<p>I have been asked for refundable deposits on the 3 schools S has been accepted at so far. None has made it a condition of seeing the financial aid package. Nor do they have special early registration, or early housing selection for those who send in a deposit now.</p>
<p>If S was accepted to his top or second choice school (that I had a realistic expectation that we could afford) I would send in a typical refundable deposit ($150 or $250), or even a $50 or $100 non refundable deposit. I would not consider signing any binding contracts for significant amounts of money until I saw the aid package.</p>
<p>I agree with you and we have come to a decision. Now, I will tell you that I made an inquiry to NACAC for guidance for our specific situation. I did not know if asking for deposit and registering students prior to May 1 is proper according to their policies etc. They may do this, but students also do have until May 1, and students may get back their deposit (if they elect to send it in). That all said, they recommend that if the deposit being asked for is steep, that you consider calling the admissions office and “negotiate” for a smaller deposit. Yes, “negotiate” was the word that was used. I was told that the offices have forms sitting there and new deposit deal can often be struck. Afterall, not all families who are applying for financial aid have a spare several hundred laying around to give as a free loan to view a FA award, or to hold a seat open while one compares packages. This opened my eyes, I never thought for a moment that one could even think about counter offering. They explained that if a student has multiple schools making the same request (and this happens) one could be sending a lot of deposit money to different schools. Additionally, they told me that there have been parents who have had problems getting back their deposit even though they sent notice prior to May 1 that their child will not be attending a school. This is all new information to me, and I have not seen this anywhere else on CC. Good luck to all!</p>
<p>BTW, until I heard the info above, I assumed that any accredited college would refund the deposit promptly if one gave notice prior to May 1.</p>
<p>Debruns, I would like to believe that it is a very small minority of schools that don’t refund in a timely manner. Apparently it happens enough for them to tell me this.</p>
<p>NEMom, I’m glad you were able to work out a temporary solution for your situation. Regarding refund, checks, etc. I know my son’s college doesn’t run checks everyday which also isn’t unusual. My huge gigantic global company runs checks only once a week. If you request a refund you can probably ask the cashier’s office when you can expect the check to be mailed and I’m guessing they can give you a pretty good idea.</p>
<p>momofthreeboys thanks. I doubt that a few weeks would get parents to the point that they are discussing trouble about getting back their deposit with NACAC. Heck, maybe I am wrong.</p>
<p>Thanks, we’ve been out of power and had a minor need for a hospital visit, so I’ve been offline since my last post.</p>
<p>Quick update - College #2 indeed said, and I documented, that no aid offer would be sent without a deposit. I later met with a more senior financial person there and although we didn’t discuss “deposit vs. aid offer”, she did share that their school is in the midst of some upheaval with their aid offer processes. By then, I’d already sent the deposit, so I didn’t bring it up with her and still was thinking this was a normal request and that I was just learning the ropes about the offer/acceptance/aid process.</p>
<p>College #3 replied to my email asking them to clarify what exactly we were committing to. I did not say that we might withdraw and request the deposit back, however, they figured out that was what I meant, and replied that if we declined their acceptance and requested our deposit back, the housing form would be invalidated at that point. This certainly is not what the forms say. I’m still not sending the forms back yet.</p>
<p>I do want to be sure everyone reading my posts understands that the mandatory deposit requirement and the housing form commitment were from two different schools, just I received them about the same time.</p>
<p>I thank martina99 for her outrage, it is very helpful to me and justifies my panic over misunderstanding the whole process. I also want to thank Northeastmom for her posting in this thread the links to the NACAC guidelines as well as her recommendation that this subject of deposits and commitments become a sticky on the financial section of CC.</p>
<p>This part of the process seems to be underdiscussed in the “college presentations” so popular at our high school. There is only a focus on how to apply to college, how to be accepted, and how to finance (FAFSA-centric, unfortunately). No one ever discussed sitting tight until after all acceptances and offers were in before responding with a deposit. No one ever mentioned that letters would be sent from colleges pressuring for early commitments.</p>