I am a senior in high school attending a T80 LAC next year. My research suggests it’s a pretty poor fit for me and lacks in the academics I need. So you may be asking, well why the heck would I sign a binding agreement to go there? Well, ignorance. I mostly applied ED due to internal pressure, prestige-chasing, and lack of real knowledge about the school. Looking back on it, this was really stupid. When I got admitted, I couldn’t back out because my financial aid package was a near full ride, and if I just opted out for no real reason, my counselor would’ve told all of my schools.
I’m a decently competitive applicant (waitlisted at many schools fly-ins and repeatedly told I’m an ideal candidate) and I didn’t get to see my admissions results to many top schools. There’s nowhere I’ve been rejected from yet. I’ve let the idea of attending this school rest on my tongue for a few months, but still, all I taste is sour.
So I made a dumb decision, and at this point, I have two choices. I am looking for advice on which is best. Either I attend community college or I “try out” this school for my first year and play it by ear. However, this will be given the expectation I will attempt to transfer out. My state school is not an option (SUNY) because for several reasons I do not want to attend one. I really don’t want to wait another year before attending college, so I’m not exactly keen on a gap year.
For more context, I am hoping to explore my major in college whilst ending up in a financially stable career, hence why I am going the LAC route. If I had to provide my interests, it’s probably gonna lean towards economics or computer science.
I would go to your ED school and give it a try. What evidence do you have that’s it’s lacking in academics?
Note that transfers often get less financial aid than incoming first years at many schools, so your financial situation may be a limiting constraint if you choose to transfer at any point (after attending this LAC, or community college).
Have you pulled all your other applications? Have you declined acceptances at all the schools that have accepted you (except the ED school)?
A third option is that you “try out” your ED school, like it, and stay.
It’s VERY common for students, ED or not, to get cold feet at this stage. You talked yourself into this schools for multiple reasons. Go in with the attitude that it is indeed THE school. Plan to transfer out if you’re shown otherwise.
If you decide not to attend your ED school, then work for a year. Post your stats, ECs, and interests (such as intended major & career plans) to get suggestions from readers/posters before applying again.
Otherwise, attend your ED school, work hard to earn high grades, & decide whether or not you like it. If not, then transfer.
Your post reminds me of a thread from a few years ago. The young lady did not apply ED, but she was swayed by a near full ride to a small LAC (Knox College) in Illinois. Was very excited to attend, but transferred out after one year. Might be helpful to read her thread(s) if you can find it.
I see a lot of inconsistencies in your heartfelt post:
“lacking in academics I need” yet you want to “explore” your major and “lean towards…” and you were pressured because of “prestige-chasing”
If you applied ED, you should NOT be receiving ANY acceptances! Once you received ED acceptance, you needed to pull applications.
You, your parents, and your HS counselor signed a BINDING agreement to pull and to attend.
How in the world can you be on wait lists for fly-ins when you are commited to your ED school?
Also, practically all letters talk about someone being an “ideal candidate”.
Notwithstanding the BINDING agreement, if you are offered “nearly a full-ride” I recommend you take it! How wonderful not to be graduating with years of debt! You are so fortunate!! If you were to transfer from CC or even your ED school, keep in mind that merit and scholarships (since you are a “competitive candidate”) are typically not as generous for transfers (but if your financial package is based on family finances, then it shouldn’t matter).
I recommend you “try out” this school. However, if you want any chance of enjoyment and success, you should go in with a positive attitude and imagine yourself there for multiple years. If you go in thinking you are just there to observe and “try [it] out” you are setting yourself up for dislike rather than getting involved and feeling like it is a place you can enjoy and stay.
You need to pull those other applications TODAY (unless you are purposefully keeping them so that your ED school rescinds their offer!). Your counselor should have advised you of this upon ED acceptance.
This is a very important question that will have an impact on your future, so I suggest you answer these questions and hope it will be easier for you to make a decision:
What parts of the T80 LAC don’t quite hit the mark for you?
Do you have a solid sense of what you want to major in, or could you use more time to explore what really sparks your interest?
How sure are you about your ability to handle any obstacles that might come your way at the T80 LAC?
Would you consider taking a gap year to give yourself more time to find schools that might be a better fit with what you’re hoping to achieve?
I think you should go to the school where you ED’d. I think it’s normal to have cold feet and second thoughts, but you already made this decision and you should stick with it and give the school a chance. Revisit why you and your family decided to ED. I had a friend last year that had major regrets about the school she ED’d to, but she’s there now and loving it.
On another note, I’m getting increasingly frustrated seeing these posts (there are lots on Reddit) or posts from people who got into their ED but didn’t withdraw and are now having second thoughts or trying to compare financials. I’m not saying OP did, but I feel like a lot of people are gaming the system with their ED and not really treating it like a binding decision. I didn’t ED last year because I saw it as such a big decision and I was worried I might regret it and my family wanted to compare prices so I just get frustrated now when some people are using the ED advantage but then still keeping their options open. sigh.
You should go to your ED school. You promised to go there, if accepted, when you applied ED. You should attend the entire first year before even thinking about transferring. Even for students who are thrilled with their college choice, the first semester is often more difficult – both socially and academically – than expected. Usually those troubles start to fade by the second semester, so you need to be prepared to give it a fair chance with a good attitude. Many adults are not very good at following through on the promises they make, and I don’t recommend you start a precedent of doing that right out of the gate.
A contract entered into by competent adults (parents and counselors) is always legally binding. So far schools have chose not to pursue legal actions in civil courts for whatever reason is not the same as saying “not legally binding.”
Just to tell you where I am coming from: One daughter wanted to attend a small school. She had the stats for the top LACs in the northeast (where we live), and we toured Bowdoin college twice. However, we did not have the budget for the top LACs in the northeast (my being retired did not help). She instead attended a small university in Canada – basically the Canadian equivalent to a LAC. The school that she attended is nearly completely unknown here in the USA. Her friends in high school were asking her “where?”. Once we got to Canada, the reaction changed to “great school”. She got a great education, did very well in her classes, and got to know her professors. Getting to know your professors is part of the advantages of small universities and LACs. Knowing her professors led to very good research opportunities. Then she graduated and got a great job back here in the US that at least to me sounded very similar to what she had already been doing when she was in university. One boyfriend was a CS major (since you mentioned CS) and had very good internships.
You can get a great education at a “top 80” LAC.
Since we do not know where you were accepted, we cannot guess how strong your school is for economics or computer science. There are certainly many colleges and universities that are very good for both economics and CS. Economics is an area where some graduate school is likely (and you can attend a very good master’s degree program after graduating from any one of a huge range of colleges and universities). CS is very employable for students graduating from a very wide range of colleges and universities. “A near full ride” is also very good – graduating university with little or even better no debt will help you out quite a bit.
By the way, several of the SUNY’s are also very good for CS and for economics. Since you are in-state they also can be quite affordable.
Not knowing where you were accepted, nonetheless I am expecting that it will be a better choice compared to community college. My inclination would be to go to your ED school, do the best that you can. If you like it, stay. If you do not like it, then I think that you should take a close look at several of the SUNY’s and seriously consider transferring to one of them. They really are very good schools.
I think if it was me, I would be having a classic case of buyers remorse. I got in, so I must be able to do better and question why I settled for a “lessor” option when I could have applied to a T10 LAC (or whatever).
I would blame my counselor / parents/ or whoever told me to apply.
Simple human nature to always want a little more than what we have.
On the other hand, if I got rejected, then forever it would have been the perfect fit for me…
Not sure if another covered - but this means a lot !!
I couldn’t back out because my financial aid package was a near full ride,
So many people have tradeoffs.
One trade off is - if you can’t afford something, you might end up making a choice that isn’t your top choice. But someone loved you enough to allow you to make this choice!!
Many thousands do this.
So you go to a community college and transfer. Guess what - many schools that meet need don’t for transfer or become need aware, etc.
The truth is - the first day one steps on campus - every single person has no idea if it’s a good fit. They think…they hope. They call it the dream school. But they don’t know and many of these folks realize that their dream was actually a nightmare. Maybe the roommate or social situation isn’t good or food isn’t good or profs stink or it’s too far from mom, etc. On the flip side, people go to schools that aren’t their top choice - albeit money, distance, that they were accepted or something else. And guess what - they look back and can’t have imagined themselves anywhere else. And that very well could happen to you!!
Bottom line - you have someone willing to pay for you to go to school - and that is the MOST IMPORTANT factor - because if you can’t afford an education, then you can’t get one.
And you can.
You picked the school for a reason. Go forth. Learn, get involved, make it a great experience
.
And then you’ll be great in life!!
If for some reason it doesn’t work out, then you can pivot later.
But hopefully you won’t need to.
The reality is - there’s likely many schools where you could succeed at - this one may be one or may not be.
But they are giving you that affordable opportunity - and that means a lot!!
You can get out of an ED agreement if your financial aid offer is bad enough. Or you can try to get rescinded, I have no idea how that would turn out but it’s worth a shot if you have no other options.
I note one reason they do not need to go to court for enforcement is that all college admissions offers are contingent on ethical good behavior, and therefore colleges can rescind offers if they believe the offer holder behaved unethically when applying to colleges. The implicit enforcement threat when violating an ED agreement unethically is that other colleges will find out and rescind their offers. And no college needs to go to court to make that happen.
What our highly paid legal firm says is that the ED agreement is not a contract. Obviously I can’t share more details here, but did find a somewhat similar opinion on the web. If anyone wants that, they can PM me.
I think your highly paid legal team needs to revisit the definition of a contract.
It is true like employment contracts, no body can make you go. But it doesn’t mean you can’t be sued to recover damages. Colleges historically have not chose to go that far.