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<p>I had the same interpretation as the original poster, and it wasn’t clear to me that it counted schools that have already made a decision. </p>
<p>I can conceive of the following scenario. Student gets admitted to a rolling school very early. His application is no longer pending. He gets admitted to an ED school. He is struggling senior year and wants to drop down to an easier level in one subject for spring semester than reported on his application. Rolling school’s web site specifically addresses this issue and says that it’s acceptable to drop down a level for one subject without risking rescission. He pays ED deposit and fully intends to go to ED school. He then writes admission office of ED school asking for confirmation that dropping down will not cause rescission. </p>
<p>Now it’s clear to me, that all pending applications must be withdrawn immediately, and no more applications filed, but I don’t see bad faith in waiting for an affirmative response that no rescission will occur by the ED school before turning away the acceptance at the rolling school. It gives the ED school another chance to say no. I think the ethics of holding this open would depend on the specific interpretation of OP’s question. </p>
<p>In this case, nobody is harmed by a few week delay, nobody does any extra work. Every consideration is given to the ED school. Nobody’s spot is taken over this (rolling schools won’t reject a qualified applicant this early, EA schools won’t make an RD decision this early). I don’t see the big deal. </p>
<p>Now I admit that it’s a far fetched scenario, but it answers the question I quoted.</p>