At my daughter’s school this year (well-regarded large midwestern public h.s.) two students turned down ivies (3 offers total) to accept large merit scholarships elsewhere. A mom I know whose older son is at an Ivy said it was bad for the school, because if too many students turn down offers, the admissions officers wouldn’t be so willing to push for upcoming students. I was curious if this might be true, though it seems unlikely to me. (my daughter won’t be applying to ivies and I didn’t know enough about it to even discuss this person’s statement) The school doesn’t get ivy acceptances every year, but often does have one or two some years.
Speculation on my part, but if the GC has let the ivies know the students decided because of money it will likely be ok.
It is often said that a HS will be punished if a student reneges on an ED committment by not withdrawing apps to RD schools or declining their ED admit after they’ve seen the FA offer from the ED school, instead waiting until the spring when RD offers arrive to turn down the ED admit. ED schools expect the GC to help apply the ED rules.
Also I’ve read that if a very selective school thinks that it isn’t getting its “fair share” of top applicants, that the kids are choosing their peers and not them even though costs are similar, again a message may be sent. However neither condition seems to apply here.
I doubt it has that much of an effect unless it’s related to reneging on ED or becomes a chronic trend. Anecdotally, at my school, four of the five people accepted to Penn in 2014 turned it down, but that didn’t stop Penn from accepting three this year.
Oh my gosh, @mikemac, what you said. “Speculation on your part… but it will likely be ok.”
Good to know. :)) :)) :))
First, there is nothing anyone can do about it so there is no sense fretting. Second, I don’t think an Ivy would blame the school. In fact, even the Ivy colleges count on only a percent of accepted students attending. It is very understandable that some people choose to go for the large scholarship.
I don’t think this is could be true. Most kids who apply to an ivy, apply to more than one. My kid’s top 10 classmates were all accepted to 2 or more ivies, except those who got EA or ED and didn’t apply RD anywhere. Since they can only choose one, of course the other schools lose out. Mine took MIT over Princeton, another took Columbia over Harvard, one took UT over Stanford. Rice is the school the kids most hated to turn down. Financially, it didn’t make sense for so many.
I can distinguish between cases like this where there is no authoritative answer to be had, and cases involving kids asking questions about UC admissions where the admissions office is ready, willing, and able to give reliable answers. Can you?
I’ve looked at naviance data where one school would gets tons of kids into one ivy and they would all go. One year many kids didn’t go and the next year maybe 5 less kids were accepted. It took a few years for that school to send at the previous level they were going. This is atypical so I wouldn’t worry. This was a feeder school so maybe results weren’t normal.
If a school really wants to admit a particular student, that won’t stop them.