Withdrawing application?

[hoodle]

I'm applying to veterinary school jointly with my significant other, who's applying to graduate school. My deadlines were October 1th - hers aren't until December 15th, and so her list of really final top choices were still up in the air when I applied, as she was still deciding exactly what she wanted to do.

To get around this problem, after talking about it exhaustively I applied to all the schools I was interested in and that I thought would be good options. Now, as she's actually perusing programs and websites, it's become clear that a couple of our options really aren't so good for her. It happens to be that the schools that she's shaky about are ones which I am also less excited by... which is good, I guess! Just to give you perspective: I applied to 9 schools, of which 1 is looking pretty bad and 1 is looking just OK, and the other 7 look great . Here's my dilemma:

If I think that it's unlikely that we'll want to go to School X, even if we get in (and don't at other places) could/should I withdraw my application? I don't want to seem flaky, which makes me want to NOT withdraw. On the other hand, I'm worried about three things:
1) what it looks like to get a vet school acceptance and NOT take it
2) taking someone else's spot unnecessarily
3) the hassle of interviews etc when I'm not interested, really.

What do you think? Would School X communicate to all the other schools that I withdrew? Or got in and didn't go, but rather reapplied to other schools next year? Is it even possible to withdraw? I know the money's sunk, and I can't expect to recoup it - but that's a moot point, since I already lost it. Advice appreciated

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[pressmom]

I, personally, don't think it would look bad to withdraw. People may disagree with me, but I withdrew after being offered an interview at a school because I decided it wasn't the right choice for me. People withdraw for all kinds of reasons and if asked, you could honestly say, "I am trying to find a program that works with my SO's and these schools didn't quite mesh up for that." It's honest and I don't think other schools will look down on it. Although you may get asked as the next question, "Well, if you get in and your SO doesn't then what?"

Good luck!

 

[ri23]

I definitely think you should withdraw. I don't even think that other schools would know that you withdrew from these schools. Just send a nice letter explaining your circumstances and the reason and I think you should be fine. I think a lot of professional/graduate programs understand coordination with a SO.

 

[hoodle]

This is encouraging and basically what I thought. My biggest fear is that the schools will somehow talk about me behind my back, which is really irrational! Especially when I consider that right now, all the schools are desperately scrambling to get their own admissions data under control, and the last thing they want is MORE input. Somehow I doubt that gossiping about whether this or that person withdrew is high on their list of priorities.

 

[philomycus]

I definitely think you should withdraw. I don't even think that other schools would know that you withdrew from these schools. Just send a nice letter explaining your circumstances and the reason and I think you should be fine. I think a lot of professional/graduate programs understand coordination with a SO.

Agreed. If you got into only one place which you know you won't go to no matter what then you're taking a spot (even temporaily) form someone else and have to do the inevitable anyway.

And if you did get accepted, declined and applied next year ALL your schools you apply to the following year will know. I think there'a spot on VMCAS where you have to answer "were you ever accepted to any institution." This looks worse, and then you have to jump through hoops to explain it.