<p>can anyone verify dragonmom's comment that withdrawing all but one deposit by May 1 is allowed?</p>
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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.
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<p>That is not double depositing. Double depositing is if you send in an ENROLLMENT deposit to more than one school AT THE SAME TIME. Note: There is a difference between SIMULTANEOUSLY having more than one enrollment, and SERIAL deposits. If D is accepted off the waitlist, then she WITHDRAWS from School A and sends in a deposit to School B. That is ok. Sending deposits to School A and School B because D can't decide is NOT.</p>
<p>Note: You have until May 1 to send in a deposit. There is no need to send in 2 or more deposits while you are deciding in April.</p>
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At some point, it gets to late too go to a waitlist and a kid and a college doesn't get what they need.
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<p>I do understand why schools have this rule. But it would not be immoral or unethical to have a different rule. </p>
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I'm curious to know why the choice between the top two is so neck and neck. Is it money? Not visited yet?
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<p>The problem is that there is so much that is still unknown. Still waiting for several admissions decisions and for FA aid information from several more schools where she is already admitted. It is possible that all my worrying will turn out to be for naught. She could get in to her dream school with great financial aid. But it is possible that she will end up choosing from schools some of which she has not visited yet. And it is also possible, from what I understand, that even though we will have admissions decisions by April 1 we might not have financial aid decisions until some time after that. So running through all of the possible decisions she might have to make is making me a little nuts right now.</p>
<p>May 1 is the national common response date, which at this time students should submit their intent to enroll and a deposit at a school. Some schools are very specific and the student will have to attest to the fact that they are not double enrolling. Other schools state on their form that if you double hold multiple spots that your admission will be rescinded.</p>
<p>It's not necessary to send in deposits to hold your child's slot. Most colleges have a May 1st deadline and they will hold your child's slot until then. You will have plenty of time to make your decision. I think what is more important to consider is the housing situation. Most colleges make housing placements based on the date when the housing deposit is received by the school. If you have narrowed the choices down to 2 schools, you may want to consider sending in the housing deposit to both schools in order to better the chances of your child not being tripled or put into the least requested dorm. Often times, these housing deposits are refundable if you inform the school by a certain date that you have changed your mind about attending. You should carefully read the information regarding housing that came with your acceptance packet.</p>
<p>From the National Association of College Counselors website...</p>
<p>When You Are Offered Admission:
• You have the right to wait until May 1 to respond to an offer of admission
and/or financial aid.
• Colleges that request commitments to offers of admission and/or
financial assistance prior to May 1 must clearly offer you the opportunity
to request (in writing) an extension until May 1. They must
grant you this extension and your request may not jeopardize your
status for admission and/or financial aid.</p>
<p>I have no realtionship with this group, but they seem to be the "go-to" group for questions about what's within the rules and what's not.</p>
<p>I tell my students unequivocally the NACAC's position on double enrolling.</p>
<p>NACAC states the following:</p>
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Tuition Deposit—
Also known as the admission deposit, commitment deposit, or commitment fee. A college usually requires a student who has been admitted to verify intention to enroll by submission of a deposit or fee to be applied (usually) to the student’s tuition charges for the upcoming academic year. </p>
<p>Colleges that are members of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) agree to allow accepted applicants the opportunity to learn the decisions of all colleges they have applied to before requiring tuition deposits, provided that all decisions are made before May 1. </p>
<p>The student, in turn, is obligated to submit a tuition deposit to only one college
before its required deadline (usually May 1). Colleges view dual or multiple deposits by students as serious violations of trust and may revoke a previous offer of admission from any student who is found to have sent tuition deposits to more than one college.</p>
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<p>My students also are required to state their intention to enroll to the school shortly after may 1. Because we do not encourage or uphold students or their parents in double depositing and we only send 1 transcript to the college at the end of the school year.</p>
<p>If I was outraged, you'd know it. :) </p>
<p>And if it wasn't the rule and it was allowed, then you're right, there'd be no ethical dilemma or ambiguity. It might be seen as kind of selfish of you towards other students, but there's not a whole lot wrong with a little selfishness on occasion. HOWEVER.. the thing is, it IS a rule or at least a very well understand code of behavior and just because you could break it (which is what I took from a previous post... something like a "what's to stop me?" attitude) or get away with it without consequences then why not do it? I am not saying that is the case, but I am saying that was what I gathered from the previous posts.</p>
<p>On another note, maybe you can explain why expressing an ethical or moral opinion is so often said to be "moral outrage." I don't get the over-use of that phrase. It's as if one cant be moral and calm about it at the same time? :)</p>
<p>I'm assuming (hopefully, correctly?) that you can put in multiple admission deposits as long as you remove them by May 1st? Son has been accepted to several schools that have specific housing sign up dates in March -- literally, you can't get into the honors housing unless you sign up now. And, you need to make an admission deposit in order to make a housing deposit to select your dorm. Yet, other schools (such as USC) won't even send out their regular decision admission notifications until April 1st.</p>
<p>So, you'd be shut out of the good housing (at at least 2 or more of schools son's been accepted to) if you waited to deposit until you were 100 % sure you were going.</p>
<p>I don't see an ethical problem with multiple deposits, for the housing issue alone, since schools essentially 'force' you into it by their early housing deadline requirements...</p>
<p>Hoping this is right....?</p>
<p>Submitting a housing deposit is not an intent to enroll at the school. As others have stated, especially in the case of public schools, housing is done on a first come first served basis. Therefore a family must send a housing deposit to ensure that the student has a room should they decide to enroll. These deposits are fully refundable if the school is notified by a certain date (this date usually correlates with the national response date).</p>
<p>Yes, you can have multiple housing deposits, because your child has not committed to attend. By the same token, you cannot send a housing deposit and have the school assume your child is attending unless you send in an intention to enroll form.</p>
<p>Some schools require a commitment to attend before the student is allowed to sign up for housing. In that case it is fine to enroll in more than one school in order to sign up for housing. The student must then withdraw from all the schools he won't be attending by May 1st. Also, not all housing deposits are refunded.</p>
<p>Not a parent here, but thought I'd add my research on admission deposits and housing deposits. In most of the schools I am familiar with, you are allowed to reserve housing only after you have confirmed you will be enrolling (with an admissions deposit accompanying the SIR) and then choose housing. In no schools is housing reservation independent of the SIR or preceding it. What Jolynne Smyth is suggesting is filing SIRs at multiple schools to then meet their admission deadlines, but then withdrawing the SIRs at all but one school by May 1. That would not be unethical on its face though tricky because withdrawal process may not be as easy as confirming attendance.</p>
<p>One final question: what (beyond conscience and ethics) are the barriers to parents who want to play for time as the NYT article cited above suggests? How would the colleges know in the absence of a central registry of some sort?</p>
<p>"In no schools is housing reservation independent of the SIR or preceding it."</p>
<p>This is not the case. My d was accepted at several schools where there was a modest fee to put in a housing reservation anytime after notification of acceptance and the SIR is not due until 5/1. Basically, for a small fee ($30 at one school;no fee at another, etc) you hold a place in line so when housing contracts get sent out you are in the front of the line. If you do not sign a SIR you then are dropped out of line and those behind you move up. In that regard, you are not taking a spot from anyone else and no contract has been signed.</p>
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One final question: what (beyond conscience and ethics) are the barriers to parents who want to play for time as the NYT article cited above suggests? How would the colleges know in the absence of a central registry of some sort?
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<p>I am the OP here, and now that I understand that at least some colleges have rules against submitting multiple acceptances, I would say (even in my increasingly stressed-out condition) that the extra time would in no way be worth the possibility that one of the colleges would find out. And at those colleges that require certification or affirmation, you would not only be violating the rules but adding a lie on top of that violation. I don't like the rule at all (for my family, it might well mean higher-cost airfares, more missed days of school and work, more make-up work, more finding day-care and after-school solutions for the other kids, and I am sure many other negatives I have not yet even realized) but regardless, I would hate for my question to give anyone the idea that violating the rules and then lying about that is an acceptable choice.</p>
<p>Okay...thinking that multiple enrollments (in schools that require enrollements before housing deposits) is acceptable, if the school has earlier-than-May-1st housing deadlines. I just wouldn't see a way around that. We'll withdraw before May 1st from the schools son is not attending. Some will give us partial refund. Thanks!</p>
<p>D also has an admissions offer from a large state university where a separate housing deposit is required to protect your place in the housing line, but the school still abides by a May 1 deadline for the admissions deposit. </p>
<p>None of the LACs seem to have housing deposits -- probably because all require freshmen to live on campus.</p>
<p>DON'T DO IT.</p>
<p>You won't just be prolonging an already difficult experience, you may be messing with the admissions chances of futures students from your D's high school.</p>
<p>True story: One year at my school, three seniors got into Harvard. Ironically all of them decided that they were going to put down two deposits so they could choose between Harvard and their other top choice school. Come "real" decision time, they ALL chose the other school. Since putting down two deposits is actually not allowed, Harvard was mad and, probably suspecting that our school guidance counselors had suggested this double-depositing, basically blacklisted our school. NO ONE else got in for ten years.</p>
<p>Don't do it. I know it's hard to make a decision, but an additional couple of weeks aren't really going to help. What are you going to learn in that time that you can't learn NOW?</p>
<p>It actually DOES affect the other students on the waitlists if you double, or triple deposit. If you child indicates that she is going and then notifies the college in say, June, that she is not, rather than May 1, think of the waiting time the students at College B had hoping they'd get in off the wait list, when they could have known back in May. Or April. Also there is often very little money available for those coming off the waitlist late. When you play games like that its a ripple effect. The rule is there for a reason.</p>
<p>As important is the example that you are setting for your student, ie that unethical behavior is acceptable as long as it is to benefit your family in making a decision. </p>
<p>There is a lot of time between now and May 1, by which time all finaid decisions will be in hand. There is more than ample time to make an informed choice. And remember there is no perfect college for any student so try not to anxiously overthink things at the end.</p>
<p>It's not fair to put down multiple enrollment deposits but it is fair to put down multiple housing deposits to jump to the head of the line. Now that I just don't understand.</p>