<p>Here is a hypothetical situation: a student is accepted to an LAC early but also applies to Harvard in the RD round.To her surprise Harvard accepts her and she decides to attend Harvard.She pays the deposit to the LAC but never attend the college.Is there ANYWAY Harvard will find out that she backed out of an ED commitment?</p>
<p>Is there ANYWAY Harvard will find out that she backed out of an ED commitment? </p>
<p>Yes, there is a way. And beyond that she will know what she did. Do the right thing.</p>
<p>Yes, Harvard will eventually find out that she back out of her ED agreement and rescind her admission to their school.</p>
<p>It’s a really slimy thing to do and impacts other kids who apply from that high school; good guidance counselors will make it very clear that you do not back out of an ED contract without a very compelling reason (some schools will agree to let you out of the agreement if you can’t afford it and go to a school that costs less…so Harvard might come under that category).</p>
<p>Once you are accepted ED you are REQUIRED to withdraw any pending applications to any other schools. SO…this student’s RD application to Harvard should have been withdrawn. </p>
<p>The requirement to withdraw pending applications after an ED acceptance is in the ED CONTRACT the student signs…and yes, it is a contract.</p>
<p>And yes. Harvard will likely rescind the acceptance. In this information age, I would think they be able to determine what happened).</p>
<p>If you plan to be a dishonest applicant using the ED application process, perhaps you should reconsider.</p>
<p>Generally, the student’s high school guidance office will receive notification of the ED acceptance. At that point, an entry is made on the student’s file and from then on transcripts etc are sent only to the ED school and not to any other. In this case, Harvard would never receive a final transcript and final counselor’s report and the student would never be allowed to matriculate. When and if Harvard called the school to find out why they had not received the final documents, they would learn of the ED acceptance–and would respect it.</p>
<p>Not only will Harvard rescind the acceptance, but the student will likely lose the ED acceptance as well once the school finds out they were trying to game the system. It is just not worth the risk - and what kind of parent would support their student in doing this.</p>
<p>Ok I have a very real situation and I think I know the answer. Son applied ED1 to a college. He was deferred until RD. I suspect that if he now gets in to ED1 college, he is no longer bound to attend. Is that correct? Other colleges have offered him really good financial packages that he is considering. Is he still bound by the ED1 contract or is that not in effect because he was deferred?</p>
<p>His deferral was a negation of the ED contract.</p>
<p>Jollymon–he is now like any other RD student and can choose to accept an offer from any college that accepts him–there is no longer any ED contract.</p>
<p>Jollymom - You are correct. The ED contract only means anything if the student is accepted as part of early decision. If he’s deferred, you’re free to shop around.</p>
<p>I don’t believe Harvard will ever find out.It is just a scare tactic to preserve an unfair ED rule which takes advantage of the insecurities and fears of a teenager.</p>
<p>If you don’t lie the ED rules, don’t apply ED. They are not unfair.</p>
<p>cogito, would you bet a college education on that?</p>
<p>umdad,what do you mean they are not unfair?The rules are clearly in favor of the colleges.</p>
<p>I think what you don’t realize is that when Harvard doesn’t receive your end of the year reports from your high school, Harvard will call the high school. The high school will check your records and tell Harvard your records were sent to LAC because of your ED admission. Harvard will then withdraw your admission…you are not such a hot, nonfungible commodity that Harvard will feel it just must have you in its freshman class–especially since you will have demonstrated that you would not be an ethical member of the student community. Harvard will respect your ED contract with the LAC because it is an ethical entity. In the meantime, if the LAC should learn of all this…it might withdraw your offer of admission as well because it would not want you in its class either.</p>
<p>It’s also likely that someone in your high school would tip off Harvard or the LAC or both as to what you are doing…which would then cause either or both schools to investigate.</p>
<p>Of course, all of this is hypothetical…have you gotten in to Harvard yet?</p>
<p>the rules are applied equally to everyone–they are not “unfair”. What’s unfair is when someone decides to ignore them, to gain an advantage over other students who follow the rules. Another name for that is cheating. It’s not the school you are getting over on, it’s your fellow students who you are choosing to compete against unfairly.</p>
<p>There are situations of which I have first-hand knowledge where the ED school will let the applicant out of the ED commitment. And be fine with it.</p>
<p>The OP situation is NOT one of them. In the cases I know of, student was very upfront with the ED school as to the whys and wherefores, worked with HS guidance counselor as well (there can be negative consequences on current and future applicants from the HS when someone reneges on ED). Full discussion with ED Admissions Dean to make sure that all was copacetic-family to Dean, family to GC, GC to Dean. These are all critical.</p>
<p>These acceptable situations are quite rare, I believe.</p>
<p>Several schools have ED consortia-type arrangements where they inform each other of ED applicants. It is not necessarily just Ivy League-to-Ivy League, but may be regional or schools may have other commonalities.</p>
<p>The situations that, I believe, ED schools consider most egregious are exactly the situations described by the OP: student dishonors ED contract with a “lesser” school to “step up.” Student fails to withdraw RD applications, which is a key element of the ED contract.</p>
<p>The cases I know of, students followed all rules. Situation changed and student was allowed to make the change.</p>
<p>I agree with cogito that the rules are quite in favor of the colleges. I have done a lot of study on this. But where situations change, there are complications… these are situations where that imbalance in the rules might make one sympathetic to the student.</p>
<p>Where the student openly defied the contract, no sympathy from me; no sympathy from (m)any others I know of; and I wouldn’t expect any sympathy from either school. BTW, when Harvard rescinds the acceptance, the student can expect the ED school to do the same. Hope s/he has a nice safety in hand that is completely out of the loop with either of those schools.</p>
<p>Whether the ED “contract” could stand up in court is an open question. But until and unless a student takes it there, the colleges will call the shots. And will, of course, prefer to give the spot to someone who played the admissions game honorably.</p>
<p>My son applied ED to a school that required that he not apply EA/ED ANYWHERE. He could only apply to colleges RD or rolling. Whether he thought that was fair or not was irrelevant; that was the college’s rules and he honored it. What is unfair is if rules are not obvious. ED rules are clear cut. If one does consider them unfair, one does not have to do ED. He had to weigh the pros and cons of the college’s ED rules before he applied, and his GC made it very clear that a favorable ED decision is binding, and even contacted us to make sure we, as parents, understood the rules.</p>