Can you put down a deposit at more than one school? Forum

[tx1987]

I still haven't made a decision and the deposit for Pepperdine is due on April 15th.

[roguey]

I still haven't made a decision and the deposit for Pepperdine is due on April 15th.

It depends on whether the deposit is "binding" or not. You can throw money at as many non-binding 1st deposits you want. You can only submit one binding deposit. If you put in others, you will be in deep doo-doo.

[Asilkman]

Should be fine but you'll have to check with the school's policy. I've heard some deposits are binding. I have yet to see any school that makes that their policy but it wouldn't surprise me if there were a few out there that did. Most just say the seat deposit is non-refundable.

[AsylumPB]

yes...the first dep is usually refundable up to a certain date.

[JOThompson]

yes...the first dep is usually refundable up to a certain date.

Really? Most of them seemed nonrefundable for me.

As for double depositing, always inquire with the school. USC will revoke your offer if you have two deposits down past a certain date (June?).

[blue5385]

Some schools don't state explicitly that submitting a deposit is binding, but they do tell you it's unacceptable to submit deposits at other schools if you're submitting one to them. If you submit a deposit with a school like this, I don't see what choice you have after the 1st week of May when almost all other schools' deposit deadlines have passed other than attending that school or not going to LS altogether.

From the CLS admitted students' website:

We recognize that choosing a law school can sometimes be overwhelming; however, out of consideration for and fairness to the rest of our applicant pool, we cannot support the practice of placing deposits at multiple law schools. Therefore, if you decide to hold a place at Columbia, we ask that you refrain from doing the same at other law schools. Should we discover that a candidate has made commitments to multiple law schools, Columbia reserves the right to revoke our offer of admission.

Too bad, because I have not made up my mind and would really like to submit deposits at multiple schools if that were an option for me.