Okay, Cognitive Science is helpful. 
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I understand that your D is tunnel vision to Purdue being the only place she wants to go, but dream schools sometimes end up not being so. The āfriendsā that will be there, what if they are no longer friends once all there? I have seen too much girl drama to ever anticipate things that involved friendship. Do any of the other schools on her accepted list meet her other needs (financial and academic)? In the end does she really want to go somewhere that from the start has treated her like this? Sometimes we want to win the war so bad, we forget what the casualties are. I do not understand why they wont accept her for the summer/fall. Yes they are overenrolled but its one student. She did what she was suppose to do, and the best she could being only 18.
I do feel for you as a mom feeling like this was your fault and wanting to fix it. (once again I have a D). But if its Purdue or bust for this fall, plan B needs to be place and CC is not it.
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I agree. A lot of valuable suggestions from this thread same as yours have have helped me understand that CC is not it. I am working with D on plan B,C,Dā¦
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While you are waiting to hear back from the Vice Provost, I would collect the phone numbers of admissions offices of the top 3 schools that accepted your daughter but to which she declined admission. (By top 3, I mean the top 3 in terms of Dās willingness to attend etc). Start composing in your head the script you use when you contact them - be open, straightforward and to the point. Your daughter loved the school, but chose Purdue, and is now being offered an unworkable start date in the spring due to a billing glitch on their end (donāt get too far into the weeds) and youād like to see if it is at all possible to explore fall admission with School X.
In my opinion, there is absolutely nothing unethical about doing this while Purdue is up in the air. You paid your deposit and they failed to honor it for the fall. They have already drawn out this process by a week. Until the issue is resolved, you have every right to call Schools 1,2 and 3 and see what the situation is. If they tell you itās too late, then you at least have a better sense of where you stand. If they offer your daughter a better outcome, be prepared to take it and embrace it. Good luck!
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Iām not clear, it has been a full week now, have you actually spoken to someone in a position of authority at Purdue? Or has everything been through email? I would insist on conversations with the Provost today. Be professional and courteous but insistent. Keep calling up the chain.
BTW I find it hard to believe that someone in the right position at Purdue said that this was a āglitchā but there is nothing they can do. If there is a software bug then they would know they are responsible, and their response would be carefully stated. It makes me think that you are talking to someone at a lower level in the admissions office who is an intermediary in these conversations.
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The glitch would be that the system doesnāt recognize and alert when an accepted student tries to enroll for the incorrect semester. In this case the student was supposed to enroll for fall but chose summer instead. Summer shows as an option because there are new students that have to enroll in summer because their grades, etc., were lower and they are only conditionally accepted pending summer session performance. If someone selects the wrong semester, their enrollment doesnāt match up and nothing happens (as far as noting the acceptance/enrollment).
The admissions site specifically says to make sure to enroll for the semester noted in your acceptance offer. Iām guessing this wording likely legally protects Purdue from mistakes made in this area.
Had this mistake happened earlier in April, Iām sure a few calls to them would have straightened it out pretty quickly. But since it happened near the deadline and as they are overenrolled (curious by how much) they arenāt willing to fix it for fall.
From other posts it sounds like they are offering a gap year with the student starting in 2022. Or doing CC and transferring in if she wants to stay with her current class.
Itās an incredibly crappy situation and really seems extraordinarily insensitive on Purdueās part. Makes me wonder if there are a bunch of others in a similar situation so they donāt feel they can help out one person.
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Thatās good to know. I feel better for your studentās relationship with calculus! 
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I agree with some of the other posts ā this is not a time for your daughter to be handling this. She just doesnāt have the life experience. This is a matter for you or your lawyer to be handling ā keep calling the appropriate upper-level administrators until you actually talk to someone in authority who can give you an answer ASAP.
Also, yes to contacting other schools that she would be willing to attend and lining up an alternate pathway. I think that if she commits to another school, and then Purdue finally comes through, you can treat that like coming off a waitlist and uncommit from the other school and enroll in Purdue, although you would lose your deposit. Can some of the more experienced posters comment on that? It might make OPās daughter feel more secure about pursuing a Plan B if she knew that she could still attend Purdue as planned if Purdue eventually comes through.
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OP wants to pay a lawyer to make phone calls to multiple administrators, AND put down a deposit at the Plan B college (which they will lose if Purdue comes through)? You guys sure love spending other peopleās money!
You donāt need a JD to call the head of admissions (name on the website, just call the switchboard and ask to be transferred) and ask- politely- to either the voice mail or an actual assistant, āIād like to set up a half hour call to discuss my Dās situationā.
Which is what the lawyer would do, but then you are paying by the hourā¦ no threats, just a civil phone conversation where OP states, āWe would like the U to honor my Dās Fall admission, how do we make that happen?ā If it happens- great. If not- move to plan B and get one of the backup colleges where the D turned down their offer to reinstate D as a freshman admit if she agrees to deposit immediately.
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Just FYI, the OP has indicated that this is not the issue. Anecdotally they found someone else with the same Fall admittance who enrolled for Summer (with credit card) and had no problem. So OP seems to believe the issue truly is related to the echeck payment, or perhaps echeck payment + summer selection. (Of course, that other student may have accepted the Summer session through a different/correct path on the website.) It is just not clear to me if Purdue has said the rejection was related to the echeck, or if Purdue has said nothing specific at all, because it seems to be unclear, a full week later.
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We have one perspective. Thereās also a real possibility that the situation is very clear to Purdue. If that were the case it could explain the unfathomable mismatch in the āitās our system glitch and we canāt do anythingā message.
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I agree this isnāt the time to involve a lawyer. OP seems to have the right temperament and the ability to handle the matter. OPās daughter still wants to attend Purdue so an amicabe resolution is highly preferrable and it isnāt out of reach at this point.
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Call, donāt email.
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Okay, I will start doing it immediately.
All good points. I take back my comment that the call should be made by the parent or an attorney and restate as āthe calls should be made by the parentā. My point realy was that this is not a time for the student to try to resolve this, as she likely wonāt have the life experience to handle it.
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Schools on the NACAC list with Cognitive Science.
Undergraduate Minor Requirements - only a minor but probably could create a workable degree in psych or neuroscience. Lots of research. Itās an AAU university.
I know your daughter chose Purdue because she has friends going. If her friends are engineering students, her experience with them may be different than she envisions. They will be busier, less available to hang out, and more likely to expand their social groups to people they are in the weeds with academically.
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Agree. At this point as a parent you need to advocate and resolve via phone callsā¦either way. At this point getting your daughter involved would probably leave a lasting bitter taste over the process.
I am not a lawyer but have consulted a few and at this point you could use one to get clarity about options but if youāre thinking litigation do you really want to pursue further? At that point the damage is done on all sides. Time for plan B.
Iām not surprised but has your HS guidance counselor provided any help or advising? They might have some suggestions or know a contact or lawyer.
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This is what they said -
āā¦ I wanted to reconnect with you as yet another apology for the situation, acknowledgment of your email and to offer a possible remedy, although I know it is not ideal. Again, I wish there was more I could do to reinstate her admission for Summer/Fall 2021. I am terribly sorry that this has happened. ā¦ā
During the phone conversations, they accepted that the problem (glitch) is in Purdueās system.
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I have already started the consultation with a lawyer. I would still appreciate it you know someone you can vouch for and send me the information.