How to Decline College Acceptances?

[CO MOM]

So once the final college decision is made, what is the "proper" way to decline other acceptances/offers? Do you write a letter, send an email, or make a phone call? Do you send it to your admissions counselor or the financial aid office? This is probably obvious, but we weren't sure!

 

thanks, Jane

[Kareni]

My daughter sent notes via the mail. In some cases, the colleges included a card with their acceptance offer that could be used to decline. In other cases, she simply sent a letter to the admissions office. In one case, where an admissions officer had spent a fair bit of time with her, she directed the note specifically to her. In each note, she thanked them for their

offer but said she would be accepting an offer elsewhere.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[creekland]

I don't know if there's a formal or traditionally accepted method or not.

 

My son sent e-mails to his admissions reps for the schools he decided not to attend. He politely declined the offer of admission, told them where he had decided to go, and what his main reason was. Both schools he declined then offered him more money, but money wasn't his deciding factor since he had a decent offer from his #1 choice. Then they acknowledged his decision along with a letter reminding him if he changed his mind, to get back in touch.

[djkapp]

My daughter called each of the admissions people she worked with at the schools she declined. As she had received generous scholarship offers from more than one school, she is also writing a thank you note to each school thanking them for the acceptance and the encouragement but letting them know that she is accepting another offer.

 

Yvonne

[Sharon in MD]

For the very very large state university that ds turned down, it was a web based response, click here to accept, there to reject. However, he did send personal emails to the people at that school with whom he had been in correspondence. Where we live, email seems to be an acceptable way to handle this, so that is what we did.

 

For the mid sized state school and their very special academic program, he used their specific accept or reject form and mailed it back. Then he sent personal notes to the program directors thanking them for the opportunity, saying it had been a tough choice, but declining.

 

For the small Christian school....again it was web based, but he also emailed and called the specific people he had worked with thanking them for their time and politely declining.

 

We also received several email type surveys after the declines...asking us why...we filled them out with the hopes of actually helping them as they develop their programs

[Blue Hen]

We just went through this process this past weekend. As others posted we used the online method of declining the offer if there was a means to do that.

 

In addition DS hand-wrote a letter to each institution (7 letters) stating that he was declining their offer and planned to head to XYZ. For one school he expressed how difficult a decision it was but in the end, financially, he cannot afford to attend their school. All the letters were sent to the school's admission's office. The letters all went out in Monday's mail.

 

He's down to two schools---the one he'll attend and the one he won't.

 

Carole

[CO MOM]

Thanks for all your replies. All of you used a variety of means, so I guess any can work. I think part of what makes it hard is when two schools were very close and you developed sort of a relationship with both, you feel bad telling the #2 school "no." But I guess they are used to that!