How "binding" is Early Decision?

[varitek33]

To all of you who have spent the time to reply, I want to thank you. I also want to be honest and tell you that I personally agree with the ethic issue many of you mentioned. The dad though, does not.

In terms of setting an example for his S, I can tell you that he has not told him that he is not certain if he will be sending him (if admitted ); the S is clueless regarding this possibility. Yes, the dad is being a jerk. Also, as I mentioned, the dad's indecision is NOT based on the financial package. Therefore this is not his "out".

I noticed a few of you referring to this as a "game" - I agree, which is precisely why I started this thread. I feel somewhat cheated when I hear families doing this. As a parent I took the "ED" decision very seriously, and assumed others do too.

Oh, more thing, about waiting for next summer... I think the dad is prepared to lose the deposit. Also, for those who mentioned the deadline regarding other schools, I believe he has already applied to other schools (reg. decision), so the gc has sent necessary information.

Question: Does the gc notify other schools if the S is accepted? Or is this the responsibility of the student? (I assumed student has the responsibility)

I started this thread more to clarify what the obligation is regarding ED. I thought it was "binding". I thought the only "out" was inability to pay when the financial package was determined. I kind of argued this point the other night, although I did mention that I was not certain. This was how I understood it. I suppose the Dad is not concerned about disappointing his S and setting a poor example for him, should the Dad decide not to send him. I was not trying to analyze the dad's ethics (or lack of). By the way, I agree, it's a lousy thing to do - to the school and to his kid (and potentially to other graduates of his kid's hs if the colleges penalize the gc/school in the future). This however was not the reason I asked the question.

Thanks all. And now I wonder if many people out there "abuse" the ED process.

[Erin's Dad]

possibly mess up the ED chances of any students from that high school applying to the same college in the next few years

I think Slithey Tove is correct here.

The parent of a hs Junior within this dinner group was happy to hear this sentiment, following up with, "This is great. I'll have my D apply ED next year to get the benefit of ED, without worrying about if we are really ready for the commitment."

This parent shouldn't count on that ED boost.

[sybbie719]

The "binding" part of ED is honor bound. What the student, parent, and school is saying that in exchange for an early decision, if accepted, I will attend, withdraw all outstanding applications and I will not make any new applications.

Can anyone make a student attend the ED school? No. The school does not want a student who really does not want to be there. Can there be ramifications for applying ED and not following through? Absolutely!!

For example:

On Princeton's Undergraduate Admissions and application instructions on the last page is the Joint Statement on Common Ivy Group Admissions Procedure.

Under Early Decision it states:

Under December Notification, an applicant may be notified that he or she has been granted or denied admission or that a final decision has been deferred until the late March/early April notification date. Two plans are offered according to individual institutional policy:

A.The College Board-approved Early Decision Plan, which is offered by Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, and the University of Pennsylvania, requires a prior commitment to matriculate.

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 that has been made to another college under this plan


http://www.princeton.edu/admission/p...nstr_11_12.pdf

http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/imag...nGuide2013.pdf

There is also a professional ethical responsbility on the part of the high school and its administration. Even if the student and the parent attempt to "game" the system, many schools will not go along with it especially because they will have students applying to those same schools either in the RD round or during subsequent years. The school will not sacrifice future students for the sake of one student who wants to "abuse" the process.

High schools are dependent on maintaining good relationships with their regional college representatives. Remember, these are the same people that you will be inviting to your school college fairs and will be interacting with when they hold open houses in your city/town. I know at my school, if a student is accepted ED (and we follow up with regional admissions person after the decisions are made), the process stops until we receive in writing and confirmation from the school that the student has withdrawn the application. Nothing further is sent out on the students behalf: no transcripts, evaluations, recommendation letters,e tc. When the school contacts us regarding missing pieces of the application, we inform the school that the student was accepted ED to another school (and we received/did not receive confirmation that the student is attending) and let the college take it from there.

At the end of the school year, only one final transcript is mailed out. It is the student/parent responsibility that we are informed of the college the student is attending. IF a student is accepted off of the wait list, they have to bring in proof that they are attending the school before another final transcript is sent.

[thumper1]

The parent of the high school JUNIOR should think about this. If students start to pull out of an ED acceptance, for reasons other than finances, the college will likely look negatively at students from that high school who apply in the future.

Really, the ED application is a contract. I honestly wish this WAS enforced more diligently. If this senior gets accepted ED, and doesn't attend, he selfishly has taken a spot away from another ED applicant who WOULD have attended.

Selfish, self centered...that is my opinion.

[thumper1]

P.S. the kid will NOT be able to wait until summer to decide. He will be given a VERY short window of time to either accept or not the ED offer of admission. If he says YES, he is required to withdraw all other applications and acceptances immediately.

[surfcity]

Question: Does the gc notify other schools if the S is accepted? Or is this the responsibility of the student? (I assumed student has the responsibility)


^^YES - we had the same questions, how can an ED be truly binding? Our GC explained that they are obligated to notify any other schools they have sent transcripts to. It is in their best interests too, to ensure that no one from their school is "gaming" the system. And the schools do talk!

[happymomof1]

re: waiting to decide in the summer

Students change their minds about college attendance up until the first day of class. No one will put a gun to the kid's head and force him/her to attend. The family will probably lose all deposits, but that is it.

re: other colleges/universities paying attention to an ED decision

The institutions that are playing that game do pay attention, and they do care. However, the majority of institutions in the country don't play that game and simply do not give a rip about it. If the student wants to play the ED game, it behooves him/her to pay attention to which colleges/universities on his/her list are also playing it.

[JHS]

Sybbie knows what she's talking about, but let me add a few observations of my own.

1. It's true that the ED "contract" is somewhat less binding than is often pretended, but it's a lot more binding than the father in the OP's story thinks.

As a practical matter, anyone accepted ED is free to turn down the acceptance in the 2-4 week period provided in December-January. In theory, only inadequate financial aid is a proper ground for non-acceptance, but I don't think any college is going to get tough with a student backing out at that point.

However, it's a pretty tough decision to back out at that point. Most students will not have another equivalent acceptance in hand, and won't be in a position to compare financial aid offers. Regardless of gaming, most students apply ED to colleges very near the top of their lists, if not always #1. When a student turns down an ED admission, that's that for the college -- he can't go back into the RD pool. So turning down ED means turning down a great choice and great opportunity (not to mention a free pass out of all kinds of anxiety and tension) for a big black box that could have nothing good in it. When push comes to shove, very few students/families make that choice.

2. There's little question that if a college admissions office gets any sense that students at a particular school are playing games with ED, and especially if the GCs at the school are aiding and abetting, it will be very tough to gain admission from that school. If I were in admissions, I would be absolutely ruthless with this.

Knowledgeable GCs feel a lot of pressure to protect the ED system. They should refuse to send rec letters, profiles, transcripts to any other colleges on behalf of a student who has been accepted ED and not turned it down. They should enforce informing colleges with outstanding applications that those applications are withdrawn. There may be some unsophisticated GCs (and homeschool GCs) who don't understand this, but they are not going to get many opportunities to screw up again.

3. The father in the story was talking about making a decision in the summer. He can do that. He's right that colleges will not go to the mat to force a reluctant student to attend, or to force a reluctant parent to send his child AND pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege. But the consequence will be that the student will not have a college to go to that year, or will only be able to go to a college that is essentially open enrollment. At highly-regarded colleges, this is something that happens in one or two cases a year.

At that point, ED has nothing to do with anything. The student will have made a deposit and agreed to enroll, and will be backing out and losing his deposit just as would happen if he had been accepted RD.

I'm sure many more people think of doing this than actually do it. Assuming the kid in the OP's story gets accepted ED, I bet his family won't do this, either.

[intparent]

The OP mentioned that the kid already has his regular decision applications in. I would think the part that will trip him up is the mid-year report (due before the final transcript). Hopefully the GC will refuse to send them to the other schools if the kid has accepted an ED slot and paid a deposit. If I were a GC, that is what I would do! This kid could end up really POed at his dad (rightly so).

[notrichenough]

Typically, when a student applies ED, the PARENTS and the high school,in addition to the student, must sign an agreement. So, it doesn't matter if the child isn't 18 yet.

You can't legally bind someone else to a contract.

For example, I (the parent) cannot sign a contract that forces my kid to enlist the army.

The kid is the one legally responsible for paying the bill (assuming they are 18 by the time the college starts), and the parent can't sign a contract that commits the kid to paying it.

IANAL, this is just my analysis of it.

[intparent]

I think there is general agreement that the contact is not legally enforceable, and if the kid wants out they will get out, losing only their deposit. It seems like the firewall against dishonest parties like this is the GC... they have something to lose AND some ability to control pieces of the puzzle. Of course, the parents probably end up mad at the GC in this situation if the GC refuses to play along... hoping the GC has strong administration backing!

[SlitheyTove]

Oh, more thing, about waiting for next summer... I think the dad is prepared to lose the deposit. Also, for those who mentioned the deadline regarding other schools, I believe he has already applied to other schools (reg. decision), so the gc has sent necessary information.

In addition to all of the caveats listed by sybbie and JHS, if those other schools are Common App schools, I'm not sure it'll make any difference that he's already submitted for RD. If that's the case, I think the dad is playing with fire. Losing the deposit is the least of it. He may be setting his kid up to have all acceptances withdrawn, including the ED offer.

[notrichenough]

He may be setting his kid up to have all acceptances withdrawn, including the ED offer.

This is sort of a vague threat that gets waved around, but really in practice how many schools will actually do this?

Maybe the Ivies or a few other top-50 schools.

My guess is that most schools don't care, and don't have the man-power to try to track this anyway.

[SlitheyTove]

notrichenough, sure, it might end up being an empty threat. I can't understand why anyone would bet their child's future on that. Just not worth it.

[JHS]

The issue would be that the GCs would not send out mid-year transcripts or final transcripts other than to the ED college, and would inform any other colleges that the student had been accepted ED at X College and had agreed to enroll. It would be unlikely that any other college would accept him at that point, and completely likely that any previous acceptances (which would certainly have been conditioned on things like getting transcripts) would be withdrawn.

There may be some colleges that would accept the kid anyway, or not withdraw an acceptance, but not the sort of colleges that might have their own ED program.