Should I renege on a binding early admission?

Question

Hi all -

I was admitted to a binding early admission to School A but was just accepted to a much higher ranking School B.

I understand this is an unethical choice but I wanted to ask a few questions:

1) Would School A notify School B that I reneged on a binding commitment?
2) If so, would School B rescind my admission? (which will leave me with admission to neither schools)
3) Would it be more risky to lie about the reason of not attending (costs, new job, etc..), or just tell Schol A that I'm going to School B and apologize?
4) Does anyone know of students who have done this in the past? How did it go?

Thank you

alphabeta1234 · Answer

How big is the gap on USnews ranking? is it sizable? did you give a deposit?

PugLyfe · Answer

What are the terms of the EA? As far as I know, certain schools require you to immediately decline admissions offers and withdraw applications from other programs. Depending on the terms, you could technically be on the hook for the entire cost of tuition, but I don't know that they actually go after students in that way. Post the language from the EA admit

GoBlueGrad · Answer

Suck it up and go to school A.

1) You shouldn't have applied to other schools.
2) There is a chance of serious unintended consequences like being held responsible for tuition at A or being rejected from B.

Don't shoot yourself in the foot.

dtse86 · Answer

I completely agree with Tmchck86 and PugLyfe Interestingly enough, this topic definitely seems to come up every year. Here's a discussion I started last year regarding this issue. Perhaps you all could read through and add some more perspectives to the conversation

https://gmatclub.com/forum/to-withdraw-or-not-withdraw-187969.html?hilit=early%20decision Regardless, I believe the OP should reflect about how the decision he/she ultimately takes will affect their reputation moving forward and what that action says about their own ethical decision making process. As future leaders, we will be expected to make equally, if not more difficult type of decisions that have much broader and deeper consequences, and personally I would prefer to have someone that I can trust to think ethically and clearly in those moments.

dilemma2016 · Answer

It's a big gap (10+). Gave a deposit but willing to let it go.

Looked at EA language, doesn't seem to be legally binding for tuition. Just trying to assess the risk of getting admission revoked from both schools...

greenzie · Answer

What do you mean by binding commitment? I thought that you would just lose the deposit paid and you're free to choose whichever school you want to. Is there a special binding commitment in certain schools?

MWMBA · Answer

I hate Early Decision, and I believe it is entirely a strategy used to increase a school's yield and take what little control candidates have away from them.

However, I understand that it exists, and there are agreement terms, and you don't want to get in trouble. Until this thread, I was under the impression that reneging on an ED admit was actually somewhat common. I had a consultation with a consultant last year and she advised me to apply to Columbia Early Decision. Since my target schools were all in the midwest, I asked about what I should do if I ended up getting into Booth, for instance, and she told me I should eat my deposit at Columbia and go to Booth instead. I was surprised, but it gave me the impression that you can just do that.

Not to say she's a great source, since she was trying to improve her yield by getting me into an M7 I wasn't even targeting and potentially wasting 5k on a deposit there. However, I feel like a school doesn't (or at least shouldn't..) have any right at this point to demand further tuition from you. This is an interesting discussion.

Edit: Relevant post -  Will Early Decision Boost My Admissions Odds at Columbia GSB

"This begs the question – what happens if you gain admission under Early Decision, pay the deposit, but later get into a school you prefer, like Harvard? At MBA Admit.com, we have seen candidates simply choose to lose their deposit to Columbia and accept the school they prefer. We don’t comment on whether you should do this or not, but we can state factually that we have seen this done. For those candidates, they were willing to pay the deposit in exchange for getting a boost toward success in the Columbia admissions process and they were willing to lose the deposit if they got into another school that was their first choice. "

bb · Answer

Yes, this comes up often. You should have dropped out of all of your other applications as prescribed by the binding agreement you have engaged into at offer acceptance. You did not do what you were supposed to, which you clearly admiting and pointing out - Kudos to you for that! Many don't and get defensive. What is the penalty for that? As mentioned by a few others, it is not clearly spelled out but it seems limited to losing the deposit and some integrity. Never heard of anyone getting kicked out of another program.

P.S.
The 2 schools that I know of with EA are Fuqua and Columbia. Columbia is Top 10, so has to be Fuqua which is top 12, and 10+ would indicate HBS/Booth/Stanford... ?

P.S. 
The 2 schools that I know of with EA are Fuqua and Columbia. Columbia is Top 10, so has to be Fuqua which is top 12, and 10+ would indicate HBS/Booth/Stanford... ?

ENGRTOMBA2018 · Answer

Certain schools (Duke and Columbia for example) have early decision deadlines that are for students who are absolutely sure that they will attend these schools as soon as they et admitted and will withdraw their other applications. Refer below for the verbiage of the early decision from Columbia and Duke. Duke.jpg Columbia ED.jpg As for the legal ramifications concerned, you will have to do your research.

howieday5 · Answer

For your sake, I would just enroll at School A. When I worked in selective undergraduate admissions, if we ever found out that an RD candidate had been admitted ED elsewhere, the policy was to notify the ED school. Same went for candidates who had double-deposited -- we would rescind our offer and notify the other school. I recognize b-school and undergrad admissions aren't perfectly comparable, but I have to imagine many of the practices are similar.

asimov · Answer

Since Fuqua has binding EA, and you may be considering reneging on Fuqua. I say, please just renege and go to the other school. We pride ourselves on our culture of ethics, collaboration, and teamwork. This kind of behavioral will not be looked upon kindly when it comes to recruiting time (reneging on company offers) when there's even more at stake (exploding bonuses, more prestigious companies).

coleworld · Answer

Agree that you should attend School A. There could be consequences even beyond what you've already considered from what appears to school and firms as a lack of integrity.

arbybee · Answer

Hi all - I'm in a similar position this year and everyone keeps saying that there are serious consequences, but how would School A know about School B unless you told them? They're not in communication about you in the way that you think they are.

Should I renege on a binding early admission?

Assuming I renege, what should I do?

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