<p>My D's maybe at your school that rhymes with Marolina.....lol. Anyway, the benefits of sending in your deposit are: priority registration for orientation session--some think the earlier the better...housing choice--putting in your preference; if refundable really a win win situation.</p>
<p>Last year we had to send money to UF for housing before we even knew my D was accepted. If you didn't send it in you weren't guaranteed a spot in housing. I thought this very unfair. I wonder how much money they collected from kids that didn't go there? It has to be a large amount of money. they got my money too, and DD didn't go. But you have to send the money just in case they like the school.OH Well</p>
<p>The way we handled it was- son had a "ranking" for his safeties. He deposited to his top safety. I guess if he had not been admitted to that safety (or any of the others that were ahead of it in his ranking) we would have been screwed. But it was a safety after all, so he was quite confident he would be accepted. He liked all the schools he applied to, so making a deposit and finding out he didn't like the place was not a possibility. Many schools ask for a refundable deposit and it was never a problem getting the money back, although we had to ask for it (I guess the danger is in forgetting to ask). I prefer the smaller non-refundable fees ($20-$30) over large refundable-upon-request deposits because I tend to lose track of stuff easily and there's enough to do come April/May without having to write letters and fill out forms to get money back.</p>
<p>Not sure why some schools tack on the small non-refundable fees to reserve housing. UF (and other Florida public U's) only charge $30 for the application fee, so an additional $25 or $30 charge for students who know they want to live on campus (many do not) was easy to swallow for us. Some of the other OOS schools that S applied to - UNC, UVa, William and Mary, Wake Forest- had $60-$70 app fees.</p>
<p>If there is a chance your kid will be going to a college it is wise to send in a housing fee. Otherwise you run the risk that your kid will be living in Outer Siberia in a quad. If there is a first come, first serve on class choices, the same holds. If a deposit is considered binding, you should not do that. I believe CMU has a binding policy for their housing deposits, and they will drop you if they find out you are doing multiples.</p>
<p>ejr1 Sounds like UT-Austin to me. My daughter was already accepted and we also sent in the $50 to secure housing at 6am the first day possible. A shocking number of freshmen end up living off campus or in very very pricey private dormatories.</p>