<p>My D was offered a full tuition merit scholarship to her third choice college. She was offered merit money to the top two schools as well, but we still need to see the complete financial aid package for the first choice, private school. She cannot afford the first choice school without significant, additional financial aid. Our EFC should put us in the running for additional need based money. We will not get the complete financial aid package for school #1 for quite some time, but the full tuition school wants her to accept the scholarship offer long before the other financial aid packages will even be ready. She has asked for an extension from school #3, but she has not yet heard if that will be possible. I can't imagine that they will give her a two month extension - more like two weeks.</p>
<p>If she accepts the scholarship, is this a legally binding agreement? What happens if the first choice school becomes financially feasible later, after D has accepted a full scholarship elsewhere? I know the full scholarship school has alternates for this merit aid, but I'd still feel terrible if she accepted a scholarship and then changed her mind several months from now. Is she even "allowed" to do that?</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of accepting scholarships being “legally binding” (meaning that you MUST go to that school or else!!!). </p>
<p>*We will not get the complete financial aid package for school #1 for quite some time, but the full tuition school wants her to accept the scholarship offer long before the other financial aid packages will even be ready. She has asked for an extension from school #3, but she has not yet heard if that will be possible. I can’t imagine that they will give her a two month extension - more like two weeks.
*</p>
<p>I don’t see why they won’t give your D an extension for a couple of months. The schools we’ve dealt with in the past have given extensions past the May 1st deadline.</p>
<p>If the school won’t give her a 2 month extension, and she accepts, then I don’t see how they can prevent her from changing her mind later. What could they do?</p>
<p>Will the school offices re-open on Monday? Can your D call and ask for an extension? I know you mentioned that she’s requested an extension, but was that over the holidays?</p>
<p>Except for those who apply ED, I’ve never heard of having to accept this early.</p>
<p>This whole thing sounded a bit inappropriate to me. It sounded a bit like, “We know that we aren’t students’ top choice, so we’re going to practically force them to choose our school by dangling this golden carrot that will disappear quickly.”</p>
<p>It’s one thing to offer great merit in hopes of being selected on May 1, but this is like putting a gun to a student’s head.</p>
<p>this comes up every year; thanks for posting patsmom…there’s another CC thread about a non-binding ED at a “southern school” requiring commitment before May 1 as well…</p>
<p>to the op:
“We will not get the complete financial aid package for school #1 for quite some time”</p>
<p>I have heard this from some other schools as well over the past few years; what’s the deal with this? assuming this was an ED/EA school, how do they expect you to make any type of decision without the package? and how do they know who is actually attending (so they know the number of spots left for RD)?</p>
<p>I get the feeling that the #1 choice is an EA school (or rolling), since its FA package hasn’t been rec’d (altho some merit has been awarded). This isn’t the school that is demanding an answer. It’s the #3 school that is demanding. It’s the #3 school that has given the full tuition offer.</p>
<p>The school cannot force you to make a commitment to them until May 1…and this includes scholarships…unless it is an ED acceptance. Every year students get these kinds of letters. DD got one and she called the school and explained that she was not in a position to make a final decision until all of her acceptances and her full aid was received…Oh…they said it was fine!!</p>
<p>School #1 is rolling admissions, private and expensive. They offered generous merit aid but not enough to commit until the full financial aid package is reviewed. It was not an ED school, so financial aid package will not arrive for quite awhile.</p>
<p>School #3 is rolling admissions, public/state and not as expensive. It’s not considered a top state school in our area, but they have a great program for my D’s major. They offered full tuition and ask for a decision by February 12th. The letter states that the student has until May 1st to accept or decline enrollment, but after February 12th the full tuition scholarship will be awarded to a “very deserving alternate.” </p>
<p>My D called and emailed on December 18th, the day she received the award letter, but the offices were closed. She will contact them again this week.</p>
<p>Rolling admissions without “rolling FA” IMO is a waste of time; not sure what the point is?..so the student knows they are in (yay!!), but they don’t know if they can attend (boo!!)…just my two cents…</p>
<p>good luck to your daughter!! let us know how it goes…</p>
<p>I don’t think there is any problem in accepting the scholarship. As they are saying that she does not have to accept the admissions offer until May they seem quite aware that some students may accept the scholarship then end up going elsewhere. Merit scholarships that have a limited number quite often have deadlines so they can re-offer them if the initial recipient declines. </p>
<p>Hopefully if she does attend elsewhere they will offer it to someone else. My daughter was the lucky late recipient of a limited and quite generous (full tuition plus additional cash) ACT based scholarship at her school. She was 1 point short of the required ACT score in the initial scholarships rounds. She retook it and scored the required score but the limited # of scholarships were all already offered. A short while later one was offered to her (we presume because someone had decided to go elsewhere). We were thrilled.</p>
<p>I agree with SCM, but their wording about the deadline for scholarships, is rather “high-pressure.”</p>
<p>It seems to me that they’re thinking…hmmm, we want to know NOW whether this person will come to our school (via the accepted scholarship), otherwise we want to quickly re-award it to another long before May 1st (before that other person has happily decided to attend somewhere else). </p>
<p>I’ve heard that some other schools statistically guestimate how many scholarship offers will be ultimately accepted, so they “over offer” so that they don’t have to re-award later (unless they get a surprisingly low acceptance.)</p>
<p>mom2collegekids - I agree that the wording is rather high pressure. </p>
<p>School #3 is basically telling my D that she can accept the scholarship by Feb 12th, implying her decision to attend this school. If she does not accept by this date, the money will be awarded elsewhere, BUT they will not be violating any rules because they will still allow her to wait until May 1st to decide to attend this school without a scholarship. The enrollment deposit does not need to be sent until May 1st, but sending it at that time will affect housing choices, etc.</p>
<p>In short they seem to be saying that if my D wants the money, she needs to commit to them by February 12th. If she’s not willing to commit until May, she doesn’t get the money.</p>
<p>I honestly think you are overthinking it. The merit scholarships at my daughter’s school all had around a 30 day acceptance window. Just accept it. They won’t make your daughter go to the school.</p>
<p>It is also very common for dorm deposits and applications to be fairly early. At my daughter’s school they actually suggested applying for the dorms the summer before applications to the school were eve done. She had a specific dorm she wanted so her dorm applications were submitted before she applied to the school, let alone was accepted or committed to going there.</p>
<p>You are dealing with different departments with their own timetables and deadlines. Financial aid and scholarships are a completely different department to admissions and acceptances. She is being asked to accept a scholarship - not commit to the school. Just accept the scholarship offer.</p>
<p>If you read the info in post #3, it sounds like the school cannot force an answer about scholarships before May 1st either. </p>
<p>*If schools offer you a scholarship that is contingent on agreeing to attend before that date, you have, under National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC) guidelines, the right to request an extension of the scholarship offer to May 1.</p>
<p>Again, colleges that request commitments for admission offers or financial offers prior to May 1 MUST offer candidates the opportunity to request (in writing) the opportunity to postpone their decision until May 1, even if they say initially that the offer is only good if attendance is accepted before then. If any school balks, report them to the NACAC.
*</p>
<p>However, if this were my kid, if the school balked, I would first advise/remind the director of scholarships (not just someone who answers the phone) of what NACAC states, and if the director still balked, I would tell them that I was going to report them and see if they back-pedal. If they didn’t, I would then report the school.</p>
<p>*The merit scholarships at my daughter’s school all had around a 30 day acceptance window. Just accept it. They won’t make your daughter go to the school.
*</p>
<p>Edited to add
Swimcat is right. Just accept the scholarship. They can’t make anyone attend, nor can they financially hurt you in any way later. If they complain to you after your daughter changes her mind, just tell them it’s their fault for having such a silly policy. lol</p>
<p>Scholarship acceptances are not legally binding.</p>