College decision day: May 1, and how to choose

Why May 1

The date comes from NACAC, the college admissions counselors' association. Its Guide to Ethical Practice in College Admission (2026 edition) says "Colleges should use the widely recognized date of May 1 as the earliest enrollment confirmation deadline", and that students should first "hear from each school that admitted them" and receive their offers of financial aid and scholarships, admission to honors programs, and housing.

The guide also says "Students should not be required to submit an enrollment confirmation until the institution has notified them of all offers of financial aid and scholarships." If an aid offer hasn't arrived by late April, ask that college's aid office for it before you commit anywhere.

The exceptions it names: binding early decision, where "Students may be required to accept a college's offer of admission and submit a deposit prior to May 1", and athletic scholarships.

Deadlines and deposits at selected colleges

Most colleges ask for a deposit when you accept, and most don't refund it. Each row is from the college's own page, read on 10 November 2026. Several still show last year's date, and the last column says which.

Because May 1, 2027 is a Saturday, check the exact cutoff time in your portal. Purdue says 11:59 p.m. Eastern; UCLA used 11:59 p.m. Pacific last year. Don't count on a weekend date moving to Monday. If the deposit is hard to pay, ask: UT Austin, Michigan, USC and Purdue all say help or waivers exist.

How to choose between your offers

1. Put the cost for your family side by side. Use what you'd pay after grants and scholarships, not the sticker price, and leave loans out of the "aid" total. How to compare aid offers walks through it, and each college's cost page here shows what families at your income paid on average.
2. Ask for more aid before May 1, not after. An appeal takes time, and once you've committed you have less to compare.
3. Check that your major is open to you. At some universities you're admitted to one school or program, and switching later can be hard.
4. Visit or join an admitted-students event if you can. Talk to current students about the things that will shape your week: classes, housing, getting home.
5. Look past the first year: how many students finish in four or six years, and what graduates earn. Each college's page here shows both.

Still waiting on a waitlist? Commit to your best admitted option anyway, by its deadline. See what to do on a waitlist.

Commit to one college and decline the rest

Pay a deposit at one college only. NACAC's guide tells counselors to explain that it's unethical to "Maintain an active enrollment deposit or the equivalent at more than one US college" or to "Fail to notify colleges where they have decided to decline their offers of admission."

Declining takes a minute in each applicant portal. USC: "please let us know by visiting your applicant portal and declining your offer of admission on the Admit Reply form." UCLA, Purdue and Penn State have the same step. Declining quickly frees your place for someone on that college's waitlist.

The University of California is one system with one rule: "You may accept admission to one campus only. You may not transfer your SIR from one campus to another after it's been submitted." (SIR is the Statement of Intent to Register, UC's word for committing.)

What to do after you commit

1. Apply for housing. Some deadlines match May 1: NYU wants its housing application and "$1,000 housing reservation payment by May 1, 2027", and USC says first-year students must apply for housing by May 1, 2027.
2. Sign up for orientation as soon as it opens. Michigan opens sign-ups in mid-May for students who have paid the deposit.
3. Send your final high school transcript. USC wants it by July 1 and NYU by July 15; UCLA's deadline last year was July 1. NYU: "If we do not receive a final high school transcript from you showing proof that you have graduated, we will not allow you to enroll at NYU."
4. Send your immunization records. NYU wants them by July 1 for fall.
5. Keep your grades up. Offers depend on them. USC: "If your senior-year or final-term grades decline or you have not met your specific conditions of admission, we will contact you. In the most serious cases, offers of admission may be rescinded." The University of California says offers "are provisional until the campus receives your final official transcript."
6. Accept or decline each part of your aid offer in the college's aid portal, and finish any loan steps it lists.

Taking a gap year after you commit

At the colleges below, you commit first and then ask to defer, and each sets its own deadline:

• Tufts: confirm your place with the reply form and deposit, then send the Gap Year Request form by June 1.
• Georgia Tech: "Only students who have paid an admission deposit for their original term of acceptance are eligible to request an enrollment deferral." Requests for fall are due July 1.
• NYU: request by July 1 for New York; you re-confirm by March 1 the next year with "an additional $500 enrollment deposit."
• UNC-Chapel Hill: confirm your intent to enroll first, then submit the deferral form by August 1.
• Duke: enroll through your student portal ("no deposit required"), then apply for a gap year there.
• UCLA: "UCLA does not grant many deferrals."

Before you plan one, read the college's rules on taking classes during the year off: NACAC's guide notes that colleges "may prohibit deferred students from taking college-level classes elsewhere before they enroll."

Starting this process for a younger student? The planner keeps a list of colleges with each deadline, and the results dates guide shows when each college answers.