Does paying my confirmation at one institution withdraw my application from another school?

[FutureLawStudent1512]

I am in a bit of a predicament as one of the schools I have applied to would like my decision by February 15th, which is much earlier than the other two I have been accepted to. I am thinking about my the confirmation deposit to the first school (which would be required by February 15th) and then seeing what I get for scholarships offers during the month of March to make my official decision. I realize the confirmation deposit would not be refundable, but would I be automatically withdrawn from the other schools to which I have been accepted?

[Tall Dutch Girl]

I am in the same situation. I am understanding it to be a non-refundable deposit but that my other applications would not be affected. I would appreciate clarity on this as well.

[Moms_Spaghetti]

On 1/30/2022 at 8:00 AM, FutureLawStudent1512 said:

I am in a bit of a predicament as one of the schools I have applied to would like my decision by February 15th, which is much earlier than the other two I have been accepted to. I am thinking about my the confirmation deposit to the first school (which would be required by February 15th) and then seeing what I get for scholarships offers during the month of March to make my official decision. I realize the confirmation deposit would not be refundable, but would I be automatically withdrawn from the other schools to which I have been accepted?

 

21 hours ago, Tall Dutch Girl said:

I am in the same situation. I am understanding it to be a non-refundable deposit but that my other applications would not be affected. I would appreciate clarity on this as well.

No, it does not alert other schools and will not change your application elsewhere. The only thing that changes your application status is if you choose to withdraw an application - which must be done by you. Application processes are internal, there is no alert system between schools.  Canadian law schools understand the competitiveness of the law school process since we have a relatively small amount of them in the country compared to the US and other countries. The deposit is just meant to hold your seat with a school; they anticipate students may forgo their deposit if a spot opens up with a first choice school, which is why there is often movement in waitlists. This also speaks to the business side of the process as the non-refundable deposit makes them money when a student changes their mind and they are able to offer it to someone in the next round of the admission process. I used to work in PhD and Doctoral program admissions, they had the same fee for commitment. Hope that helps!