<p>This might be a stupid question but is there any reason to accept an offer of admission when my daughter hasn't made a final decision yet and we haven't received all the information with which to make a decision?</p>
<p>I know the deadlines to accept are a few months away but we've been told (and read a few places in these forums) that accepting causes the school to move the applicant to a new pile for review for other opportunities (honors program, aid, scholarships, etc.) perhaps a bit sooner than she otherwise would have been. She's already applied for housing at MN to reserve a spot but we're trying to figure out if she should accept the offer or wait until she's actually made a decision. Information we're waiting on includes: admission decision from Northwestern, merit/need based grant and scholarship info and whether she'll be offered admission to the honors program at either MN or Purdue. It seems intuitive to me to wait until all information needed to make a final decision is in hand but if accepting now would cause us to receive information sooner from MN we may forgo the trip to West Lafayette.</p>
<p>To the extent that it's relevant, here's her situation: offered admission into IT (biomedical engineering) at MN-TC and engineering at Purdue (also biomedical). She has also applied to Northwestern engineering as a regular decision applicant with a decision from NW due to arrive apparently the last week of March or first week of April. She really enjoyed her visit to Northwestern but really likes Minnesota as well. She applied to Purdue based on a visit with the Purdue representative that held a gathering in the Twin Cities, ranking/reputation and what we read online. We're planning on making a trip to Purdue for their engineering get-together around spring break. She has a GPA of 3.98 unweighted, class rank of 11ish I think currently out of just under 400 students (top 3%) 31 cumulative ACT and a lot of good extra curriculars and has taken every AP/Honors class offered at her high school (I think 10 total).</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for your time and thoughts.</p>
<p>No reason to accept any offer until the deadline.</p>
<p>Especially since she hasn't made up her mind yet. </p>
<p>You don't get more goodies for accepting early.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. That's what I thought too but a few of her friends thought differently and have accepted at schools that they were still considering and indicated that they received info immediately after they accepted inviting them to apply for other scholarships.</p>
<p>In a big school like the U, I find it hard to imagine they give you "goodies" for accepting early. Therefore, it is definitely more prudent to wait for her other decisions.</p>
<p>In fact, some evidence suggests that additional goodies might not come your way once they know they have you. Honors does not depend on indicating acceptance but on some unknown formula that the University uses. Some kids find out early, and some later, more towards when acceptances are finalized. Look up past posts on this thread and you can piece together a timeline when $$ and honors have come for many applicants.</p>
<p>I personally felt that waiting to commit to the U actually led to me being offered a better scholarship.</p>
<p>^that's what i would think would happen...it makes sense...</p>
<p>what are other opinions on this? i want to confirm my enrollment, but im still waiting for scholarship/honors info...</p>
<p>Why do you want to confirm your enrollment before you know about the $$$? There is no reason to do so, they will hold your place in the class. Why would the U pay money to get you when you have already said you would come? Confirming enrollment early is only a benefit to them, the state U's are frantic this year because of the uncertainty of the economy, thus the onslaught of emails asking you to confirm.</p>
<p>I don't really agree that a state U is frantic because of the economy. I think more expensive private's are. I think the U has a long list of postponed students who would like to know if they are in or not and the U does not know how many to admit until accepted students give their yes or no.</p>
<p>I don't think they are frantic because they will be underenrolled, in fact, just the opposite because applications are way up this year. If they really cared about those on the postponed list then they could get the financial aid info out a lot sooner. Lots of other schools manage to do this.</p>
<p>If anyone wants to know...I got some scholarship $$$ right after i confirmed my enrollment (2 days later). Could be coincidence as March is the scholarship-giving month...but who knows.</p>