<p>Why don’t the schools wait until you’ve reneged before they spread the information around? Why send out all that information when 99% of it is useless?</p>
<p>If this was truly a problem for schools, they could fix it with a very small amount of work, and a few changes in procedure. How about this:</p>
<p>1) Have CollegeBoard create an Early Decision app that all schools will use as the only mechanism to apply ED. All this does is designate your app that is submitted via the CommonApp or other means as ED. They can charge a fee to cover their costs.</p>
<p>2) The Early Decision app allows you to specify exactly <em>one</em> school. It is now impossible to apply ED to more than one school without creating more than one account, which would require two SS numbers, which will lead to problems down the road.</p>
<p>3) Upon an ED acceptance, you have one week to back out for any reason. If you go forward, you confirm by paying a $2500 non-refundable deposit.</p>
<p>4) If you back out later, you’ve lost $2500. The school accepts an extra RD applicant or two, or at worst goes to their waiting list, and they are $2500 richer.</p>
<p>5) Your SS number is confirmed via FAFSA or some other means. If your number is bogus, acceptance is withdrawn and you forfeit your $2500.</p>