Wonder what everyone is doing - for students who have committed to enroll at a college or have been accepted to some “preferred” schools, are you withdrawing your applications or notifying other colleges you know you won’t attend? My son has 6 acceptances so far and knows that at least 2 he will not attend. He was given some merit scholarship awards so we notified the schools that he won’t be attending. Maybe it will help others. What are you all doing?
My kids declined acceptances only when they were 1000% sure that they would not be attending. We made sure they were accepted to schools that were clearly preferable and that we knew were affordable.
Colleges count on a percentage of people not accepting their offer of admission so it is unlikely that it will directly help someone. But there is no reason to hold onto an acceptance once you know for sure that it won’t be used.
Wait until the end. Things can happen and you may have to go to one of those schools after all.
@HRSMom - I understand - hold options open if that makes sense. Just to be clear – I am talking about a situation in which the student has committed to another school or is very sure he/she will not attend a certain school they have been admitted to.
I would not commit until the end either!
@HRSmom - thanks for your feedback but I think my question does not apply to you - by definition. I was asking about folks whose child is committed to a certain school or those who KNOW the student WILL NOT attend some schools accepted too for whatever reason (including too expensive, too far away, student has more desirable, affordable options etc.). When are they releasing schools to which the student has been accepted but absolutely will not attend?
We don’t ever notify. After May 1st they fall off naturally. It really isn’t opening spaces or doing anything for anyone else, they plan ahead for acceptance and rejections. Too many things can happen and change a decision that seems certain.
And the kids have to wait so long to hear from some schools, it’s their turn to make the schools wait. 
My D applied to 6 schools early and was accepted at all 6. It was obvious that there were three schools that she just didn’t like as much. She withdrew her application from those three in February thinking that maybe she could open a spot for someone else. The last three we kept til the end. She committed to the school she now attends in March which allowed her to move forward on scheduling her orientation, etc but we still kept the others “just in case”. We didn’t need those schools after all and she notified them in early May that she wasn’t coming. What were we worried about? I’m not sure, but it seemed prudent to keep the other options open as long as possible.
@CA1543 My D applied to 5 schools, was accepted to 4 and deferred at 1. We have gone ahead and enrolled at her top choice and we were debating on if we should notify the other schools. We wouldn’t mind at least notifying her 3rd and 4th choices but felt we would keep her second choice open until the deadline just in case something odd happens.
We have pretty much ruled out her 3rd and 4th choices, one as it really is just too far and price is higher than we want to go and the other because it really doesn’t quite fit what she is wanting. She had a much stronger connection to her top 2 choices.
We were thinking about withdrawing her application to her 3rd and 4th options but haven’t yet.
OP: I answered your Q: my son never notified. They dropped off after he committed to one on April 30. He also did not commit early tho he knew where he was going “just in case” things changed.
@dcolosi – thanks for sharing - makes sense to keep the second choice open just in case. Sometimes we get emails from colleges that includes a message about withdrawing if other plans have been made. Seems some of the schools prefer to know. We felt those offering merit awards should be notified if a decision was made not to attend. Not sure if it helps other students but maybe!