Multiple Seat Deposit Warning

[interstate]

This was sent to me from UPenn.

Please read the following *important* information from the LSAC (www.lsac.org) about the possible risks of holding a seat deposit at more than one law school beginning next week.  As you will see, if you are currently deposited at multiple law schools, we strongly recommend that you withdraw your deposit(s) from all but the one law school you will/will most likely attend before their June 15 notification deadline.

 

Multiple Deposit Notification

 

Each year, law schools that participate in LSAC’s commitment overlap reporting service provide LSAC with information about applicants who have been accepted and have paid a deposit or provided a verbal or written agreement to attend their schools. Each spring, participating law schools receive periodic reports detailing the number of their committed applicants who have submitted seat deposits or commitments at

other participating schools, as well as the identification of those other schools.

 

Starting on June 15, 2008, those reports will also include the names and LSAC account numbers for all candidates who have deposits/commitments at multiple participating schools.

[INXCES]

I knew nothing of this notification process.  William & Mary sent me an e-mail on the 16th, as they discovered I was on another school's deposit list.  What is the big deal or issue?  Certainly, it makes a school nervous that they may lose a student.  But are there any repercussions?  Is there a suggestion that a school might retract an offer of admission or otherwise penalize a student who has paid multiple deposits?

[Changed Name]

I knew nothing of this notification process.  William & Mary sent me an e-mail on the 16th, as they discovered I was on another school's deposit list.  What is the big deal or issue?  Certainly, it makes a school nervous that they may lose a student.  But are there any repercussions?  Is there a suggestion that a school might retract an offer of admission or otherwise penalize a student who has paid multiple deposits?

It does you no good to come on to a message board asking these questions, because the answers you seek are very school specific.  Some schools are going to require that by the second deposit, you're only committed to them;  otherwise, they may reserve the right to rescind your offer.  Other schools may be OK with anything.  Some schools may have a strict policy but are all right with making an exception or two here and there, if there is a valid reason.

At this late stage of the game, you really should have a strong idea of where you want to go and be committed to one.  Of course, this commitment is based off of all factors at your current disposal and, if something were to change (i.e., getting off a waitlist, etc.), then you could change commitments.  But, you should not be stringing along two schools.  I think that's the general intuition behind this policy and law schools' rationales.

If I were you, I'd get on the phone with all those schools for which I have sent a second seat deposit.  Ask them what their policy is on this situation.  Apologize for my ignorance, and either make a final decision (giving an initial verbal commitment on the phone), or ask for a very short period of time to make this choice.

[INXCES]

If a school does not inform admitted applicants of any policy, it stands to reason there is no policy.  Asking makes sense, but I don't care to stir things up by doing that.  Certainly I need to finalize my decision, but hey, some of these schools strung me along for months.  I'm just looking to see if there is some unwritten standard policy across schools, or some LSAC policy of which I am unaware.  Neither school at which I have made a deposit has indicated any sort of policy.

[Changed Name]

If a school does not inform admitted applicants of any policy, it stands to reason there is no policy.  Asking makes sense, but I don't care to stir things up by doing that.  Certainly I need to finalize my decision, but hey, some of these schools strung me along for months.  I'm just looking to see if there is some unwritten standard policy across schools, or some LSAC policy of which I am unaware.  Neither school at which I have made a deposit has indicated any sort of policy.

You would hope that would be the case, but unfortunately, there are many times when a school would just expect you to know their policies, or at the very least, expect you to find out the policies for yourself.  It's like the law:  ignorance of the law doesn't make it excusable. 

From what I gather there is no "uniform, unwritten" rule here.  Nor is there anything explicitly on the LSAC website (other than that whole "multiple deposits warning notification" thing).

[grover]

i am just speculating but i would assume that the worst that can happen is being notified by one of your schools that you need to make a decision in X amount of days after this school realizes you have multiple deposits down or they will pull their offer of acceptance.

on a personal note, i don't have multiple deposits down but would have no internal struggles or ethical dilemmas with this situation...this admissions process is a game and if the multiple deposits buys you more time to make a decision,  then great...it is like you are waitlisting the schools that accepted you and i kinda like that!

[INXCES]

i am just speculating but i would assume that the worst that can happen is being notified by one of your schools that you need to make a decision in X amount of days after this school realizes you have multiple deposits down or they will pull their offer of acceptance.

on a personal note, i don't have multiple deposits down but would have no internal struggles or ethical dilemmas with this situation...this admissions process is a game and if the multiple deposits buys you more time to make a decision,  then great...it is like you are waitlisting the schools that accepted you and i kinda like that!

I agree, especially given that I received my last initial decision on June 7th or 9th.  It turned out to be a waitlist, but if it had been an offer of admission, it would have made my current decision moot.  If schools want final decisions made by June 14th, they need to get their decisions to us well before that.  So, I too feel justified in taking a little more time to cancel one of my deposits -- it is not like I am going to get a refund anyway.  I'm waitlisting them (maybe deferred decision is a better description?), an interesting way to look at it!