Keep or Reject? Analyze Candidates' Multi-Stage Decisions on Offered Admission and the Phenomena of Defaults

With the rapid development of modern networks, more and more people are gradually learning how to reduce the information gap. In recent years, students under high academic pressure often apply to multiple universities at the same time when applying for further education. They decide whether to accept after receiving multiple offers or even decide whether to breach the contract after accepting. Hong Kong, a city with a large concentration of international universities, has been widely favored among applicants in recent years. However, this also leads to fierce competition and complex games. Most applicants need to consider which schools they should apply to and how to weigh the trade-offs between striving for a better school and mitigating the risk of going without a book. This article will analyze the best decisions for applicants from the perspective of both the applicants and the universities, and explain why defaults have increased in recent years. It is concluded that for most applicants, retaining lower-quality offers and then giving up after successfully striving for high-quality offers has become the optimal decision. This also explains why defaults have increased in recent years.