As a parent to finalize the decision on college acceptance I have the following questions and seeking your expert advise:
- Do we have till 5:00 PM or till 11:59 PM on 5/1/2018 to accept or reject the college offer?
- Are we required to decline all other offers or can we not respond and that would mean that we have declined..
- My son is in waiting at a college and they will not be able to decide till other students finalize today. I suppose I have to have him accept an offer at a college today. In case he gets accepted at another college, what will be our process to deny the first college, anyone with this experience or knowledge?
He needs to deposit today by 11:59 pm. Not sure if that’s eastern time or whatever, but I wouldn’t wait until then anyway. He runs the risk of not having a college to attend.
You don’t need to notify other colleges that he won’t attend.
Colleges are not likely to go to the waitlist today. My D had a WL notification on May 3. They need a bit of time to calculate their numbers I guess. Getting off a WL, especially in this very uncertain cycle, is not going to be at all predictable. The odds are usually very low, far lower than the normal acceptance rate. If he gets accepted elsewhere, notify the first college asap. You will lose your deposit. Double depositing is not legal and can result in both colleges rescinding admission.
I would notify the college you accept as soon as possible today. I believe that a lot of kids wait until the very last minute, and when a lot of people try to access a computer system it can lag or break. I would hate to have my kid miss out on his college because he couldn’t sign on a website.
Commit and deposit now! This is important.
Your son may have nowhere to go if he does not accept an offer today.
Do not count on a waitlist acceptance, but if your son is accepted off a waitlist, then he will notify the college to which he already made a deposit that he got off a waitlist and will be attending another college. Colleges are used to this happening. The only bad part is that usually families lose their deposit at the first school when they accept a waitlist spot at another school.
I just want to clarify something @Lindagaf said. It is perfectly acceptable and normal to tell a college (let’s say, Hobart) that you will attend and to make a deposit there, simultaneously declining offers (let’s say from SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Oneonta). Then, if you get off a waitlist (let’s say, Hamilton’s), it is perfectly acceptable, legal and normal to contact Hobart and explain that you have been accepted off Hamilton’s waitlist and will be attending Hamilton instead. You will lose your deposit at Hobart, but you will have no problem. I think Lindagaf just meant that you have to inform Hobart once you accept Hamilton.
Acceptances from the wait list can occur anytime from before May 1st even happens to as late as August! Most will occur in mid-May to mid-June. There can be a domino effect as some students leave and create openings.
But please realize that being accepted off a waitlist is not that likely. Colleges waitlist many, many more students than they will accept. A college may waitlist 1000 students, and accept only 7 off the waitlist. Sometimes colleges accept zero students from the waitlist, because enough people matriculate from the original batch of accepted students.
Therefore, your son should get excited about and prepare to attend one of the colleges to which he has been accepted. Then, if he gets off a waitlist, he can make his decision and take steps to notify both schools.
Be sure that he formally accepts a spot on the waitlist at the college that waitlisted him.
He should notify other schools that he is declining their offers by selecting that button on his admissions portal. It is polite. But be sure that he accepts his favorite acceptance first! He must accept one of his offers now and not wait to hear from the waitlisting college.
Also if you want to know how likely it is that a given school takes students off the waitlist, look at section C2 of the Common Data Set for that college.