Title basically. I thought there was an important ruling that basically said colleges were acting in an anti-competitive way by arbitrarily forcing the May 1 deadline and then not competing with one another after that date.
But everything I am seeing from the schools is that you have to commit by May 1 or else…
Is my read accurate on this ruling, and how (in practice) does it affect kids after this date?
Is there a chance schools will actually try and flip kids into the Spring/Summer? Can they (and more importantly do they) induce students with sweeter financial aid packages after May 1?
Knowledgeable answers appreciated. Thanks!
Most schools continue to follow the NACAC guidelines of a May 1 commit date (Some schools have instituted commitment dates before then and NACAC can not administer consequences to said institutions.)
Regardless the date, a student must accept the offer of admission by the date the college states.
The DOJ imposed rule change that you reference allows schools to continue to recruit students, sometimes by sweetening FA offers, after the student has committed to another school on May 1. I don’t have a sense for how common this practice is, but the new ability to recruit has caused many schools to raise their deposit amount (to deter defection).
Here’s one explanation (there are many on the web):
The First-Year Undergraduate Recruiting Rule prevented colleges, beginning on May 1 of each year, from improving their recruitment offers to first-year students. Specifically, the rule prohibited colleges from knowingly recruiting or offering “enrollment incentives to students who are already enrolled, registered, have declared their intent, or submitted contractual deposits to other institutions.” The rule also prohibited colleges from offering or implying that additional financial aid or other benefits were available to students who had not withdrawn their applications unless the student first affirmed that they were not enrolled elsewhere and were still interested in discussing fall enrollment. The DOJ alleged that the First-Year Undergraduate Recruiting Rule significantly restrained a college’s ability to compete for first-year students, which also deprived students of receiving potentially beneficial offers from colleges.
https://www.lcwlegal.com/news/nacac-removes-recruiting-rules-from-code-of-ethics-and-professional-practices-in-light-of-doj-investigation-and-potential-litigation-and-signs-consent-decree/
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I found a link related to this settlement from 2019.
The colleges want students to commit by May 1.
Jane Smith commits to College B. College A wants Jane Smith at their school though. They come along after May 1 and offer Jane a lot of money to come to College A. Jane is free to go to College A if she wants to, and she will probably lose her deposit at College B. College A has done nothing wrong.
I haven’t yet heard of this happening, but I am sure it has. Perhaps some athletes have experienced this?
Post May 1 offers have been made, but like I said above I’m not sure how often. And it tends to be less selective schools of course. And really, does this even matter, as Jon Boeckenstedt estimates at least 90% of schools are still accepting apps after May 1.
I haven’t heard of much athlete switching post May 1, it could happen but only for those who haven’t signed an LOI.
What has become relatively more common is recruiting transfers. Schools that students had on their common app list, or ones they applied to, or even new ones may contact students at any point (seems post first college semester is common) with a message like ‘are you happy at the school you chose? If not, we would love to have you as a transfer, and will honor the merit award we offered last year’. Sometimes a new app isn’t even required.
Another consequence of the DOJ forced changes is that schools can offer benefits for ED applicants…such as better housing, priority registration, scholarships, special programming, etc.
Are these developments better for students? Meh.
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Ah! This makes sense. Thanks for the insight.
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How common are “better benefits” for ED? Besides perhaps being semi less-selective?
Curious how common and if you know any schools that offer said benefits and what they are.
Thanks!
U of Arizona housing is already full. A potential consequence of accepting after May 1st l
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I wish there were a comprehensive resource for this but I don’t know one. It does seem to be mostly less selective schools offering spiffs for those accepted ED…High Point, Lake Forest college, Stetson, Champlain, Clarkson, college of Wooster are some which do. Northeastern maybe the most selective school offering ED spiffs, offers NU Accelerate to those accepted ED/ED2.
Maybe someone should start a thread and we can crowdsource these schools. 
Now with the transfer portal, this rule is being avoided. Also, the student could go to a non-NLI school (Div 3, NAIA, Ivy, JUCO). I still don’t think it is common.
I thought lindagaf was talking about incoming first years? If not, my bad.
I think even first year can use the transfer portal. There was the Ohio state recruit who gave up his senior year in high school to start early at OSU and I think he took summer or fall classes but then wanted to leave before he even played a down and used the transfer portal.
It may be that he never signed a NLI so maybe he didn’t have to use the portal. I don’t think he was eligible for the NLI as a hs junior/quasi senior.
With the new NIL rule (one of the reasons he left his high school, the other was to avoid injury) many student may not even care about the NLI/scholarships anymore. Some are bringing in more than the scholarship is worth. I think this kid was making a million as a 17 year old, all kinds of deals for cars and advertisements.
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