Good morning everyone :D,
My friend has a question to ask:
“When I get an offer of admission from a college after being wailtlisted and pay the enrollment deposit, can I withdraw my application and commit to another university with a best financial offer?”
What can I tell him? 
So is this person a senior?
What exactly is the scenario?
So they were admitted off a waitlist, enrolled and then paid the deposit…then what happened?
Another school they were admitted to came up with a better financial offer?
The basic answer is that you should only have a deposit at one school at a time. So if they de-enrolled at the waitlist school (most likely losing the deposit) and then enrolled at the better financial school that is okay.
What is not okay is to put down two deposits and see who comes up with the best finances.
My friend is a senior.He applied to a lot of universities, got rejected at most of them and waitlisted at the others. Recently, he was admitted to NYU but the school offered him only 50% of the total cost. I think he is trying to negociate with them but he remains on the waitlist of Columbia, Rhodes and Rochester who did not answer him yet.
Since the enrollment due is in 15 days, he may enroll there and wait for the others if they offer him better offers: Is that possible?
He pays a $500 or $600 deposit at NYU? Then gets off at Rochester? Decides he wants to go there instead either because more money or likes it better? Sure no problem. He will lose his deposit. He can also if he gets off the waitlist at another school and gets a better package ask NYU to meet it (they probably will not).
For some people 50% would be an amazing offer. NYU is not known for their financial aid. You could also say it is too expensive, can you do better now.
@SaphireNY You’re saying that he can enroll then, if he receives better offers, switch to another school, but he will lose the deposit ?
All students accepted off of a waitlist have a limited time to decide on the offer. Fifteen days is more generous than some colleges which allow less than one week. Your friend may remain on other waiting lists, but he has to make the deposit at NYU. If he gets in somewhere else, he will almost certainly lose the deposit (most colleges are very clear about the deposit being non-refundable). Elite colleges have lots of waitlisted students, and usually aren’t very generous with financial aid when it comes to acceptances from the waitlist. Your friend is probably not going to get any more money from NYU. If a better offer comes along, he will lose the $500, but might save thousands more. That is his decision to make.
From my experience and that of a friend (both US citizens) who got off wait lists on May 1, both schools (meet full need) were surprisingly generous with aid. In fact, the wait list schools will cost us less than our RD would have. In my friend’s case by a significant amount. He actually went back to his RD school to see if they would match the new offer but I am not sure if it worked.
If you accept NYU and then get off a WL a day or two weeks later, does not matter, you will lose your NYU enrollment deposit. Also, schools can give you as little as 24 hours to decide if you want them. However, it is usually 24 hours after you get the financial package since obviously if you need significant aid you cannot respond without understanding cost