract. I think what they should do is have the applicants send in the deposit before they get their acceptance. If they are accepted, the school would keep the money. If they are not accepted, the school would send back or refund the deposit. People must be held accountable.

vlines

6stars, a handshake is not a legal contract either. I really do not see applying to ED any different.

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cortana431

I backed out of my ED contract with Cornell this year. It was because I didn't get enough (or any) financial aid. My family didn't expect to get enough financial aid from cornell though, but we thought it was worth a shot for me to apply ed and see what happens, since regular decision wouldn't be any different.

There wasn't much interaction between cornell and me. I emailed the head of admissions and he emailed me a short letter, saying that I will be mailed confirmation of the withdrawal and that he was sorry the financial situation was not able to work out but that I will do well in whatever college I attend. My friends and guidance counselor were disappointed, but they totally understand.

Lafalum84

ED isn't a handshake. It's a signed contract. The student signs, and in my D's case the parents had to sign. I think the GC had to indicate she was aware of ED as well.

You may like or dislike ED, but it clearly states up front what you are committing to - it's not like anyone is trying to deceive an applicant about what they are committing to when they apply ED. If you do not intend to enroll when accepted, then don't apply ED. Its that simple. If you aren't sure yet, that's fine: don't apply ED. No one is telling 17 year olds that they HAVE to decide their future in September. ED is for those who ARE ready to decide.

If you have to renege due to financial concerns, that's fine. Otherwise, if you are not 100% positive that you want to attend College X, do not apply ED.

My D was accepted ED, and our biggest ethical temptation was to not formally withdraw her other applications - after all the hard work of 4 years of high school, hours spent on applications and listening to everyone else talk about where they got in, the temptation to wait until she had an answer (EA in all cases) from her other colleges before turning them down was strong. It wasn't a matter of wanting to collect "trophies" or to consider other options. It was just pure curiousity - COULD she have gotten in someplace else? In the end, we withdrew her other apps a week after receiving her ED acceptance. Two of the withdrawals crossed in the mail with EA acceptances, but the other two colleges... we'll never know if she'd have gotten in there. It's a choice she made when she decided to apply ED.

She is very happy at her ED school. It was a terrific fit for her - if it wasn't, we wouldn't have allowed her to apply ED, and we wouldn't have signed the ED agreement.

saintfan

As borntodance94 noted - when you are accepted ED you are filling a slot that would have otherwise been offered to some other student. Those students are now deferred from what was their top choice school which changes the entire trajectory of their college decision process. The idea that no party is "harmed" is only taking into account the unethical student (and parent who signed) and the college or university in question.

Dreadpirit

Sorry to burst your bubble but a handshake is indeed a binidng contract.

Typically, in order to be enforceable, a contract must have
1) A meeting of the minds - both sides agree
2) offer and acceptance - a specific deal being made
3) mutual consideration - something for both sides
4) delivery - one side needs to perform their part before they can enforce the contract

Since a minor cannot form a meeting of the minds (since they aren't of legal age) that is why a parent needs to sign the consent form.

As a practical matter, a school will never seek to force a person to enroll because it is just too much effort, but they will take whatever steps they feel are practical to make the students life uncomfortable - eg informing other schoolsl.

Descartesz

Sally:

Since NACAC considers ED a legitimate practice, why don't they have a common database by which all ED applicants in a year can be pooled and which could be consulted to prevent multiple ED applications and enforce withdraw of other applications after ED acceptance? Such a pool could allow for financially-motivated declines of ED offers by a certain date, but flag any subsequent applications made after the date. NACAC has a "space-available" data pool like this post-May 1. It seems the resources for an ED data pool would be similar.

Such a pool would partially curtail the privacy of an application, but such curtailment seems implicit in the ED agreement--if applicants apply ED, are accepted, and renege for non-financial reasons, it should be understood that their ED participation can be made public and that penalties might follow as a result.

I assume, too, that NACAC ethical practices make it the case that a school practicing ED also makes it a point not to leverage the commitment in their FA offers. Such schools should assure all ED applicants that FA offers extended are equivalent to those that would be made to RD applicants given the same set of financial factors. If this is not part of NACAC ethics, it ought to be.

MindySue

My son applied ED at his long-shot school, number 2 on his list. They traditionally provided great financial aid, and with a brother in college, we figured they would come though financially. Unfortunately. he got the reject letter. It did, however, get him going on all his essays, etc., so when he applied to all his other schools, it was a breeze...

9194Mom

Wow I guess I missed the memo that ED wasn't "really" binding in the case of financial aid. My D2 did not apply ED to her dream school because IF the financial aid package isn't there we cannot afford to send her. Historically the regular pool is much more competitive so now she's sitting in the RD pool with her fingers crossed. It's a shame that more and more kids and families aren't "playing by the rules" of ED. If you can't afford it without the package DO NOT apply ED it just seems simple.

Sally_Rubenstone

Descartesz--Back when I worked at Smith, the COFHE (Consortium of Financing Higher Education) colleges shared ED admitted-student lists, although I know that some schools have dropped that practice since. (I actually think Smith may be one of them, though I'm not sure.) While the broader exchange that you suggest (all NACAC members) certainly does seem to make some sense, I suspect that it has been discussed and dismissed ... possibly because of the privacy issues you raised but perhaps more likely because it would be an unnecessarily cumbersome process, given how relatively few ED applicants bail for non-financial reasons (even if those numbers do seem to be climbing a tad). But I'm just guessing here ... I have no inside scoop on this.

But re the financial aid issue: Although formula-based need-based aid is probably pretty consistent for Early Decision and Regular Decision applicants, I also know that some need-aware colleges will accept a borderline ED candidate who needs a lot of financial support but might deny that same candidate if he or she were to apply RD. NACAC does NOT allow colleges to give any special incentives to ED candidates that aren't available to RD candidates, too, but I suppose that the consideration I just mentioned doesn't officially count as an incentive. It's not like saying, "If you apply Early, you get your own bathroom with jetted tub."

The colleges would probably insist that need-based aid is the same at ED and RD time, if the candidate is admitted. And while, in theory, I suppose it's true, the RD kid with high need may get tossed out of the pile before the aid awards are even handed out.

lovestotravel

I thought my dd was VERY lucky.
She wanted to do ED at a school where I can get the Tuition Exchange Scholarship.
She knew from Junior year that she could go to the college I work at for free or we were going to choose from the list of TE schools and nothing off the list. We live in NY and there were great schools in PA but we also looked in DE and CT.
Her ED choice in PA told her they would do an early read on her before she applies ED/Tuiton Exchange. We sent in all the necessary paperwork (her school had the girls complete their CommonApp by Oct.) and her HS college advisor sent in her transcripts (along with her SAT scores). Three days later, my dd received an e-mail, outlining that she would get the tuition exchange (plus a little extra) if she applied ED.
We (School, parents, student) had to "sign" an ED agreement and off she sent her CommonApp and all other information.
She only applied to one school since she "knew" she wanted ED and she "knew" her ED school was going to be an admission yes. Her acceptance was sent to her about a week or two before Thanksgiving.

charlieschm

I would hope that guidance counselors would refuse to cooperate if a student is submitting two or more early decision applications - if they keep track of it and notice it.