UPDATE at the end! Make sure to scroll down.

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Fascinating. I get more anxiety-stricken messages this time of year than when you are working on your applications or even taking the LSAT. 

Are you stressed out now that deposit deadlines are looming? You are not alone. And of course it's stressful, because you're being forced to do something that is painful for a lot people: You have to COMMIT TO AN OFFER and LET OTHER OFFERS GO.

Here’s some advice I really like about decision making:

What decision would you make if you knew there wasn’t a wrong one? Often, the way anxiety makes decision-making all the harder is by tricking us into believing that there will be a right choice and a wrong one, a good one and a bad one. If you are feeling really stuck between two decisions, it’s very likely that neither decision will be the wrong one. Once you have made the decision – whichever one that might be – you’ll start organising the environment around you, including your own behaviour and responses, to make sure things work out. Your resilience, creativity and resourcefulness will rise up to support you and propel you forward.

Here's the truth. You can't attend more than one law school at the same time. Well, I suppose you could if you wanted to fake an identity and drive yourself insane, because attending one law school is hard enough, trust me. One is plenty.

So come August, you'd have to pick a horse anyway. The schools are asking you reserve a spot four months in advance of orientation (or even less). It's not so unreasonable when you think about it.

But ANNA!!! What about my waitlists? Or schools I haven't heard from at all? I'll never find out if I might have gotten into Yale, and that KILLS ME!!! 

Read your deposit language carefully. In the typical scenario, you can accept only one offer by the deadline. But a waitlist is not an offer. (I'm sure you wish it were!) You can stay on as many waitlists as you like — unless you were accepted via a binding admissions program, in which case you have to have withdrawn everywhere else, full stop.

But ANNA!!! [I do get lots of all-caps and excamation points and emoji.] What happens if I get into [Dream School] and I've already paid a deposit at [Other School]?!?!?

Then you politely withdraw from the school where you put down your deposit, and you put down a deposit at the school that just made you an offer.

You have to be willing to forfeit your first deposit, because that's the whole point of a deposit — it's basically a penalty if you change your mind after the deadline date. But another way to look at it is as INSURANCE. Paying the deposit guarantees you a spot at that school while you're playing the waitlist game and hoping to "upgrade" during the summer. You don't have to spend your summer that way, of course. You could just put down your deposit and call it a day, but you do have choices. The key here is that you can have only ONE deposit, saving you ONE law school seat, at any given time. 

But ANNA!!! If I put down more than one deposit, I have more time to procrastinate/think about it/agonize over it/stress about it, and how will they even know?

Sounds crafty, and you're not the first person to think of that, Craftypants. They WILL know, because LSAC collects deposit information from the schools and then shares information with the schools about multiple deposits at some point during the summer.

If you're on that list, you will likely only receive a message with stern language, but I’d rather you not put any of your offers in jeopardy. All that to buy yourself a few more months of wishiwashiness? You have X offers in front of you by the deadline; it's time to pick one. (Don't miss the deadline, though; that's the more surefire way to lose an offer.)

Another way to think about it is as follows: What information do you think you need to get about a school after their deposit deadline that you don’t already have now? Or that you can’t get between now and the deadline?

Since the schools will find out anyway, isn't it easier just to take the high road? Don't hog multiple spots when you can attend only one school anyway, and when they could be making an offer instead to some soul on the waitlist whose dream in life is to go there. 

Really, this is a time to celebrate. Get that stress monkey under control and enjoy this part of the cycle you've worked so hard for.

It's great to have options!!!

UPDATE:

Well, this is good news! I've received some great feedback to this post. Apparently, LSAC no longer sends those multiple-deposit notifications to schools anymore. It always raised serious antitrust concerns, so this is not a huge surprise. I'm sure the Department of Justice was sniffing around. It was an icky practice, and I'm glad it stopped.

Regarding schools that require you to withdraw if you accept an offer of admission or a scholarship offer — those stipulations are still considered kosher, at least for the time being, even though that's IMO also suspect on antitrust grounds. Is it enforceable legally? Unclear. Do you want to be the test case? Probably not. We've had to advise applicants on that dilemma in the past, and we don't recommend violating a school's conditions even if they're not enforceable. As far as I know, the state bar membership committees have also stayed out of it. But these things can change.

Also, let's be honest: multiple deposits are a luxury that not everyone can afford. Some people will certainly take advantage of the fact that they can reserve multiple spots for themselves and just forfeit all but one of those deposits when the time comes, even if admissions officers would frown on that.

So it's up to you and your conscience whether you put down multiple deposits. If you put down multiple deposits, you are hogging spots that someone else probably wants a whole lot more than you. Be nice to each other.

And a big thank you to Michigan's Dean Z for clarifying. She has always won my award for Most Transparent Law School Admissions Dean.