<p>Still in purgatory here, waiiting for several admissions decisions and several more FA awards. I am pretty sure that if D is waitlisted at any of the remaining schools, she could accept a spot on the waitlist and also accept the acceptance of a second school. But is there any rule against accepting two acceptances? Yes, we should have done a more careful investigation of schools before now, but that is all spilled milk at this point. I do realize that if this is a legitimate way to buy more decision-making time that we would forfeit the deposit at the school she ultimately does not attend.</p>
<p>It is not permitted for students to make two acceptance deposits. I’m sure there are more knowledgeable posters who can cite specific chapter and verse, but the school can choose to revoke your acceptance if it learns you have deposited at multiple schools. If your D is on the waitlist, she should deposit at her top choice school and then, if she gets off the waitlist elsewhere, she’d forfeit that deposit. THAT is acceptable (and recommended – don’t go beyond May 1st without a commitment somewhere).</p>
<p>April can be a hellish month. Everyone else is in the same boat. Besides, if your D is waiting and hoping for a spot off the waitlist, how would you feel about others tying up the works with multiple deposits?</p>
<p>Think about what you are considering. To do so would be screwing over one school and at least one other hopeful student. </p>
<p>And if that’s not enough, don’t forget that Karma can be a real BI*CH.</p>
<p>I guess I don’t see it as “screwing over” any other school or any other hopeful student–that is what waitlists are for. Once decisions are made, it seems to me that it does not matter a whole lot to the school or to waitlisted students whether my kid accepts an acceptance in April or May or June (of course it matters some, because schools and waitlisted students would like to have things settled sooner rather than later, but I just don’t see that it would invite a flood of bad karma). And just to be perfectly clear, I have no intention of breaking (or even bending) any rules. Just asking what the rules are.</p>
<p>MathildaMae–Just so you know, I thought of the exact same thing the other day, started looking into the topic a bit here, and saw that this is considered a very bad move, apparently. It does strike me as a bit crazy that the schools have had all this time make their decisions, then we have to turn everything around in one month’s time!!</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure it’s not just a “bad move,” but it’s actually not allowed. Check each college’s policy to make sure, but I’m pretty sure it’s forbidden, and if they find out (and they certainly can), it’s likely that both acceptances will be revoked.</p>
<p>Not the same, but I know someone who put in a deposit at my private high school and one of its competitors. The schools found out, and he was denied admission at both. Of course, that’s high school, not college, but similar idea…</p>
<p>Mom in Va–It looks like stressed parents think alike! For us, as I am sure is true for many others, April is horribly busy with school functions. And if D gets in to even one of her as-yet-to-be-heard-from schools, there literally will not be enough weekends in April to send her to all of the schools she will have been accepted to but has not yet seen.</p>
<p>They had 20,000 decisions to make, you have less than 10. You could do it in 30 days. It is not right to send in more than one deposit.</p>
<p>It is DEFINITELY not permitted - and it is unfair to students on waitlists. Don’t do it. Deposit to first-choice school, and if your kid gets off a waitlist, then you can choose to forfeit deposit at former first-choice school and redeposit at new first-choice school.</p>
<p>It’s not considered ethical. And it would set a poor example for your D or S.
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<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/guidance/applications/ethics[/url]”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board; also says
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<p>It is the same in college. It is similar to that you couldn’t be engaged to two people. You could break one off then be engaged to someone else, but you shouldn’t be engaged to multiple people.</p>
<p>Mathilda–Okay, ready–you and I now put our fingers in our ears and sing, “la, la, la, la…we’re not listening!!!” :)</p>
<p>And we thought we had such a good idea…</p>
<p>I thought it was obvious - a bad idea.</p>
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<p>this is all I would need to hear to NOT touch that idea with a 10 foot pole. I understand the deposit waiting to see a waitlist, but accepting two acceptances? That’s kinda asking for trouble. And being an ethical person, of good moral character… it’s what you do when no one else is looking. Certainly this would be defined as selfish behavior and we’ve all seen where a lack of ethics and character has gotten this country. Would you really want your kid to think this is OK and that the rules of ethics don’t apply to them?</p>
<p>What I am struggling with is saying no to what would be a great (and first) choice for many. All those months of praying to the acceptance Gods that he will shine favorably on your child and when they do it’s really hard to think about saying, “thanks but no thanks.”</p>
<p>Yes, so we see! Please be patient with some of us who are still learning!!!</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for educating me that two deposits is against the rules. As I said before, I just wanted to know what the rules are so I can follow them. I probably should just leave it at that, but I am intrigued by the moral outrage of some posters. The rule against multiple deposits is, I assume, a rule enacted by the schools. I further assume that schools enacted this rule because it serves their interests. They could easily adopt a different rule that says submit deposits to as many schools as you want. This rule would be less in their interests but so far as I can tell it would not violate any moral principles. (It would be morally wrong, I think, to hold a spot at a school once a kid is sure he or she will not be attending, and certainly wrong to never inform the school that a kid has decided not to attend, because then kids who would have been admitted off the waitlist might not be admitted. But I do not see it as a moral wrong to submit two deposits in April and then inform one school in May or June that D will not be attending after all. Again, I stress that I am not advocating this because it is not allowed–the schools set the rules and we follow them. All I am saying is that I don’t see it as a moral wrong.)</p>
<p>You can submit two deposits in April, as long as you withdraw all but one before May 1st. (There is little reason to do this, but you can…)
Schools need to get a firm number of students who will really be attending in the fall so that they can let in some from the wait-list.</p>
<p>Schools didn’t set the rule just to serve their interest, it is also to serve interest of students on the waitlist.</p>
<p>MM, two separate issues – two acceptances versus one acceptance + waitlist. The latter is done all the time. You go with your bird in the hand then change your mind if you get off the waitlist at your real first choice. You lose your deposit, so there’s some financial elitism involved here, but I can’t see anything ethically negative. A place opens up at the school you don’t attend and someone else gets off the waitlist, and so it goes.</p>
<p>Now accepting two offers is something else. I don’t really know why this gets people’s (and schools’) hackles up, but it does. Pursuant to your other thread, I’m curious to know why the choice between the top two is so neck and neck. Is it money? Not visited yet?</p>
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If you don’t inform college A until June 1st, then student A on the waitlist doesn’t get off the waitlist until June 5th or 6th; at which point College B (that would have had student A attend) now has to go to the waitlist by June 10th to ask Student B to attend. Student B has until June 15th to reply, and decides to attend College B, at which point College C has to go to their wait list and offers Student C a spot at their college but it’s already June 25th, so it’s July 6th before they get a commitment from Student C, at which point College D needs to go to their waitlist… get the picture? At some point, it gets to late too go to a waitlist and a kid and a college doesn’t get what they need.</p>