Double-Depositing: A Wise College Choice?
Admissions decisions are in and the time has come to make your final college choice. It can be a tough to decide between two equally attractive schools, but with a little more research and a visit to campus, you should have plenty of information to make a good decision by May 1st. However some students decide to delay that decision by doing something called “double depositing”. If you are thinking of doing this, read this first! Double depositing is VERY RISKY and could cost you admission to all of your top choice schools.
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Double depositing means promising two different colleges to attend in the fall. This is done by signing an enrollment contract and sending a check for your non-refundable enrollment deposit to both schools - thus presumably buying more time to make a final college choice. On the surface, it may seem like a harmless thing to do, but there can be serious ramifications.
Simply put, double depositing takes away a place from a student who is on the school’s waitlist - a student who has legitimately earned that place. It also hurts the college financially since they allocate housing and faculty according to the number of students who send a deposit, promising to be there in the Fall. But it isn’t all about the money….
No matter how you look at it, double depositing is dishonest and fraudulent. Even if someone thinks they have a good reason to do it, they are still misleading colleges into thinking they will be attending when they have no intention of doing so. One of the things colleges look at when offering admission to a student is their character. A lack of honesty and/or integrity will keep students from being admitted to most colleges and colleges reserve the right to rescind their offer of admission to a student whose integrity is called into question. So what do you think will happen if you double deposit? That’s right; you just might be denied admission to your top college choice. And how do colleges know if you double deposit? Trust me, colleges know. They even ask high school counselors to report double depositing and some colleges share their deposit lists with each other.
So, the best choice is to make your final college choice by May 1st. That way you are guaranteed a place at one of your top college choices and you give another equally deserving student a chance to have the same thing.
