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[quote]
Money-laundering parasites. I feel terrible for waitlisted applicants who are sending in their deposits to these greedy schools.
[/quote]
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<p>Greedy? Maybe. </p>
<p>I think they're simply trying to discourage double deposits, to make it too expensive for students to deposit without being pretty sure they're going to come in the fall.</p>
<p>We call it "melt." People pay their money but don't show up when orientation starts. Presumably some of these no-shows double-deposited so they could take more time to make up their minds. Or, maybe they got off the waitlist somewhere. I assume places like Princeton, Harvard, and MIT don't have big melt problems (their acceptees not going to get into someplace better, for example) so that's why they skip the monetary obligation. Just guessing.</p>