A request to those with multiple acceptances

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krancky410

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So I read an old thread that was on the same topic, but I would like to re-open the discussion:

As this interview season wraps up and spots for next year's class disappear, I ask those who have multiple acceptances to seriously consider your options. If possible, could you withdraw you application from schools you don't see yourself going to?

I know it is hard to do and I'm not asking everyone to only hold on to one acceptance at a time. There are many factors that come in to play when deciding(financial aid, the callback to see what the school is like etc.) and these events take time. However, if School A is better than School B (in your opinion), then why not drop your spot at school B so some one who loved that school can move off the wait list?

Because you have to file a FAFSA, it is unlikely that one school which you weren't so sure about is going to give you substantially better aid than the school you were pretty sure about(key word is substantial). Additionally, if you really want to go to that school, the loans should not be on the top of your concerns considering you are going into a profession where you will be able to pay off your loans (imo).

Now before you respond to this saying "look waiting is part of the process, deal with it." or "if you get in march 1st or may 16th, then what does it matter?" you should know that this OP has a very urgent decision that will affect my life in a significant way(don't want to go into detail about it). and the sooner I know I will be going to a certain school, the better.

So in short, do not hold on to an acceptance if you know you will not go there and not just wait for the dead line where the school automatically removes you.

Thank you.
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krancky410 said:
...you should know that this OP has a very urgent decision that will affect my life in a significant way(don't want to go into detail about it). and the sooner I know I will be going to a certain school, the better.
Thank you.
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Cmon, spill the beans. I'm curious.
 
krancky410 said:
So I read an old thread that was on the same topic, but I would like to re-open the discussion:

As this interview season wraps up and spots for next year's class disappear, I ask those who have multiple acceptances to seriously consider your options. If possible, could you withdraw you application from schools you don't see yourself going to?

I know it is hard to do and I'm not asking everyone to only hold on to one acceptance at a time. There are many factors that come in to play when deciding(financial aid, the callback to see what the school is like etc.) and these events take time. However, if School A is better than School B (in your opinion), then why not drop your spot at school B so some one who loved that school can move off the wait list?

Because you have to file a FAFSA, it is unlikely that one school which you weren't so sure about is going to give you substantially better aid than the school you were pretty sure about(key word is substantial). Additionally, if you really want to go to that school, the loans should not be on the top of your concerns considering you are going into a profession where you will be able to pay off your loans (imo).

Now before you respond to this saying "look waiting is part of the process, deal with it." or "if you get in march 1st or may 16th, then what does it matter?" you should know that this OP has a very urgent decision that will affect my life in a significant way(don't want to go into detail about it). and the sooner I know I will be going to a certain school, the better.

So in short, do not hold on to an acceptance if you know you will not go there and not just wait for the dead line where the school automatically removes you.

Thank you.
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your post seems reasonable and respectful so i'll return in kind - people have earned their acceptances, and as much as it sucks for you, they can hold on to them as long as they want (till 5/15) for whatever reason they want; and they sure as heck are not going to change their minds based on pity. to say loans should not be the top concern for someone is bordering on absurd - you don't get to decide for others what their priorities should be. tough luck, but you'll need to accept it.

edit: that came out a bit harsher than i had hoped. the thing is, even if everyone withdraws from schools they might not attend, there is no guarantee at all their spots would go to you
 
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Having a few people on this forum turn down a few acceptances early are not going to translate into any change in outcome for you OP. Just wait.
 
1. If you are 100% sure you're not going to go to a school, the right thing to do is to withdraw, both for the benefit of the school that offered you the acceptance and the people on the waitlist.

2. That being said, if theres even the slightest chance you will want to go to said school, there is nothing wrong with holding onto the acceptance. You've earned it, and should wait until all information is available (financial aid being the key factor) before you make this very important decision. Once you've made it though, be courteous to others and withdraw from other schools.
 
images


sorry OP, there's just no way you can broach this topic without sounding whiny.

krancky410 said:
Because you have to file a FAFSA, it is unlikely that one school which you weren't so sure about is going to give you substantially better aid than the school you were pretty sure about(key word is substantial). Additionally, if you really want to go to that school, the loans should not be on the top of your concerns considering you are going into a profession where you will be able to pay off your loans (imo).
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your argument fails here. financial aid season comes with tons of surprises and the level of aid you get at a school has just as much to do with their resources as with your individual financial situation. and yes, loans are a big deal. everyone with an acceptance owes it to themselves to hold all of them until they know how the numbers will shake out.

bleargh said:
your post seems reasonable and respectful so i'll return in kind - people have earned their acceptances, and as much as it sucks for you, they can hold on to them as long as they want (till 5/15) for whatever reason they want; and they sure as heck are not going to change their minds based on pity. to say loans should not be the top concern for someone is bordering on absurd - you don't get to decide for others what their priorities should be. tough luck, but you'll need to accept it.

edit: that came out a bit harsher than i had hoped. the thing is, even if everyone withdraws from schools they might not attend, there is no guarantee at all their spots would go to you
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some truth right here. I'm just less inclined than bleargh to be nice when OP is asking for special treatment based on a personal situation, justifying the request using ignorant suppositions.
 
Though this is a reasonable request, many/most schools don't accept off the waitlist until after May 15th regardless of how many spots open up. Moreover, schools over-accept to the extent that ten people turning down their offers of admission doesn't necessarily mean that ten seats or even one seat has become available.

Finally, you're a little off-base with the financial aid thing. Many schools are able to offer significant scholarships, so there may be a $30,000/year difference between two schools that doesn't manifest itself until mid-April.

Trust me, I'm as impatient with waitlists as the next SDNer, but convincing people to see reason and let go of their precious, precious acceptances won't really achieve much.
 
easy%20to%20read%20draft%20captain.jpg



Good luck, OP. I did the best I could.
 
bleargh said:
your post seems reasonable and respectful so i'll return in kind - people have earned their acceptances, and as much as it sucks for you, they can hold on to them as long as they want (till 5/15) for whatever reason they want; and they sure as heck are not going to change their minds based on pity. to say loans should not be the top concern for someone is bordering on absurd - you don't get to decide for others what their priorities should be. tough luck, but you'll need to accept it.
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"for whatever reason they want"? apathy does not seem like a good reason to me. My original post was directed to those who are only holding the acceptance because they for some reason do not care enough to send a short email to the particular admissions committee to rescind their app. If they truly need time to make the decision then that is completely understandable. And while you call it pity, i see it more as empathy.:oops:

As for the financial aid, i did write "imo". I also didn't say aid should be at the bottom of the list either. But if an applicant has acceptances to two equal schools, it is unlikely one school will give a substantially better aid package. And if the student liked both schools relatively the same so that even a slight difference in aid would matter, then my OP is not directed towards them. So while monetary aid is the top concern for you, it is not for me. I respect you opinion though and understand that an applicant who got into his "dream school" but also got in to a lower tier school with a full scholarship would have a difficult decision. This is rarely the case however.



I'll reiterate my main point here for those who dont want to read my long posts. I would like the applicants who are holding acceptances for no reason (because they cannot seem themselves going there) to write a short email to that admissions committee to relinquish their spot. This is not due to an aversion to waiting, but rather to important decisions I need to make.
 
krancky410 said:
...
I'll reiterate my main point here for those who dont want to read my long posts. I would like the applicants who are holding acceptances for no reason ...
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This topic comes up every year and I have to say that it's pretty rare for folks to hold spots "for no reason". Not impossible, but very very rare. Rare enough that it won't matter to you -- these aren't the folks keeping you on the wait list. Most people are sitting on multiple acceptances because (1) they haven't 100% decided yet, or (2) they want to see what fin aid options are out there. Sure, there's probably a handful that are 99.9 % sure which place they are going, but they earned that right to be 0.1% undecided until the specified date. Shouldn't really matter -- at a date certain folks have to only be holding one spot. And at that date all the waitlists will move. That's the system the med schools set up. It's not unfair and if you were on the other side you wouldn't want someone breathing down your neck telling you to hurry up and decide despite not having all the fin aid info at your disposal etc. Everyone simply has to play within the rules of the system. Waitlists exist precisely because of this. Waiting to the last minute is not only allowed, but to some extent expected. Many places make you put down a deposit so you are truly paying for the option to wait until the last minute. So your statement here is sort of like getting annoyed at a sports ticket holder who has already paid for his ticket but is waiting until the last minute to decide if he is actually going to the game. He's allowed to do that. And you aren't really penalized if he decides to do that -- you simply don't know until later. But it doesn't affect your spot. You either are going to get it, or not. Patience is a virtue.
 
bleargh said:
your post seems reasonable and respectful so i'll return in kind - people have earned their acceptances, and as much as it sucks for you, they can hold on to them as long as they want (till 5/15) for whatever reason they want; and they sure as heck are not going to change their minds based on pity. to say loans should not be the top concern for someone is bordering on absurd - you don't get to decide for others what their priorities should be. tough luck, but you'll need to accept it.

edit: that came out a bit harsher than i had hoped. the thing is, even if everyone withdraws from schools they might not attend, there is no guarantee at all their spots would go to you
Click to expand...

littlealex said:
Having a few people on this forum turn down a few acceptances early are not going to translate into any change in outcome for you OP. Just wait.
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you two are both correct that even if enough people rescind so that they have to go to the wait list, it is still unlikely that I will be chosen. However I would like to propose the idea that this should be done for the good of all applicants. Yes, my specific situation has compelled me to start a thread, but the idea of relinquishing an acceptance for a school you do not want to go to so that any one of your peers may be offered a chance at that spot is, in my opinion, a good practice.


DoctwoB said:
1. If you are 100% sure you're not going to go to a school, the right thing to do is to withdraw, both for the benefit of the school that offered you the acceptance and the people on the waitlist.

2. That being said, if theres even the slightest chance you will want to go to said school, there is nothing wrong with holding onto the acceptance. You've earned it, and should wait until all information is available (financial aid being the key factor) before you make this very important decision. Once you've made it though, be courteous to others and withdraw from other schools.
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+1 to this. What I thought in a nutshell.
 
How are we supposed to know how much aid we'll get from any school? All we have is the average debt of the graduates of last year. That tells the average applicant nothing, because differences in socioeconomic background, number of students with military scholarships, number of non-trads etc. as well the cost inflation at a particular school can really influence the average debt of the students graduating in 4 years.

So basically there's almost no way to predict how much you will get in financial aid. Some schools give subtantial scholarships and it's near impossible to predict which schools will give you what.

And, as mentioned before, most waitlists don't budge til mid-May.
 
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krancky410 said:
"for whatever reason they want"? apathy does not seem like a good reason to me.
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unfortunately, you're not the one who gets to decide whether the reason is good or not.

So while monetary aid is the top concern for you, it is not for me.
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once again, you're not the one making the decision to withdraw or not, so what is or isn't your top concern is irrelevant, i'm sorry to say.
This is rarely the case however.
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i think it's even rarer for someone to get accepted based on another person withdrawing after reading a thread on SDN
This is not due to an aversion to waiting, but rather to important decisions I need to make.
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i hope by now you see my point, which is that pretty much no one is going to factor in the important decisions of a complete random stranger in making an extremely important, irrevocable choice in his life.
 
Law2Doc said:
This topic comes up every year and I have to say that it's pretty rare for folks to hold spots "for no reason". Not impossible, but very very rare. Rare enough that it won't matter to you.....It's not unfair and if you were on the other side you wouldn't want someone breathing down your neck telling you to hurry up and decide despite not having all the fin aid info at your disposal etc. ....Patience is a virtue.
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You are right that it may be unlikely that I would get a spot, but what about every other applicant waiting? It may matter to one of them which should be more than enough reason to relinquish a spot.

I'm not trying to breathe down anyone's neck and and make them decide. My request was directed to those who already made their decision that a certain school is not right for them. If there is uncertainty then they deserve as much time as they need to make the decision.

I agree that patience is a virtue, but in my first post, I mentioned a particular time-sensitive decision I need to make. That is what made write a post in the hopes that applicants who does see this may agree with me. Waiting until May 15th is not an option for me.

NOTE: I dont think that just b/c of my personal situation applicants should start relinquishing acceptances to schools they won't go to. I believe it is a behavior that should be adapted by all applicants to help ALL applicants as they wait. I was just compelled by my situation to rehash this idea and create some dialogue with fellow applicants.
 
bleargh said:
unfortunately, you're not the one who gets to decide whether the reason is good or not.

once again, you're not the one making the decision to withdraw or not, so what is or isn't your top concern is irrelevant, i'm sorry to say.

i think it's even rarer for someone to get accepted based on another person withdrawing after reading a thread on SDN

i hope by now you see my point, which is that pretty much no one is going to factor in the important decisions of a complete random stranger in making an extremely important, irrevocable choice in his life.
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I am not trying to say that I am right and any other view is wrong. I just wanted to post my request and propose my view on the matter. I believe this issue is over looked by applicants and i just want to cultivate some discussion with applicants which I believe I have done.

Again I want to reiterate that this request was directed to the people who have made the decision not to go to a certain school. This request was not directed towards those who are "leaning towards no" but rather the students who are sure that a school just isn't for them.

If even one applicant relinquishes their spot before may 15th because they know they will not go to that school because of reading this post, then this thread has had some effect.

With that being said, I think all points have been exhausted? If so, I'm going to watch futurama now :rolleyes:
 
krancky410 said:
I'll reiterate my main point here for those who dont want to read my long posts. I would like the applicants who are holding acceptances for no reason (because they cannot seem themselves going there) to write a short email to that admissions committee to relinquish their spot. This is not due to an aversion to waiting, but rather to important decisions I need to make.
Click to expand...

Those people relinquishing their spots will not make any difference as to when you or people in your situation hear back from a given school. Like I said earlier, ten people giving up their spots doesn't necessarily mean even one seat will open up. And the fact of the matter is very few people actually hold on to acceptances just because they're too lazy/apathetic to do otherwise.
 
Some schools make 2, 3 or even more offers per seat knowing that those receiving offers will have multiple offers and not every offer from the school will be accepted (actually, if they were it would be a horror).

At my school alone, we'd need over 200 people to decline the offer before we'd go to the waitlist. That is NOT likely to happen before May 15.


It is highly unlikely that the decline of an offer will equal one open spot for someone on the waitlist except at those crazy state schools that are prohibited from making more offers than they have seats.
 
LizzyM said:
At my school alone, we'd need over 200 people to decline the offer before we'd go to the waitlist. That is NOT likely to happen before May 15.
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I'm not affiliated with my school's adcom, but my student affairs adviser is also the Dean of Admissions, so I hear some things. Roughly twice as many people are accepted flat out as there are slots in the class. And we won't touch the waitlist until after May 15th even if 150+ people decline admission before that point.

So, at least at my school, people declining acceptances now won't do you any good.
 
Anyone who turns down an acceptance at any school that they would even consider attending prior to seeing any scholarship offers is absolutely ******ed. Schools offer significant aid packages to superior students they want to entice to come. If attending you dream school, say Stanford, will put you $300k in debt, you might find that Virginia is your new dream school when they offer you a full ride, especially if you don't see yourself in the minority that end up pursuing a high paying subspecialty.
As has been mentioned before, people earned their acceptances and giving them up will not likely help you in any way, and could actually hurt them.
Sorry for the reality check.
 
OP, quit whining and wait. There's really nothing else to be said here.

The sad, unfortunate and difficult truth is: If you wanted the privilege of not being waitlisted, you should have worked harder, been smarter, done more, and ultimately been a better applicant.
 
Geneticist said:
:rolleyes:

You're the worst padder of them all.
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Dude, I'm glad you put a few up today.

Earlier you were stuck on 666 posts and it was kind of freaking me out.

BTW, I'm not really the worst. That's hyperbole, and it's a WEIRD example.
 
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