<p>My daughter was extremely last minute at accepting an offer of admission. I found out today that she never finished sending her refusals to the other colleges. I know it will be good manners to send them anyway, but what do the schools do when applications aren't accepted by the deadline? Do they automatically assume (rightly in our case) that the student has accepted another school's offer?</p>
<p>They focus immediately on the acceptances. It’s still in good form for a student to send an official declination. I’m jumping on my kid on some that have not gone out, I suspect.</p>
<p>I would think the offer is rescinded after the deadline and the space opens up for a waitlisted student (or they assume a certain number of non acceptances of offers and admit more than they expect to matriculate). I don’t think they care about the students who don’t choose them- they focus on those who want them. Sending a refusal in time for other students to have the chance to be admitted before deadlines would have been nice, too late to matter now.</p>
<p>Some schools have assumed folks were coming if they don’t send in refusals. Even without deposit, some young people I know were expected at the schools they were actually rejecting.</p>
<p>Mine didn’t send refusals either, she just let them lapsed. The following year one school sent her mail encouraging her to attend its program. I guess the school figured she never said no to them.</p>
<p>My daughter missed sending a no thank you to a school who had put her on the wait list. They later sent her a letter about it.</p>
<p>My son neglected to send a refusal to a college that had accepted him. After a few weeks, he received a form letter that said something like “Since we haven’t heard from you, we assume you are not enrolling at our school.”</p>
<p>Still, it would have been better to send the refusal. </p>
<p>I see no problem with sending a refusal in early May. Refusals don’t have to meet a deadline, but reasonable promptness is always a good idea.</p>
<p>If you know you do not want to attend a college where you have been admitted send a thanks, but no thanks as soon as possible. This way a space is cleared and a new prospective student can be contacted. It is not fair to those wait-listed to keep a spot for you if you are not going to be there.</p>