NO, officially, I don't think any thing will change in students' favor any time soon. Every school has their own working way.
However, I think you can avoid double deposit like this:
Apply early, push for your first choice schools. For example, if UPENN, UCLA and UCSF are your first choice, I suggest do their secondary early. As soon as you can send the secondary for your first choices, send them in.
For second choices school, do not send money in immediately. I purposely did not send my money to BU, UPitt, etc... until late Nov. So, even they want to interview me, they wouldn't. So, you would interview at those schools in Jan, or Feb. But you can still get accepted. (Only do this if you have good stats) I didn't send my check to BU, and still got an interview. They accepted me but wouldn't send me my acceptance letter until I sent them the money. Then sent my acceptance letter out on Dec 20.
You can also schedule your last choices of school interview very late in Feb.
So, if you hear from your first choice. You pack your stuff, and move. and cancel the rest. Otherwise, you can still go to other interviews.
Make an effort to contact every school. Otherwise, you can't plan your schedule very well at all.
