<p>I think the answers lie in the fine print. It is (IMHO) wrong to tell two schools that you intend to enroll when you know you will only enroll in one. However, it is equally wrong for a university housing department to be a bully and shake down families for uber early deposits. </p>
<p>We were given scary letters/ emails from U of Washington housing very early. If you didn’t deposit early then there were dire warnings that the student wouldn’t get housing or would get substandard housing (overflow students are can end up in “triples.”). We coughed up a whopping $500 to secure a dorm spot. </p>
<p>S ended up choosing another school and I went through all the correct hoops to get back the U of W housing deposit. At no time, whatsoever, had S made a commitment to UW. We were strictly dealing with the Housing Department. </p>
<p>That said, the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth. I didn’t like the scary messages from Housing. I didn’t like coming up with the $500. I didn’t like the nasty tone of the messages we got as we requested the refund. I didn’t like the many weeks it took to get a refund. </p>
<p>For Blueiguana: I don’t see that your friend is doing anything wrong. Alas, it sounds like he will have to make the deposits OR go through the hassles of dealing with living life off campus if he selects that particular school. It is an imperfect world and this deposit path seems to be a reality for the school he is considering. One can hope that there are potential benefits with the school that out weigh the deposit mess. </p>
<p>I would encourage you to keep a record of all correspondence/emails you receive. If your student does attend this college, then you could write a heartfelt (but polite) letter to the college president next fall and explain how anxious and unhappy the process did make you. It won’t change your situation right now but it might make them re think their policies. </p>
<p>Alas, Housing Departments seem to be off in their own little worlds – I am sure there are many stories they can tell about awful parents and entitled students – but sometimes the resulting policies seem hard on everyone.</p>
<p>Of course the vice-pres of enrollment at a college is against double-depositing. He is looking towards his own bottom-line and the interests for his college. He doesn’t have to wait for financial aid offers from five colleges who send offers at five different times (this was my experience as a transfer student), with five different deposit due dates, or crunch the family finances trying to figure out if Dream School is affordable over Adequate But Not So Dreamy School. He doesn’t have to pack up his life and move out on his own for the very first time ever, second-guessing himself on whether he is too far from Mom and will die of homesickness, or if he’s too close to Mom and will use the family as a crutch instead of making friends. </p>
<p>The colleges want what’s best for their interest–but that isn’t necessarily what’s best for an individual family’s interests.</p>
<p>And Olymom, I applied to UW and also got their Scary Housing Letters. Luckily it wasn’t an issue for me since I was planning to live off campus, but still . . . every couple weeks . . . emails prophesying doom if I didn’t register IMMEDIATELY. They also took six months to accept me (it finally happened in late June), then gave me two weeks to send in a tuition deposit. As chance would have it, the letter about the tuition deposit arrived when I was out of town for two and a half weeks. (Luckily I had asked my sister, who was picking up my mail, to open anything that arrived from colleges.)</p>
<p>I think Sexton should have clarified that he is criticizing the case of double depositing when an applicant is simply undecided, and not the legitimate (IMHO) cases of being waitlisted at a more desired school, or waiting for schools to decide on financial aid amounts.</p>
<p>Even if the double-depositer can afford to waste a few hundred dollars, that doesn’t mean that those on the wait list can afford to waste a similar amount of money. The waitlisted students have to put down a deposit at another school. If they end up getting in off the waitlist, they’ll lose that deposit. Then the investment continues, with housing deposits, plane tickets, and the like. Suddenly, the double-depositer decides to go to school A, opening up a spot for a waitlistee at school B…who now will lose hundreds or thousands of dollars because the d-d couldn’t make a timely decision. Not cool.</p>
<p>Didn’t read the whole thread, but at D’s school, there was only one deposit. The earlier you put down an admissions deposit, the better your housing priority. When she got admitted in December she thought that it was most likely her first choice, but wanted to hear the other decisions and do due diligence on them to be sure. She also got into another school EA. We waited until she decided in April after not getting into any RD schools to put down the deposit. She got great housing anyway with a great roommate, though had she put her deposit down immediately upon obtaining admission she would have gotten a single and not had to risk roommate issues. Had she been admitted to one of her RD schools, the delay probably would have meant even poorer housing. </p>
<p>After reading this thread I wonder if we could have put down an admissions deposit in December to secure the housing priority and just withdraw it before May 1 if she chose to attend a different school? The wording on the common app made it seem like once you put down an admissions deposit at any time, you were committed, except for a waitlist situation, but reading this thread, it seems like it would only affect the waitlist if she had multiple deposits down after May 1. It it ethical (or even wise) to put down an admissions deposit to secure housing priority and withdraw it before May 1 if the decision changes? Is that considered double depositing?</p>
<p>I make a distinction between double depositing - having 2 or more deposits placed simultaneously and sequential depositing - depositing with school A and then canceling it to deposit with school B. The first one is the unethical situation. But there is nothing wrong with sequential depositing - which would be the case with a WL situation or if you deposit with an EA school so as to get the housing priority and then cancel it before May 1 if a better RD school comes through. Many schools encourage students to deposit early and say it is refundable until May 1. Just check directly with the school to determine refundability.</p>
<p>In a WL situation taking place after May 1 - you will most likely forfeit the first deposit - but do be sure to notify the school anyway - it frees up a spot for someone else and is the courteous thing to do.</p>
<p>“I affirm that I will send an enrollment deposit (or equivalent) to only one institution; sending multiple deposits (or equivalent) may result in the withdrawal of my
admission offers from all institutions. [Note: students may send an enrollment deposit (or equivalent) to a second institution where they have been admitted from
the waitlist, provided that they inform the first institution that they will no longer be enrolling.]”</p>
<p>I think sending in a deposit after an EA and then withdrawing it later even before May 1 would seem to violate this clause that had to be agreed to in the Common Application. On the other hand, there is a clause in NACAC Statement of Principles of Good Practice, Mandatory Practices, that states</p>
<p>“Postsecondary members agree that they will work with their institutions’ senior administrative officers to ensure that financial aid and scholarship offers and housing options are not used to manipulate commitments prior to May 1;”</p>
<p>I would think that requiring an enrollment deposit for housing priority would violate this NACAC code of conduct for colleges especially in light of the clause on the common application. </p>
<p>We didn’t do it, so I don’t know what the rules are. The penalty clause “…may result in the withdrawal of my admission offers from all institutions.” seems to discourage taking any chances. </p>
<p>Interesting, CRD. My S only applied using school’s own applications, not the common app, so I haven’t seen it. I don’t recall seeing anything like that on his applications. He did apply ED to one, and will deposit there as soon as they accept him (fingers crossed that they do!)</p>
<p>S is just applying this year so we have NO experience, but</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If the above statement applies then all of the demands/threats from housing that have been shared on this thread should never happen! Can anyone explain that??</p>
<p>One college that we saw, UIUC, said that to make a housing deposit, an admitted applicant needed to say YES to enroll first, thus linking the two. It did, however, specify, that the $50 enrollment cost wd be refundable as long as done by 5/1.</p>
<p>One question that I have: if someone DOES make a YES decision to college X, in which there was already an admit decision during EA, can other RD colleges , still reviewing the student’s app, become aware of this acceptance and can this adversely affect their admission decision and possibly lead them to deny admission? Realize that it might be the case that the EA school in question wd not care if the enrollment yes were rescinded by the student. </p>
<p>HOw private is this info - both legally and practically ("over the ad coms’ lunch ")?</p>
<p>First, there are no legal issues in college admissions; it’s all on the honor system.</p>
<p>If X admitted you EA, and you responded YES (a bit earlier than necessary at this point), why would you care what other schools do? Maybe you’re just curious if the others admit you? But some adcoms do communicate with each other, and if you’re on record as accepting at X, why would another school bother to admit you, if they knew? It’s not punitive, just practical; for one thing, it costs them much more to mail the fat packet.</p>
<p>But, okay, maybe you’ve changed your mind about X, and you tell them, and maybe they don’t care, but there could be the chance that the other schools don’t find out that you changed your mind, and still have you on record as accepting at X.</p>
<p>Maybe I already gave the answer you sought: yes, some adcoms talk with each other about applicants; I know this for a fact (as in “I hope Roderick chooses one of our schools”), but I don’t know how widespread the practice is.</p>
<p>Okay so d applied to some institutions using CA and some using their own forms. She has 7 acceptances so far. None of the LAC are requiring any deposits or decisions before May 1. One of the universities has housing deadlines before May 1 and priority much, much earlier. It isn’t a school she did a CA with and it doesn’t even do CA. SHe is not intending to be double enrolled at all. She simply has to enroll with a non refundable enrollment deposit and a refundable housing deposit sometime very soon. I don’t see the ethical issue at all. She hasn’t visited this college yet but even more importantly, she has to wait until sometime in March to get accommodation paperwork to submit to the various colleges. Because of medical issues (severe migraine issues plus insomnia), she needs a single room. Only that one school that requires the deposits now will definitely let her have one. Others want the accommodation paperwork which we can’t get done until March even though we started the process in November. So here is our plan- we send decline letters to the one college she definitely won’t be attending, we put down deposits at one school, she finishes honors applications at three schools, and she visits all colleges she is actually interested in. Then she finds out which of the remaining three colleges accept her, finds out total cost of each college, finds out if colleges plan on renewing yellow ribbon program, finds out which colleges will give her a single room and otherwise accommodate her (other issues are minor-spellchecker, no tests at night, procedure if she has either severe migraine or very bad blood pressure issue at test time) and then hopefully make a final decision somewhere between the end of March and May 1. She would withdraw from the university if that is not her final choice and put deposits in her final choice. No double deposits.</p>