<p>I am a prospective transfer student, and was recently accepted to the University of North Carolina, and on the website it asks me to either accept or decline an admission, and if I accept, I have to pay a deposit. I have also applied to some other schools, but have not heard back from them. If I accept the admission and pay the deposit, does this mean I have to attend the school, or does it simply just save me a spot, and I can pull out at any time? I am very much interested in attending UNC, but am still waiting on a few other schools, and I don't want to be locked into any one school at this point. This was not an early decision application.</p>
<p>It means that you’ve got “dibs”. Congratulations!</p>
<p>If you accept and pay the deposit, you’ve made a reservation. You can still choose elsewhere, but you might lose your deposit. If you decline, your admission will probably be rescinded.</p>
<p>You are not alone. Once you are out of college, you’ll be making decisions like this daily. I would say that your best bet is to do nothing until you approach the deadline and things shake out a little.</p>
<p>Bear in mind, though, “if you snooze, you lose”.</p>
<p>Thanks, I think to be safe I’ll accept it, as long it doesn’t mean I have to attend. I’m still waiting on a few other schools, and I’d rather make my decision when I can compare all of the schools I got into.</p>
<p>What would be unethical is to double deposit – solely because you’re unable to decide. If you deposit at UNC, you should do that with the intention of attending, barring another, later and better offer. It would be wrong to deposit at UNC, then to deposit at another simultaneously.</p>
<p>Do they give you a deadline you have to reply by? If you are close to that deadline, then you may want to deposit while you wait for your other decisions. But if you change your mind later, you likely will lose the deposit. If you change your mind and decide to deposit at another school later, tell the first school right away that you changed your mind. It isn’t ethical to “double deposit” – so make sure you let the first school know if you decide to deposit somewhere else.</p>
<p>When you pay the deposit, you are saying you are more or less committed to it. If you have not decided yet and there is still time before the deadline, do not accept the offer.</p>
<p>You posted your thread on the Admissions forum which is for fr admissions, where double depositing is unethical. You are a transfer applicant, so I have moved your thread to the Transfer Students forum. Transfers face a different situation since deadlines for releasing admission decisions and committing to a school are highly variable and often conflicting, not standardized like with fr admissions.</p>
<p>This question is asked all the time by transfers since schools give decisions at different times and have different deadlines for deposits and often students are in your situation of having to commit to one school before hearing from others. Transfers can use any combination of the following:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Ask a school for an early admission decision.</p></li>
<li><p>Ask a school for an extended date for committing to attend.</p></li>
<li><p>Place a deposit at a school(s) while waiting for decisions from other schools, and then withdrawing later (and likely losing the deposit) if necessary.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The deadline for the deposit is April 30, but some of the schools I have applied to don’t give you a decision till May/June. I plan on placing the deposit and I plan to attend at this point, but if I hear back from a different school, one I wish to attend to also, then I will have to make a different decision. I don’t want to take the risk and not make the deposit and then lose my spot. So for transfer students, this isn’t unethical? </p>
<p>Look at my post count, Moderator status, and record of posting about transfer admissions. Given these factors and my post above, I’m not sure I can make it any clearer.</p>
<p>foximus91, entomom is correct. I too read on college confidential that making more than one deposit for transfer students is unethical. However after calling to confirm placing a deposit only holds your spot you have the right to decline admission at any time and they wont penalize you except for keeping your deposit. You can ask for a refund though so that’s not even final.</p>
<p>Ok thanks. I was worried about committing to a school when I still have yet to hear back from the rest of the schools I applied to. Thanks for the responses</p>