If you pay an enrollment confirmation deposit by the deadline, are you allowed to cancel the acceptance decision (e.g. if you find out another college accepts you (in the US or in another country) that you want to go?
Yes. Most likely you would lose the deposit though.
What do you mean (since the deposit is non-refundable)?
Yes. You will lose your deposit but you are not bound to the school you committed to.
Most waitlists don’t start taking people until after May 1, the national enrollment deadline. Thus, if you decided to enroll at a school off the waitlist, you can then turn down one where you already committed to, at the expense of your deposit.
If you get accepted to a college in your home country you can cancel your acceptance at the college you sent a deposit to, but you won’t get your money back. Is the US school that accepted you affordable for your family?
The issue is that I have been offered conditional admission to 1 university and have to accept or decline the offer (and pay the deposit) by May 1, and am not expecting to hear back from the US universities I haven’t heard back from yet by May 1 (I have applied quite late to a few state universities in the U.S.).
I am not expecting to get in to the other universities that I have not heard back from yet, but I am somewhat interested in american sign language and Deaf Studies which is what I have applied to for 1 university (because I may be interested with people and students who are deaf). So even though I’m not expecting it, if by any chance the other universities in the U.S. that I applied to offer admission, I don’t know whether it would be possible to accept their admission (I am aware that I would lose the deposit if paid).
After May 1, the odds are that you will lose any deposit to a school you’re not planning to attend.
Go ahead and accept. Not likely to get deposit back. You need to notify the school that you are not coming.
Thank you for the replies.
You pay your deposit by May 1, or you will lose the spot at that college. If you get off a waitlist or a late acceptance at another school, you notify school #1 that you aren’t attending after all. You can ask about your deposit, but you probably won’t get it back.
Some colleges count the deposit towards your first-year tuition, housing, or other fees, so it does have clear value, even if non-refundable. Even if the deposit is not credited towards tuition, it still has value as your “placeholder” for a spot at the college. Think of it as a non-refundable ticket to a theater performance. You can always decide not to go, but if so, you will just forfeit the cost of the ticket without getting the benefit of seeing the show. And in that case, the college has the right to sell your seat to someone else.
The deposit is applied towards tuition.
I guess it may be better to possibly lose the deposit (due to either choosing not to go or not meeting the conditions) than to lose the place at the college .