Hi. My nephew has one offer so far and is on one waiting list. He’d probably prefer to attend the waiting list school. But given that’s an unknown, he should accept at one school by May 1. However, what happens if he later receives an offer from the waiting list school? Can he rescind the acceptance at the other school without penalty (except loss of his deposit)? Thanks.
He needs to accept the first school by May 1 or he may not have any schools to attend. If he gets off the waitlist at the other school, he has the option to accept or decline the WL school. He will forfeit his deposit at the first school but no penalty for accepting the WL school.
That’s the way WL works. You accept at your first choice school out of what accepted you, and you stay on WLs and when you clear a WL, you decide whether to rescind accept from that one school to which you sent your commitment and deposit and repeat the accept process with the WL school. The colleges all know how this works.
Thank you!