<p>"Aren’t scholarships and financial aid and yield and their effect on budget things that colleges that respect the May 1 deadline handle as well? "</p>
<p>Yes. That’s why they have one admission date. It is a challenge when there are rolling admissions and they have filled up a lot of the seats with kids who won’t commit which means they have to cut off admitting more. </p>
<p>As others have mentioned, there is always a choice. Accept the crappy room or no room in case of many schools.</p>
<p>Or, they could stop doing rolling admissions and go to one date, if that makes a difference in properly projecting a budget. I can’t see how it would, though. </p>
<p>When they do that, the merit scholarships disappear because that will emulating those mostly with financial aid. Alabama is very attractive to many on CC because of their merit money… </p>
<p>UT Dallas awards McDermott scholarships which pay the students to attend college (way above and beyond COA). They award it to people who get into schools like Princeton and Harvard. TheyI tell you to choose their school on March 20th, before many results are out. They want to give it to people who want to attend.</p>
<p>Why would it disappear? As it stands the deal is rolling admission, May 1 to respond. I guess housing is a carrot, or perhaps a stick, they wave to make people into accept before all offers are in. I suppose those with the money to do so will play the game and deposit early, there or at several places. Hardly seems fair for a school to complain about the second option, though. And obviously those without the funds to do so will have to wait and see what’s left. </p>
<p>University of Alabama</p>
<p>Total first-time, first-year (freshman) men who applied
11,152</p>
<p>Total first-time, first-year (freshman) women who applied
C1 15,257 Total 26,409</p>
<p>Total first-time, first-year (freshman) men who were admitted
C1 5,987</p>
<p>Total first-time, first-year (freshman) women who were admitted</p>
<p>C1 8,032 Total 14,019</p>
<p>Total full-time, first-time, first-year (freshman) men who enrolled</p>
<p>C1 2,797</p>
<p>Total full-time, first-time, first-year (freshman) women who enrolled</p>
<p>C1 3,541</p>
<p>Total enrollment 6,371</p>
<p>At 14k admits, they need to figure out who is going to show up. I hear they have some sort of palaces for honors dorms and if they want to get people to commit to get one of those rooms, it makes sense for those who are truly interested to jump on it. </p>
<p>The schools which started emulating the later admission date are trying to emulate the Ivies and cutting back on merit scholarships. UT Austin no longer has national merit and most honors students outside of engineering and business get almost no merit money. UCB, UCLA and so on don’t have any money for people outside of the state. The more closer to they are to following uniform deadlines, the more closer they are to doing away with most of the merit money.</p>
<p>I guess I don’t see how merit vs need-based aid has anything to do with yield calculation. UA’s yield looks to be close to 50% which is pretty impressive considering i was at Oberlin today and they told our info session their yield is 33%. And yet…no pressure to commit before May 1, despite offering both types of aid.</p>
<p>We already had to put a housing deposit down but don’t know if our daughter has been accepted to her “first choice” university yet. It’s annoying but, because it’s a private dorm and popular, it was a necessary risk to keep her off a long waiting list with little attrition - and they know parents will go ahead and pay. Very irritating. I feel like she’s got a good chance of acceptance but, if she doesn’t, we’ll be out $1850. Ugh. In addition, we’ve paid a housing application fee to her second-choice university, where she’s already been accepted, but full deposits aren’t due there until she formally accepts. </p>
<p>We had one of D’s EA schools require a refundable $500 deposit just to sign-up for and attend an EA accepted student’s weekend in March (before the 3/31 decisions are released). Forunately, the school was not her top choice. Her current #1 school is having their EA weekend (rescheduled due to the recent weather) on the same weekend and they do not require a deposit of any kind.</p>
<p>Wow, a $1850 non-refundable deposit without even knowing if the kid is accepted sounds pretty unreasonable just to save the most desirable housing spot. Quite a racket that U has going! Can you sell the space to an admitted student if your child doesn’t attend? Doesn’t seem like multiple deposits for the same space should be required or allowed. </p>
<p>My son got the admissions pressure from one school within a day or two after receiving acceptance. He had no desire to have us pay a deposit until his college picture became clearer. It has, and no, he is not attending that school. </p>
<p>LucietheLakie: If your son decides to go to Bama, and that decision is late, do not worry about it. He may select one dorm initially, but when housing opens its selections to everyone in the late spring, he may be able to move into a different dorm. That happened with one of my son’s roommates five years ago. He was a non-honors student who snapped up a room in the honors dorm. He was a great roommate, too.</p>
<p>Thanks, momreads. My kid is low-maintenance, quite frugal, and used to sharing a room with his younger brother, so I would imagine he’ll be just fine with whatever, as long as he can find a compatible roommate. My freshman dorm room at Penn 35 years was a teeny double, the hall bathrooms were poorly maintained, and somehow I survived. :-)</p>
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<p>This is truly a bad practice. They should refund if not admitted. They should not be asking for money before the admission.</p>
<p>Would be really helpful if folks would disclose which schools are doing this type of thing.^^^^ </p>
<p>HogHornDad, are you comfortable outing the school guilty of this nefarious practice?</p>
<p>Probably not until he knows if she got in or not ;)</p>
<p>OMG, HogHornDad. That is outrageous! I hope she gets in. </p>
<p>Wow, just looked at Texas A&M’s website and it seems that we are already too late to get into their dorms. My son wanted to wait until he heard about financial aid, and waiting to hear from another school as well. This is crazy that a deposit has to be put down the beginning of February when he wouldn’t move in until the end of August! The system truly is backwards.</p>
<p>A deposit of $1850 is abusive.</p>
<p>HogHornDad referred to a “private dorm”–perhaps this isn’t university housing.</p>
<p>Our kids were encouraged to put down a $500 housing deposit as soon as they decided they wanted to attend, to increase their chances of getting their top or 2nd choice dorm. ALL freshmen and sophomore were guaranteed dorm housing. S didn’t make his deposit until after he had decided for sure he’d be attending his U–late April or sometime in May. He still got his 1st choice dorm. D got a great dorm and made her $500 deposit for transfer housing shortly after receiving her acceptance.</p>
<p>Silly me, I thought a $500 housing deposit was plenty steep!</p>
<p>Dana, if you don’t get the housing deposit in by that early deadline at A&M, you also lose any consideration for honors program, in case that is something you were looking at. You will soon receive a notice of rejection from honors based on not signing up for housing. Honors freshmen are required to live in dorm. That happened to us last year. The school and dorms fill up very early with committed students.</p>