So I was accepted to a public school, and have received full tuition and acceptance into the Honors College, which offers special housing on a first-come first-serve basis. The school has told me that I will need to apply for this housing quickly because it fills up early. To apply for housing, I would have to enroll. The issue with this is, I would like to reserve the housing, but I still have two applications I am waiting for decisions on, and I won’t have those for a few weeks. I don’t want to rule out those schools, and schools I could possibly be admitted to during Regular Decision, but I also don’t want to lose the opportunity I have now. Is it unethical to enroll now, reserve this housing, and if I am accepted at one of my other schools, change my mind?
First, I doubt you are being asked to “enroll” now. Enrollment is what you will do next year when you sign up for actual classes to take in the fall. What they are asking is for you to accept the offer of admission and you may need to do so to assure getting desired housing.
You can accept the offer of admisison and then withdraw it later if you decide to attend elsewhere. It happens all the time including for the precise reason you mention, because one needs to lock in housing and it is not improper or unethical (unless you are trying to escape a binding early decision acceptance). The real issue you will have is what happens to any money you send to the college as part of accepting the offer or as a down payment for housing. You could lose that if you later withdraw your acceptance, The college should have on its site the actual rules relating to the return of any payments if you do withdraw your acceptance. Some keep everything, some return everything as long as you do that withdrawal before a certain date, often May 1 or possibly a little later, and some return a portion but not all.
It is fine to accept the offer now so you can guarantee the housing you want. If you get a preferable situation down the road you can withdraw from the first college (best to do so in writing). You would then be free to enroll in any college you prefer. You just want to avoid having deposits in at two schools. And if you do switch schools you should expect to lose the deposit you placed at the first college.
Thank you all very much, I was extremely stressed about this!