<p>
maybe … as long as only one college does this to you … but what about if two colleges want you to regfister early and only submit a deposit to one school (like this one)? Or if you are required to (spend money to) travel to the school?</p>
<p>The problem is as 3togo says. To register you must go the campus. If one lives within two hours of the school, it is not such a problem. If one lives a 15 hour car ride away, or must fly to get there, it becomes an issue. Also, if every school wants a deposit early and you can ONLY deposit at ONE school, it is not fair to the applicant.</p>
<p>BTW, I anticipate another school that my son was accepted to, actually requiring something similar. The reason is that I was told about through another parent 2 years ago. My son has not gotten a letter asking for a similar early deposit yet, but I am expecting him to get a letter asking for this within the next few weeks.</p>
<p>I would find this objectionable, without regard to whether it violates any rules, because I don’t really want my son thinking in March about what courses he’s going to take next year. I want him focusing on his high school work, picking a college that suits him, and having some fun, in that order (or close to it). </p>
<p>He can think about his college courses later. </p>
<p>The whole process seems too accelerated.</p>
<p>How do I feel about a January registration? Well, since this is my first time going through the process I don’t know any better. We are 99% sure this is where my son will end up and it is an opportunity for my husband to see the school. The kids will meet with their advisor and be given a choice of 10 classes of which they pick their top 4. </p>
<p>The registration is not mandatory and I am trying to view this as an opportunity to have a relaxing spring! Honestly, I am just thankful that he was accepted!</p>
<p>gweeta, I am with your thought process on this one.</p>
<p>I think these activities by admissions points out just how dicey and downright cut throat that it can be sometimes. Sure, they sugar coat by saying the deposit is refundable but know darn well that the more actions a student takes to commit (more visits, registering for classes, etc.) the more likely it it a student will come there, perhaps feeling that to back out/decommit would be wrong somehow.</p>
<p>FAP, well put. I feel that this shows how “cut throat” the process has become.</p>
<p>gweeta, I agree with your POV.</p>
<p>Kajon, congratulations to you and to your son!</p>
<p>I just want to chime in on this thread with our recent experience -</p>
<p>Similar to others, we are new at this process. We sent in a deposit to a school that offered a very nice grant package, although they were 3rd on the “top choices” list for my son, the grant was influential. We felt pressure over the “housing selection priorities” and felt sending a refundable deposit was a reasonable thing to do.</p>
<p>He has not heard from his 1st choice school and may not until March 1st. His 2nd choice school, where he has already been accepted, has not been able to offer grant money yet, and when I talked to the financial folks there last week, they shared that there is not much money available this year. Final costs will certainly be a big factor for us in his ultimate college choice.</p>
<p>So, back to the 3rd choice school with the great grant. They sent housing forms this week that state they must be returned within 30 days of their receipt of our deposit.</p>
<p>The fine print just above where my son is to sign states that his signature acknowledges a financial commitment to pay for a full year of housing regardless of whether he actually moves in.</p>
<p>I’m not happy with this language and won’t send the forms until I’m very clear that we will not have to pay the $7,300 if he ends up not attending the school.</p>
<p>Have others experienced this pressure? Any advice?</p>
<p>Scriocco- wow! that definitely seems slimy! They lure you in with a ‘refundable’ deposit, but then they slam you with requirements that are not refundable to lock you in before you are ready. Seems like bait and switch to me. Something I’d expect from a car salesman (apologies to any ethical car salespeople reading this), not a college.</p>
<p>^^^That is exactly how I feel, martina. This shows you how desperate some of these schools have become in my opinion to fill seats in this economy and to keep up their yields, with what may not be enough financial aid to go around. JMHO.</p>
<p>Thanks for the supportive response, martina99. It makes me feel so much better. </p>
<p>What I didn’t mention is that College #2’s financial office told me the school wouldn’t send a grant or financial aid offer letter UNLESS they had a deposit on file. Plus the pressure about housing there too - their housing deposit (separate) is non-refundable, but in the scheme of things, a relatively small amount of money to lose. (Frankly, if we lose the housing portion of the deposit, that’s okay with me, I wouldn’t mind just giving it to the school as it is a local school that I’m a bit fond of.)</p>
<p>I’ve been awake all night distressed about having these deposits in. It does seem slimey and I feel just as you describe, as though I’ve walked into some type of scam - at both schools. I’m going to go re-read school #3’s grant letter, I think they said something about needing a deposit response within 30 days also. I remember feeling a lot of pressure over the grant letter.</p>
<p>I’m agonizing over how ill-prepared I am to be working through this process. I believe I’m a pretty savvy business person and I try to do my research before taking any action. I don’t throw money around recklessly and these deposits were big decisions for me. The “fine print” on the housing form at school #3 was so subtle, I almost missed it.</p>
<p>I had no idea we’d be down such a rabbit hole by responding to these offer letters and deposit requests.</p>
<p>*College #2’s financial office told me the school wouldn’t send a grant or financial aid offer letter UNLESS they had a deposit on file. Plus the pressure about housing there too - their housing deposit (separate) is non-refundable, *</p>
<p>Wow…</p>
<p>I can only think that schools are getting annoyed that some kids are applying to 8-20 schools knowing that there are some that they won’t attend, and schools are tired of making financial aid packages and divvying up their limited grants to students who aren’t going to attend.</p>
<p>From the school’s perspective…they only have X in grants to offer to Y accepted students. They don’t want to overlook a child that wants to go to that school, and mistakenly put the grant into the FA package of a child who won’t be coming.</p>
<p>Of course without the FA package, some don’t know whether they CAN go to that school or not.</p>
<p>wow…I am glad I am reading this thread a year before I’ll be dealing with these issues. Unbelievable. It seems to me that if you have until 5/1 that should mean you have until then to make up your mind!</p>
<p>FWIW, if anyone wants to read this I am posting the link to NACAC’s Principles of Good Practice:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nacacnet.org/ABOUTNACAC/POLICIES/Documents/SPGP.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nacacnet.org/ABOUTNACAC/POLICIES/Documents/SPGP.pdf</a></p>
<p>Thanks so much for that link, Northeast Mom.</p>
<p>I looked through and found yet another issue relative to school #3:</p>
<p>“…not require or ask candidates or the secondary schools to indicate the order of the
candidates college or university preferences, except under Early Decision;”</p>
<p>We were asked to list the top 3 schools, in order. Regular Decision applicant. Oh boy.</p>
<p>As far as our housing forms, I think I’ve decided to just not send them in right now. What is the school going to do if they don’t get them in 30 days, not provide housing? I don’t think so.</p>
<p>And I remembered why I was even thinking about deposits at all - school #2’s acceptance letter said we had to send a deposit within 30 days of the letter or by May 1st, whichever was sooner. I thought that was very strange, so that’s when I called and was told we could wait until May 1st but wouldn’t receive any merit or FA offers.</p>
<p>Sounds like there are a lot of violations of the NACAC code here.</p>
<p>scirocco, I agree with you regarding violations, but it seems to me like a few schools are finding loopholes in what is considered, “Best Practice”, or just not following some of the points laid out. </p>
<p>Additionally, the listing of colleges of preference is often asked slightly differently, in my opinion, by some colleges. I have seen more than one application asking where else on is applying, without asking the order of preference. This does not ask to list order of preference, but gives schools a chance to see their competitors for that applicant. Why? If one truly wants to know for “research purposes”, why not ask the applicant after acceptance, after a merit aid and financial aid offer is made. I don’t think it should be asked on an application, or during a college interview.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I would look to see if housing is guaranteed for freshmen before deciding. Additionally, if the deposit is sent later, will this increase your child’s chances of being assigned a lounge for a room, a forced triple, or an off campus room (ie: a hotel, or some apartments that the college rents when they over enroll). JMO.</p>
<p>I agree that this sounds a touch slimy - get parents to send in a deposit and then hope some of them forget to ask for it back. My initial reaction was that this school sounds like someplace that is having financial troubles and is trying to increase cash flow in any way possible. Have you asked you child’s high school counselor for their opinion on this practice?</p>
<p>While I thinks it’s slimy I do recall that when S1 was getting acceptances 5 years ago, Big State U strongly urged us to send in a refundable housing deposit ASAP. But that was because spots in line were tied to the date that checks were received.</p>
<p>Having said all that, to my mind it seems to come down to a few of questions:</p>
<ol>
<li>How much money are we talking about? At $100 I’d take the chance, at a $1000 I’d hesitate.</li>
<li>Is this your child’s number 1 choice?</li>
<li>Do you reasonably expect the merit/fin aid offers from the other schools to be dramatically different? </li>
</ol>
<p>If this school isn’t number 1, and if the other offers are close I think you tell them that you’re going to wait. If on the other hand this is “The Place”, I’d suggest reading the fine print and sending in a (small) deposit.</p>
<p>I want to just say that not all schools are pressuring this way. I just had such a postive experience with another school (one that is not pressuring for a deposit at all). I found out a couple of days ago that they do an “early read” for financial aid. I have completed all of the necessary paperwork for that, yet we did not get an early read. I called the FA office. They had misplaced one piece of information that they require for the early read, but they found it. They were honest, they admitted their error, and they apologized. They found the necessary paperwork and they are going to take care of the problem immediately. I had some questions and they were just so patient with me and answered all of my questions completely. The financial aid office was just a pleasure to deal with. Now we will wait to see the offer.</p>
<p>In regards to being liable for the full year room cost, my d friend attended a school that did this. She disliked this particular school by the end of October freshman year and had zero intention of returning for second semester. When she withdrew they informed the parents of the full payment of room for the 2nd semester. Yep,in VERY FINE small print it said they had to pay up the remainder attending or not. They had a choice pay in full or put it on a payment plan over 5 months. So read the fine print carefully. This was the only instance I heard of, yet other kids transferred 2nd semester to other schools and were not penalized for rest of year room fees. BE CAREFUL.</p>
<p>Hmmm, I guess I didn’t see this as slimy or creepy. We saw this with S1 and now with S2 at rolling admission public schools. They will fill their class, they have kids that want to attend and they want the kids to make a commitment and they told them they were excepted in the fall. That said, we have not encountered any that will not refund housing deposits or registration deposits. S2 also has one that will let him register for classes this spring along with this year’s sophomores, juniors and seniors and would do the initial advisor counseling over the phone and the actual registration on-line. I guess again, it’s a personal choice, whether to go with it or not. My S2 will not hear from his number one choice school until spring but his number #2 fav to is an OSS public and he has been accepted. S2 is also growing weary of waiting for the RD school after his EA and rolling decision colleges have already notified him. We will proceed with the OSS public (small housing deposit and small deposit) and if he’s accepted at his #1 choice (private) with a reasonable finaid package will reconsider the situation in the spring. With S1 we had a “pressure” mailing for acceptance tied to finaid. We called the college if I recall and they said in effect that we could wait until April to make the decision. I, too, suspect this is a reaction from colleges to the massive amount of schools some kids are applying to, the proliferation of EA (S2’s #1 does not have EA only ED or regular) as well as an attempt on the college’s part to solidify their classes and figure out their budgets from February - March. I guess it cuts both ways. Personally I’d like to see all kids get their apps done before Christmas, all colleges to have an EA or rolling acceptance policy with ad admit/deny/wait-list and “shorten” the app cycle. I think in the long run this would also cut down on the number of applications the kids are winging off. It would also cut down on the number of places you’d have to send FAFSA and profile because you would know your kids acceptances in January and not be sending all that personal information to schools you don’t even know if there will be an acceptance. In the spring, any colleges that don’t have their classes filled could open up an additional application cycle or take kids off a wait list.</p>
<p>I thought of this thread when I got an e-mail from our college consultant this morning. I hope it helps!</p>
<p>“Over the next several weeks (towards the end of February) you will begin receiving acceptance
letters and/or phone calls from colleges. Most colleges accept on or about April 1st and require a
deposit by May 1st. If the college requests your decision within a certain timeframe, please do not feel compelled to give them an immediate answer. Simply explain that you cannot make a decision without first reviewing the Financial Aid Package (which generally follows a couple of
weeks after acceptance). A common pressure tactic used by colleges is to subtly threaten
students with their limited supply of dorm space. Do not buy into this argument. In over 30
years, we have never had a student without a dorm room! You should compare the awards,
which will vary from school to school, and negotiate if warranted. This is a business and you are the buyer! Under the Student Bill of Rights, you are not required to make a decision prior to May 1st.”</p>