My son was just accepted ED with the usual commitment; however, is being recruited for a sport and would prefer to go to a different school he is being recruited for rather than at the school which admitted him ED. Can he break the ED commit with the first school on the basis he was not recruited by the ED school, and he has been recruited to the other school he would like to attend?
No. This is not an acceptable reason to break the contract. Only acceptable reason is if the financial aid offer still makes it impossible to pay the tuition.
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He can break the ED commitment (nobody is going to come audit him about the reason or try to enforce the contract) but many feel it is bad taste/unethical to apply ED and then pull out for reasons other than financial.
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No -
this is why kids shouldnât use ED.
If thereâs âanyâ chance you are not going to honor it, then one shouldnât do it.
Can he be legally tied ?
No
Should he break it?
No
If the school found out his plan, could they make the coach aware? Probably but would never happen.
But if you let him break his commitments now, then what lesson are you teaching?
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Also, what about the follow on questions â if he EDed at the 1st school, presumably he loves it. Does he love the 2nd school as much, leaving sports out of it?
Can he play his sport at the 1st school?
Finally, itâs really late in the recruiting cycle â will your son get playing time at all, assuming due to the timing that heâs not an impact player? (On my sonâs college soccer team every year there are recruited kids that get zero playing time. Some years there are cuts, to recruits).
Answering those questions may make him more comfortable with his decision.
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Just because they havenât done it in the past dosenât mean that they wonât start. It is a legally binding contract and breaking it can cause you to be sued for breach of contract.
Highly rejective schools arenât going to go after an ED applicant who pulls out - because every ED applicant who does could just say âoops, actually we canât afford thisâ. Colleges arenât going to spend time and energy trying to proveâŠhey actually that family can!
They would also have to show damages and since they all point out over and over again how they could fill their class many times over without diluting quality - they can easily fill that spot.
Is it unethical to apply ED, get accepted and pull out for reasons other than financial? Yup. But applicants can do so.
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It is not a legal contract.
That doesnât mean itâs right. The biggest issue is that the student is harming the coachâs recruiting class.
So, can he? Yes. Might there be consequences? Yes. Is it unethical? Yes.
He canât be forced to attend the ED school, but he might lose admission or scholarship money among other ramifications at another school.
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I may lack ethics here but if your kid can play a sport at school number two and really wants to and canât play at ED school then bailing on the ED school wonât bankrupt them.
I mean I donât think you should go in planning something like this but it sounds like new info/opportunities have arisen.
ED is a college scam set up to only benefit collegesâpromise youâll pay and we might let you in! I donât feel bad for the ED college at all in this situation. Iâm sure theyâll find a replacement student in the next 9 months!
And I donât see any harm to the ED college coach since your kid wasnât being recruited by them.
But I donât know the legality/contract issue at all.
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Agree itâs a scam but itâs still wrong - and if the âathleteâ had potential, theyâd not have taken this tact to begin with.
That would make a good topic for a threadâŠis ED a scam?
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I agree that itâs not optimal, and itâs not a great lesson about keeping your word, but it seems the student could pull out since no harm is going to come to the school by his backing out (since he was not recruited).
If the student is waiting for a financial aid offer, maybe when it comes, if it is less than was indicated on the NPC, the ED offer could be rejected on that basis, since that is an acceptable basis.
But I donât think a student should be locked into a 4 year contract that benefits no one and may actively harm the student if he is intent on playing the sport, because of a âprinicipleâ when the principle itself is designed to benefit the universities at the expense of the students. The student has one life while the university has many students to take that studentâs place without affecting the team or the coach since the student wasnât recruited.
Finally, I would wait a while before deciding what to do; research the other school, visit with the coach and the team and see if it is really looks like a wonderful group and a positive coach and a real opportunity to play. The first school was apparently a great fit a month ago, and you donât want to make a decision to break a contract and choose a different school when this monthâs emotions may also change.
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I think only less bad reason to break for a sport is if the reason is going from D3 or D2 to a D1 school. That is a completely different type of athletic program. Otherwise just going from one D3 to another D3 seems extra bad although not âillegalâ
In this scenario, your son simply would be breaking his ED contract based on a change in his opportunities, an aspect that could apply to many who sign such contracts. In terms of repercussions, his decision â presumably yet to be made â could reflect on his high school and guidance counselor.
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Putting aside the ethics of backing out of an ED admit, I wouldnât put aside a sure-thing acceptance based on the verbal statements of a coach made in December of senior year.
Coaches do not make the final decisions about admissions or financial aid. Coaches are also known to leave schools after recruiting athletes and the athletesâ playing time and/or scholarships disappear. And it is very late in the game for recruitment, which suggests your son was not a first choice/top recruit and will be treated accordingly.
It is flattering to have a coach want you, but I donât think a student should attend a school they would not consider if not for the athletics. They are always one injury away from losing a spot on the team and athletic scholarships; would they want to be at that school then?
So I think there are both ethical reasons and practical reasons to not jump ship.
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I think itâs selfish. From my high school, someone did something similar a few years ago. Nobody has gotten into the school for years; we seem to be blacklisted. Think about who else your decision would impact before choosing.
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If you think ED is a scam, donât play. People who ED do so because they believe it conveys a benefit to them. It shows a lack of morals to me to not live up to your side of the bargain. Just because this involves a sport, there is no moral difference between this and a kid who gets in a âbetterâ RD or EA school and tries to get out of the ED commitment, assuming there is not a legit financial reason.
Separately, and as a practical matter, if all we care about are selfish benefits, have you or your kid informed the coach of the second college that he has an ED acceptance in hand? Are that coach and that school wiling to be a party to this? If you have not and will not tell them, obviously you know this is wrong. What are the consequences if the second school finds out? Your kid could end up with no college if the second school rescinds admission because they feel you and your kid acted unethically. Finally, for your kid to be recruited this late, most likely he will be the at the bottom of the depth chart. Will he be good with that?
At some point you and your kid felt good enough about the first school that he was willing to ED to it. Itâs not like going there is forcing him to go to Siberia.
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This thread is a bit of a mix of feelings and (some correct, some incorrect) details - so getting to the key question, which I think @beebee3 answered:
Thatâs not a valid âbasisâ to break the ED agreement that your son signed with the college (and possibly with his HS). The only basis in ED agreements is financial. If you asked the college, they will tell you no.
But can he break the ED agreement anyway? Sure, in that is not a legally binding contract with any recourse towards you, and you can come up with a different reason, though this would need to be a conversation that involves your HS college counseling team, since they will get asked about it and it could reflect poorly on them in the future. Itâs not great but that doesnât mean people donât do it. You can manage your own decisions.
As others have said, you definitely donât want to break an ED agreement over the possibility that you may get recruited by an athletic team - you would want certainty of admission - and it is unusual in virtually all sports (but not unheard of) that this conversation would still be going on now. (Maybe the school didnât fill all its slots like it planned, etc.)
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I fully understand why this new opportunity would make your son question whether he can renege on his ED commitment.
However, this isnât much different from the hypothetical kid who gets a surprise full-ride scholarship offer from another school, and suddenly full-paying for their ED school doesnât look so great, even though they can afford it and understood that they were committing to do so. And that is not considered an acceptable reason to break an ED agreement. (Whereas, an unacceptable financial aid offer would be an acceptable reason, or some sort of family tragedy that completely alters the studentâs ability to attend the ED school.)
One possible way out of this impasse: Is it possible that the recruiting coach would be willing to guarantee a roster spot if your son took a gap year and matriculated the following year? Iâm not exactly sure how the rules would apply to such a situation, but I think that if the student did not matriculate anywhere in the year they were admitted for, then breaking the ED commitment could be more acceptable, and heâd have a clean slate for the new admissions cycle. (And maybe he could also train during that year and avoid the benchwarmer problem that others have mentionedâŠ) Maybe this wouldnât work for you, but just a thought.
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Thanks for the comments everyone. First off, heâs being recruited for track and field and many offers are later than what timing would be for football and basketball; plus his times recently improved considerably. ED School 1 is a D1 school he would be a walk on; School 2 is a D3 school but would offer him financial support and he would be an integral part of the team. He sent his ED application in, then was contacted by the other school and was made an offer at the other school. The whole process was after he sent in his ED app. His current club coaches told him that this happens all the time but he and I are questioning whether this is actually possible. The coaches are telling him itâs the same thing as when players sign a letter of intent then change their mind. Perhaps weâre misinformed by his current coaches. We told the college coach that is recruiting him that he was accepted with an ED application so the coach is telling us we have to be released from our commitment to the school then he will confirm his spot at school 2. We may just need to stick with ED school. He will be happy there even if a walk on. Comments are appreciated, thanks everyone.
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