Lot of past discussions on keeping a Plan B. It comes up every year about this time. Do so at your own risk, but best to know the risks beforehand.
Since the typical response is, "huh, what risk?", here is a cut and paste from last year:
Most colleges do not take it lightly when they find out that a student has violated their agreement not to be committed to more than one institution. Whether or not they will do anything about it is debatable. It is not correct that most families maintain a Plan B, but if you do, make sure you do not get caught in an uncomfortable situation as some others have.
Here are the facts:
- If you make arrangements with the backup college beforehand and they agree to be the backup - no problem whatsoever.
- Almost all colleges consider it an ethical/contractual violation to use them as a backup without their knowledge. Most applications, including the Common Application, contain a clause that applicants agree not to be committed to more than one institution after May 1st. The fact that SA's do not use the Common Application is irrelevant; the agreement is between the student/family and the civilian institution.
- The two ways previous appointees have been caught and found themselves in an uncomfortable situation are: high school college counselor discovered violation, or appointee told college when calling/emailing to let them know they wouldn't be attending.
- Virtually all colleges and high schools are institutional members and many individuals at those schools are individual members of the National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC) - USMA, USNA, USAFA, USCGA, and USMMA are members. The NACAC code of conduct states that it is unethical to be committed to more than one institution.
- There are known instances of appointees being threatened by colleges for using them as an unwitting backup.
- No SA has issued a policy on this practice and there has been no test case for how an SA will respond - there are no known instances of a college reporting the infraction to an SA.