Do you have to decline acceptance? Forum

[ler2017]

I searched the forum and surprisingly didn't find any threads on whether you actually have to do this or not...

I just sent in a commitment deposit to my first choice school, and I still have one application out that I'll need to withdraw for sure, but are you required to let the other schools that have accepted you know that you've committed to another school?

Only two schools I got into sent a handy form that I could fill out and send back to accept or decline the offer of admission, one was the school that I accepted and the other was my back-up back-up school that I had no problem declining. I've heard some say you should let the school know asap if you're planning to decline and some say just don't do anything and they'll get the hint. I'd rather not write the emails because...I don't feel like it, but is there any benefit to other applicants to go ahead and decline the acceptance before the deposit deadline?

[JazzieShizzle]

I have one school that requests that you email to let them know if you are declining their offer and one school provides an online form, but they don't require a response until July. The others don't say anything, so I assume they'll just figure it out when they don't receive the deposit. I did want to inform them now just so maybe some other 0L can get my spot/$$ before the deadline, but... I also just don't feel like it.

I think I'll end up emailing them before the end of the week though.

[koalacity]

I'd rather not write the emails because...I don't feel like it, but is there any benefit to other applicants to go ahead and decline the acceptance before the deposit deadline?

I did want to inform them now just so maybe some other 0L can get my spot/$$ before the deadline, but...I also just don't feel like it.
I think I'll end up emailing them before the end of the week though.

Seriously, guys? Please email the schools and let them know so you help out your fellow 0Ls who are still in decision limbo, waiting on $$, or on the waitlist. It takes all of 30 seconds to write a withdrawal email. JUST DO IT.

[thevuch]

yeah do it for karma's sake.

[Tuxedo]

Seriously, guys? Please email the schools and let them know so you help out your fellow 0Ls who are still in decision limbo, waiting on $$, or on the waitlist. It takes all of 30 seconds to write a withdrawal email. JUST DO IT.

Yes. Email to decline when you know you have no intention to attend. To do anything less is incredibly rude and wastes lots of people's time.

[ler2017]

I'd rather not write the emails because...I don't feel like it, but is there any benefit to other applicants to go ahead and decline the acceptance before the deposit deadline?

I did want to inform them now just so maybe some other 0L can get my spot/$$ before the deadline, but...I also just don't feel like it.
I think I'll end up emailing them before the end of the week though.

Seriously, guys? Please email the schools and let them know so you help out your fellow 0Ls who are still in decision limbo, waiting on $$, or on the waitlist. It takes all of 30 seconds to write a withdrawal email. JUST DO IT.

You could have read the part of my sentence you didn't bold where I asked if it would benefit other applicants to go ahead and withdraw but it seems you didn't feel like it.

[hdunlop]

You gotta love the mindset of "I don't want to take the time to write a 10-word withdrawal e-mail you're going somewhere else but I need validation of my laziness so I'll write a 170-word forum post about it and then get all hurt when people say I'm ridiculous."

[cassiebow]

It's super easy. It took me all of five minutes to send out e-mails to the ten schools I declined. Example:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am honored and grateful to have received an offer of admission to your institution. However, I have decided to attend ___________. Thank you for the time you took to consider my application and thank you for the wonderful offer. I am writing to decline the offer of admission.

Many thanks and sincerely,

Your name

[ler2017]

It's super easy. It took me all of five minutes to send out e-mails to the ten schools I declined. Example:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am honored and grateful to have received an offer of admission to your institution. However, I have decided to attend ___________. Thank you for the time you took to consider my application and thank you for the wonderful offer. I am writing to decline the offer of admission.

Many thanks and sincerely,

Your name

Thanks for the input! I was mostly hesitant because I didn't want to have to get into a back-and-forth with the school about why I was declining and thought if I just didn't put the deposit down that'd be a decisive way of indicating I'm not going. I've heard other people say when they contacted a school to decline the school countered them or asked a bunch of questions and I don't want to get into that with eight different schools.

[cassiebow]

Regardless, I agree with the other posters on here that it is very important to decline ASAP because that is potential $$$$ for another 0L who really want to go to that school. Just decline with respect and gratitude.

Best of luck!

[JazzieShizzle]

To be fair, few schools actually ask you to let them know if you will be declining admission, so I doubt many people do inform them and I doubt the handful of declination emails they do get have much or any effect on other 0Ls.

You guys know that schools do routinely offer admission to more people than their class sizes permit, right? They also award more scholarship money than they are budgeted for. They already know many people will decline and they don't care to know until April 15th (ish) or later.

All I'm saying is, if schools wanted our withdrawals, they would ask for them. They don't, so it probably doesn't matter much.

also, I just made my decision within the past couple days and wanted to sleep on it a bit before I burned my other bridges. I think that's fair. I haven't even sent in my deposit yet.

[ler2017]

You guys know that schools do routinely offer admission to more people than their class sizes permit, right? They also award more scholarship money than they are budgeted for. They already know many people will decline and they don't care to know until April 15th (ish) or later.

That's mostly what I was wondering about. I wasn't sure if schools start letting in people off the wait list before the deposit deadline or if they have to see how many people commit before they can start offering more money or taking people off the wait list. Because if they do have to wait until the deadline anyway, then no it doesn't do much for other applicants to decline ahead of time.

I've already withdrawn the one outstanding application I had, but I'm waiting until I get some confirmation from the school I mailed my commitment to before I concretely decline anywhere else.

[JazzieShizzle]

You guys know that schools do routinely offer admission to more people than their class sizes permit, right? They also award more scholarship money than they are budgeted for. They already know many people will decline and they don't care to know until April 15th (ish) or later.

That's mostly what I was wondering about. I wasn't sure if schools start letting in people off the wait list before the deposit deadline or if they have to see how many people commit before they can start offering more money or taking people off the wait list. Because if they do have to wait until the deadline anyway, then no it doesn't do much for other applicants to decline ahead of time.

I've already withdrawn the one outstanding application I had, but I'm waiting until I get some confirmation from the school I mailed my commitment to before I concretely decline anywhere else.

It's not like being on a WL for a class- adcomms aren't like "oh, Bob declined so now we can let Joe in."
I've heard that schools don't mass-review their WL until after the deadline. Makes sense to me. I thought maybe it might help to let them know early, but I seriously doubt it.

Bottom line is we should do it because it's nice and it might maybe help a little. But don't think they didn't already budget for the fact that xx% of their admits will decline admission.

[n1o2c3a4c5h6e7t]

Thanks for the input! I was mostly hesitant because I didn't want to have to get into a back-and-forth with the school about why I was declining and thought if I just didn't put the deposit down that'd be a decisive way of indicating I'm not going. I've heard other people say when they contacted a school to decline the school countered them or asked a bunch of questions and I don't want to get into that with eight different schools.

You didn't want to email because you didn't want to potentially receive greater scholarship offers? I assure you that you're not going to get 100% incidence of scholarship increases either. If anything, the new offers could make you change your mind or go back to your chosen school and ask for even more $. Only good outcomes.

[ler2017]

Thanks for the input! I was mostly hesitant because I didn't want to have to get into a back-and-forth with the school about why I was declining and thought if I just didn't put the deposit down that'd be a decisive way of indicating I'm not going. I've heard other people say when they contacted a school to decline the school countered them or asked a bunch of questions and I don't want to get into that with eight different schools.

You didn't want to email because you didn't want to potentially receive greater scholarship offers? I assure you that you're not going to get 100% incidence of scholarship increases either. If anything, the new offers could make you change your mind or go back to your chosen school and ask for even more $. Only good outcomes.

That may be a plus for some applicants but in my situation, I don't think it'd be worth that effort since the school I've committed to is a T14 I didn't expect to get into, and the schools I'll be declining are mostly tier 1 state schools, and their initial offers weren't even as good as the one I got from the T14. Even if they do try to counter with more money I don't particularly expect a T14 to be impressed by my offers from state schools ranked in the 30s.

[MistakenGenius]

Post removed.

[JazzieShizzle]

To be fair, few schools actually ask you to let them know if you will be declining admission, so I doubt many people do inform them and I doubt the handful of declination emails they do get have much or any effect on other 0Ls.

You guys know that schools do routinely offer admission to more people than their class sizes permit, right? They also award more scholarship money than they are budgeted for. They already know many people will decline and they don't care to know until April 15th (ish) or later.

All I'm saying is, if schools wanted our withdrawals, they would ask for them. They don't, so it probably doesn't matter much.

also, I just made my decision within the past couple days and wanted to sleep on it a bit before I burned my other bridges. I think that's fair. I haven't even sent in my deposit yet.

Sounds like Temple *cough* is getting a real upstanding human being.

Yep, after careful thought and consideration, i decided to go to Temple. Obviously not a *cough* secret. I had other good offers too that I didn't want to give up until I was absolutely sure of my decision. Why is that wrong? I very recently made this decision, so I wanted to be absolutely sure before I finalized it. You can't honestly think that my waiting 3 extra days to notify 4 other schools of my decision has a detrimental effect on someone else.