Potential ED agreement breaking with ED2 and not withdrawing apps?

Applying to College
1

Hi all,

I will try to keep this short, but my apologies if this ends up being a long post. I will try to create a concise TL;DR at the end.

My current situation: I was accepted to UChicago under the ED2 decision plan, yet as of now I have not withdrawn my apps. Why? I completely forgot. Simply put, my life has been extremely busy and I forgot to withdraw my apps/forgot that withdrawing was part of the agreement. I 100% admit and agree that I am fault for this. There is no excuse for not having withdrawn my apps (especially when I agreed to by signing the ED contract). At this point, I think I have a fairly good understanding of my situation. I have already received decisions from three schools (after not withdrawing my apps). Currently, the apps that I have not withdrawn are Duke University, UC Berkeley, and a few Ivy League schools. Duke comes out on March 29 (at this time of post, practically tomorrow), and Ivy decisions will be released on March 30 (at this time of post, practically two days from now). The way I see it, there are the current pros/cons of withdrawing my apps.

Pros (of withdrawing):
-It is the morally right/polite thing to do
-It abides by my contract
-It would possibly open up a spot for another student
-I will be safe from any worry of consequence on UChicago’s part

Cons (of withdrawing):
-I will not know whether or not I could have been accepted into other schools

Evidently, the pros outweigh the cons - I should withdraw my apps. However, I am the slightest bit hesitant. Seeing as decisions are being released in the immediate future, I am left wondering whether or not my withdrawal will make a difference. At this point, aren’t decisions finalized? It seems possible that withdrawing my apps would not open up a spot for any student. If this is the case, I would prefer to keep my apps in. If another student will not benefit from my withdrawal, I would rather find out about my decisions and afterwards immediately decline offers of admission (if they are there). Additionally, I have already “broken” my ED contract by getting admission decisions from two schools. While I am definitely not supporting this “in too deep” mentality, I am still debating what to do.

Of course, if the above paragraph is not the case, I have no problem with immediately sending emails to my remaining colleges and letting them know that I would like my applications removed. I would like to reiterate that I am fully aware of my obligation to withdraw my apps, it’s just that my flawed curiosity is leading me to wonder about the alternative case.

So College Confidential, could you help me sort my situation out? I fully acknowledge both sides of the “app withdrawal” argument; my main curiosity is regarding whether or not pulling my applications will have any effect. I am also wondering about the potential consequences of not withdrawing my apps. Would UChicago rescind me (if so, has anyone heard of this happening in the past?). I feel as though UChicago would at least contact me regarding withdrawing my apps, and I would like to mention that UChicago has not contacted me about this at all, which leads me to believe that they are unaware that I haven’t withdrawn my applications. Please help me make this decision.

TL;DR
I was accepted to UChicago ED2 (and have already committed), but I haven’t withdrawn any applications (and I have already broken the ED agreement by receiving decisions from three schools). If I could have help answering the following questions, I would greatly appreciate it.

  1. Would withdrawing my apps today (practically tomorrow) have any effect on other students’ admissions decisions, seeing as the remaining decisions are only one/two days away?
  2. Would UChicago realistically rescind me for not withdrawing my applications? And if so, would they contact me with an inquiry before “officially” rescinding me?
    I am fully aware of why I should withdraw my applications, so I would appreciate it if I am not overwhelmed with comments explaining why I should withdraw. I would greatly appreciate it if my questions could be answered. I just want a complete picture of my situation before making a decision.

Thank you all in advance!

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  1. At this point withdrawing your application would more than likely not have any effect on other student’s decisions. You withdrawing your application at this point wouldn’t allow another student to be accepted, it would just protect the college’s yield.
  2. I’m not sure what UChicago would do. I doubt they are aware you haven’t withdrawn your applications as I don’t think all the colleges communicate about something like that. If you’re super worried about I would go ahead and withdraw your applications and explain the situation to UChicago and that you simply forgot. I would assume they would be fairly understanding as admissions offices are very aware of all the stresses of senior year. However, while at the very least a little morally ambiguous, I don’t think you would get rescinded for not withdrawing your other applications. But I’m not totally sure on that.
3

Do it tonight. Send an email to every school on your list and withdraw or turn them down, and pray that UChicago doesn’t find out. And honestly… I don’t buy the “I forgot” line for a second. And neither will that if they find out. Don’t worry about anyone else’s status, and park your ego to go do what you should have done weeks ago.

Adding to this, even if you “forgot”, you knew the minute the next acceptance came. And YES, you have likely denied other students an acceptance. Let’s say they decide to admit 1500 students, knowing only a certain % will accept. You took one of those 1500 slots, and kid 1501 went to the waitlist. They may never pull from the waitlist at all if yield is good this year. So yeah… you screwed that kid. Go fix this immediately. If I found out, I’d sure rescind you. And don’t be so sure a friend or guidance counselor won’t tell, either.

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You need to withdraw your other apps ASAP.

5

There is no “potential” breaking of the contract. You definitely broke it, and you’ve known it since the first acceptance letter came in (if not well before). When you signed the ED CONTRACT you gave up your right to know whether or not other schools would accept you. You can’t accept the benefits without accepting the costs of an ED contract. It is all about character and integrity.

Why do I have the feeling that come tomorrow you’ll be asking if it’s okay for you to completely break the contract and attend another school instead because of your “mistake”?

1 Like
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You know what you need to do. Withdraw your other apps. Now. Waiting just to see if. you get in is not the right thing to do and you know that. Even if you did “forget”, as soon as you “remembered” you needed to cancel the other apps.

7

Are you going to Chicago? You paid the deposit? If so, then send a withdrawal to the rest right now. All of the,. Yes, you MAY still see your decision for some, but try to avoid it as this is trouble. It’s ED 2, so you naturally would get a few decisions before you acceted your spot. Buy by now, you should have done this. No excuses. If you don’t do it now, the risk of consequences will be deserved bc now you know you must do it asap!

You have no right to know those decisions, btw. They are all denials. Why? BC they all deny a candidate bound to an ED contract. That is all you need to know.

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Your post makes me very angry. By signing the ED contract you gave up the right to know if you would get into these other schools, which I assume are all Ivies since they are notifying in the next few days. In the time you took to craft your post, you could have emailed EVERY one of the admissions offices to withdraw.

Extremely poor form. Someday your lack of conscience may catch up with you.

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Yikes. I would withdraw them ASAP. Morally wrong. No offense, but I don’t get how you “forgot” to withdraw them. Did you really forget or were you curious about your other decisions? As other people have said, you have no right to them. UChicago is a fabulous school. If this genuinely was a mistake, please learn and prepare yourself for the future. This could have (and still could) end badly.

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I don’t know why you are asking (other than to find out if U Chicago will refund you) since you are already planning on not withdrawing. Why get everyone here annoyed?

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In the amount of time you took to write this post you could have withdrawn your other applications.

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I also notice you created a new user ID for this (first post). You know exactly how sleazy this is.

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The foundation for success is character and integrity. Do the right thing. You know what it is and shouldn’t even have to ask.

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in·teg·ri·ty
inˈteɡrədē/
noun
1.
the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.

smh
You know how ED contracts work. That is some real shady $hit you have got going on there fam

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A few days ago, there was a post in U of C forum that discussed a kid got admitted to U of C in ED1 as an athlete recruit and continued to get MIT acceptance. Instead of enrolling U of C, he decided to go MIT. In that discussion, most people thought that kid is okay to not accept ED admission and there is nothing U of C can do about it.

So OP can choose whatever he wants to do. He may get into Harvard and talk out of U of C.

1 Like
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Agree that “I forgot” can’t really be the excuse when the additional acceptances started to roll in. OP not being honest in this post.

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Your behavior is also going to impact future applicants front your HS. Contact those other schools ASAP.

If you needed or wanted to see decisions from all your schools, you should not have applied ED.

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The question OP is asking is if it’s OK to cheat if I don’t think I will get caught? OP agreed to something and wants to back out on part of the agreement to satisfy their curiosity. How would OP feel if UChicago took the agreement as lightly as they are. If they find a better fit in the RD round should they be able to rescind the offer? Integrity is always the right answer.

19

SAT verbal test: Narcissist. Bet you had no trouble with that one.

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I agree with the posts; I think it was kind of selfish for you to not withdraw just to see if you had a chance. Now, if you applied EA, I would understand, but you legally AND morally are not allowed to do this.

As an applicant to almost all the schools you applied to, I am annoyed, because they are students like you who are applying just for the sake of “seeing an acceptance for confidence boost”… As others said, it’s really not fair for those kids who are going to get waitlisted just because you were curious.