It does happen that an ED acceptance comes and the student simply changes his mind about going there. Some of students are really just kids, and buyers remorse is real. Or the parents change their mind. Suddenly State U at 1/3 the price, honors college, big merit looks might good. My youngest’s ED acceptance was preceded by a 1/2 cost merit award of about $38k per year from his second choice school that he really liked just fine. With a shot for a full ride to be announced in the spring. That’s a mighty tempting morsel there, enough to motivate many to break that ED contract. There was no financial aid application in the picture.
There is also misunderstanding and panic involved. I know several cases where the parents somehow got into their heads that they could do better with financial aid or their kid could do better in choice of schools. Yes, I’ve personally seen and heard of cases where the kid turned down ED legitimately—aid package the reason, and did not get better offers RD from other schools, or even getting accepted to peer schools. If it was because the aid was unaffordable, then none of those schools was affordable anyways. But if it was for the quest of more money for similar type school, it’s usually not going to happen because most of the time that ED package going to be the best a kid is gonna get from that category of school. Some colleges out and out say that they will guarantee to meet full need for ED, and they do not for RD applicants.
There are also valid reasons to break ED contracts. I personally know of a heart wrenching case of a student whose father needed a bone marrow transplant. She decided she would stay local for college and commute.
Sometimes there is a misunderstanding or miscommunication of a program or situation at the ED school. Who wants to pay $80k a year for a school that doesn’t have a crucial piece of what the student wants?
Then there are those gaming the system, still according to the letter of the rules but not in the spirit of it.
The high school GC is the one who has to give any breaking of such contracts the sniff test. Yes, his/her integrity along with the school’s can be on the line.