Well, the word “integrity” had been used up-thread, so my “ethics” comment related mostly to that post, but I understand these topics can be difficult to disentangle, @4junior.
In terms of a response to some of your semi-rhetorical questions, I might answer Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes. However, I’d still maintain that college admissions involves multiple contingencies, and the weight placed on the disclosure of these contingencies can be magnified by the perspective of individual circumstances. They’ll be skiing in cap and gown at some other college – I’m sure that’s true – but Hamilton states on their site that January admission is a possibility. It’s the latter I’d place weight on more than the cross-college comparisons common to CC.
As a personal reply, I wish your daughter had indeed not “fallen through the cracks” at Hamilton during a key time in her life, as I wish she’d gotten her ED1 choice. Let me say for now, though, that things could turn out very, very well for her, irrespective of these serendipitous bends in the road.