q: how do you handle being placed on a waitlist? it seems that for most schools, you dont start to hear back until after seat deposits are due. so is it normal to put down a seat deposit at your second choice, then if you get in @ the first choice, withdraw & accept @ the place where you got waitlisted? do you get your money back? (im guessing not)

so no one knows

yeah that's what some people do. You don't usually get your deposits back, unless maybe you had a great reason (but I would think that's unlikely)

But a warning is if you do choose to do this, than do not talk about it on here or any boards. There have been people who have had their acceptances taken away, knowing that the person was waiting on some place else.

thanks, jessica

Are you serious?

Yeah, I'd keep that to myself. It's a very sore subject, and I wouldn't ever address it on something as public as this website.

serious about what??

was it bad advice or something?? I thought it was good.

Had acceptances taken away.

Oh taking the acceptance away....yeah I was serious. It happened to someone on here last year.

This confuses me. Schools won't know who's coming until after the seat deposits are in, and so by the time they start pulling off their waitlists, everyone will have a seat deposit at a lower-choice school. So there's no way to go to a school off a waitlist without withdrawing from a school at which you have a seat deposit. How can schools be angry or consider it unethical/in poor taste if you accept a waitlist offer (especially since they are probably making these very same offers to other students)?

But remember that your lower-ranked school has a waitlist too. I don't think they'll complain about the $500 seat deposit or whatever.

Exactly...why would they withdraw someone's offer after finding out they are on another waitlist? Worst case scenario, they get $500.

Because they can withdraw your acceptance, keep your $500, and still get another $500 from someone else.

But I don't know, why they doit . I just know that they do. So be careful about posting.

Sounds like they make a completely legitimate process into something supershady.

But thanks for the heads up!

Wow, that's not cool. That's the whole point of a waitlist for schools.