Is it ethical/legal to accept a umich offer and pay the 300 dollar deposit, then for some reason deny/revert the admission offer because you got into somewhere else? Thx.
Yes, it can be, but it depends on the circumstances. A common situation is that you have to commit and pay the deposit at the beginning of May at college 1, but you are on the waitlist at college 2. If you get admitted to college 2 off of the waitlist in June, you then accept the offer at college 2 and forfeit the spot (and the deposit) at college 1. This is not considered unethical, but you would want to forfeit the spot at college 1 ASAP once you know you won’t be attending, to allow it to be offered to someone else (and to avoid incurring additional fees). There might be specifics about your Michigan situation that would change the ethics–you would have to consider that.
OP: Need more specifics/ more info.
Got it Thx!
You can always withdraw and forfeit the deposit when you are admitted by other schools. After May 1, you should be committed to only one school at any time. Nevertheless, there is no reason to put the deposit down early at UMich. For some schools, deposit may be needed to apply for housing, for instance. The only advantage by paying the deposit before April 1 is for the early invitation for orientation registration in mid April.
Michigan doesn’t have ED at its disposal to force anyone to attend. You’ll just lose your deposit.
Yes you should put the deposit down if that is what you need to do for housing, then if you choose somewhere else then you’ll forfeit the deposit and go there.
Yes you should put the deposit down if that is what you need to do for housing, then if you choose somewhere else then you’ll forfeit the deposit and go there.
I agree that you do not need to rush to pay the deposit. The housing application will not even be available until April and there is no advantage to applying for housing early anyway. My daughter applied for housing the first day the application was open in April and didn’t get her housing assignment until the last possible day in mid-August.
While it is not unethical to pay the deposit with the intent of withdrawing later, there is also no benefit in paying the deposit now. I would wait until late March, by which time, you should have all your acceptances. At that time, you can make your payment and still have ample time to register for orientation, class registration, dorm selection and research request.
I want to clarify that the only way to select a dorm is by applying to those residential programs. Otherwise, you can only list you preference in location and room type. For early orientation registration, you just need to pay the deposit by 4/1 to receive the first batch of invitation email around 4/15.