I applied to 17 colleges. I knew which one I wanted to go to but I wanted to break the record at my school for most scholarship money, (I got 850,000 and 12 full tuition or better offers) . I got a ton of great highly competitive offers. I am regretting my decision already. How do I tell these schools I am declining admission? The schools don’t always have forms, and I want some one else to get the money. I spent like 200 on application fees to the ones I cared about but most of the schools are free and I sent my sat score for free because I rotated on my 4 free score reports. So I didn’t waste any money or hardly any time thanks to the common app, apply texas and autofill. But what should I do? Do I email the colleges I am rejecting? Should I do a form letter to email?
It’s reasonable that you are now struggling with this situation, since you submitted so many applications for such self-admitted egocentric and capricious reasons. Everyone – especially youngsters – makes mistakes; however, please think about this and learn some worthwhile life-lessons.
If you were offered a full tuition or better, the least you can do is send a personal email to each school (obviously it will be in large part the same, but it would be gracious to add a sentence on something you appreciated about each school in particular).
Send a note to each school you’re ditching thanking them for the admission but you’ve decided to matriculate to another college (no need to tell them where).
Just to make sure, did the finances work out at the school that is your first choice? Have you visited that school and are you sure of your choice?
“It’s not you - it’s me.” Send.
I have visited the school 3 times, they are paying for tutiton the cheap dorm, and the small meal plan. With a dorm upgrade my parents are spending less than 12,000 + books. I love the campus, I have been heavily recruited to do undergraduate research. I worked as a research intern this summer for $1200 for two weeks. I am a third generation legacy, and I love it. I am going to Texas Tech and getting to double major in Math and Computer Science, work on my masters and graduating in 4.5 years with a masters. I love the campus, their job placement rates for math and CS are stellar, and I love the people. I wanted to get more money so I first choiced Texas A&M. I was pretty sure I was going to Tech, but after the scholarship package came in, why not go to your first choice for free?
12000 over 4 years
@Monkeygirl1337 If you have mentioned your record breaking scholarship amounts at school, I would let people know that you feel that you made a mistake to help break that cycle. Other students lives could have been affected. Students who may have been given the scholarship money but instead it went to you.
Just let them know. My son got a lot of merit awards applying EA and he has let the schools know. In many cases, the schools have yield built into the awards (Villanove for instance) so in such cases, it doesn’t matter. But, yes, in some cases, the award could have gone to someone else.
They don’t reassign the awards? I thought they did and the money didn’t just disappear. Most of the money was automatic anyway based on class rank, and test scores, and just a small amount was competitive.
Although you didn’t waste your time and money on the apps, adcoms at 16 of those schools ended up wasting their time. And I’d bet that in more than a few instances a deserving student who could have used that scholarship was bumped to a lower scholarship level, or to a waitlist. So, yes, your desire to set a record probably had real-life adverse consequences for a number of your peers.
Send an email/letter to each school politely declining, and thank them for the generosity that they showed toward you.
@Monkeygirl1337 If it is largely automatic scholarship, then what is the point. Like fishing from a barrel. Maybe in the future the school could have a fantasy scholarship league. Have everyone pick 20 schools and see who would receive the most automatic money. You wouldn’t have to actually do it so there is no harm done.
It’s easy to say yes to free applications, free t shirts, and the other free stuff that comes with the emails. I guess I thought no harm would come. My type A personality and highly competitive stats made me want to be the best. I wish I would have known what I was getting into. I wouldn’t have applied to Southern Methodist University, had I known I was taking money from other people or if I knew I would have gotten $140,000 over 4 years. Part of the blame goes on the colleges who waive transcripts, offical scores, app fees and provide tons of branded stuff for free. I wasn’t interested but I thought I was going to get a crappy scholarship to Tech, and I wanted a single full ride option, I wasn’t expecting 12. To any one thinking of taking advantage of the recruiting perks that come with having a high score, think about how your application could be taking away money from someone who actually cares.
Forget about it. You could have just as easily gotten NONE. Son is a top student in our state. National Merit, etc. etc.
This week the mail box has a scholarship rejection letter in it every single day. Yes, he will go to a good school for not much money—but what if he hadn’t applied there?
@Monkeygirl1337 I wouldn’t be too hard on yourself. You’re young and everyone makes mistakes when they are young. But anyone else who searches in the future and reads this can now think about the consequences if they are thinking about breaking records. Life is not about never making mistakes; it is about learning from them and it is even better to learn from other’s error. You’re going into technical fields which will teach you to approach problems in a different way. Taking into consideration variables. Thinking about cause and effect. I’m sure that you are going to have a great college experience and a great career.
@Monkeygirl1337 (post #15): “Part of the blame goes on the colleges who waive transcripts, offical scores, app fees and provide tons of branded stuff for free.”
I’ve been impressed with your contrition and with your understanding that this was a SMALL – but thoughtless – mistake. However, waiving transcripts, scores, application fees and providing marketing 'freebies" is done to help some seniors and to increase institutional visibility, not to facilitate your ego trip. Be fair, the “blame” is yours alone, not the universities who have the foregoing policies.
^^ This.
You got a full tuition scholarship to SMU and TX Tech, and you’re choosing TAMU, is that right?
I’m assuming you got into your major at TAMU, right (not all students do) and that you have housing guaranteed?
There is a whole lot of crazy on CC but this ranks near the top. Hope you and your school are proud of your dubious “success.” I can confirm that schools do not reassign the scholarships. They over extend based on the expected yield, knowing that they will only pay out on a percentage of the offers, so yes, if you knowingly applied with no intention of considering attendance you did indeed take a scholarship from someone that could have possibly used it. Of course if they were simply auto scholarships based on stats then it is irrelevant. You knew you would qualify for those offers before you applied, but now you have a letter for your scrapbook. Does that really fill you with a sense of pride? If you wanted trophies why didn’t you shotgun reach schools? Sounds like you played it pretty safe-do you and your school realize that most of the competitive schools don’t even offer merit?