May 1 came with less information this year

The traditional May 1 commitment deadline assumes students have aid offers to compare. In a year where offers arrived late or not at all, plenty of families faced that date without the numbers.

Many colleges extended their deadlines to June 1 or later. Those extensions were often granted on request rather than announced broadly, so asking mattered.

If you commit and a better offer materializes afterward, contact both schools. Deposits are usually non-refundable, but a meaningfully better package can still be worth the loss.