<p>This is a terrible time for many applying to academies. All the candidates are so good, I am sure that they will get in some other top school. Choices have to be made - and you are still awaiting that final nomination or clearance from DoMERB. What should you do? Pay that deposit to make sure you have a room at alternate university? Keep praying and submitting more paperwork? What have others done? I know we had Plan A, B & C as it came down to the wire as all the approvals took until late May.</p>
<p>Put that deposit on your back-up college. Things happen--sometimes you can get your deposit back, sometimes not, but look at it as insurance. Daughter had a deposit with USC (as well as for housing) just in case (and this was AFTER appointments to West Point and Annapolis)--- things can happen right up to and including Beast.</p>
<p>Answering my own question: We put housing deposit in for top engineering school where son was accepted in December. Received nomination in November; LOA in late Jan. He and we all slogged through DoMERB paperwork for months, but never, ever gave up as he REALLY wanted to go to academy. Payments were not due until Sept. when school started. Final appointment/approval/orders to USMMA, (due to DoMERB) was last week in May. Indoc was early July -- we held off through indoc, just in case, before releasing him from that school. We lost $250 deposit, but worth it to sleep at night. Our theory is to always have a backup plan. And there were not prouder parents enjoying that Acceptance Day in September!</p>
<p>Nice to know others think and plan the same way, Shogun! And I don't mind paying the academy "fees" at all compared to full tuition!</p>
<p>When we were going through this process we contacted our cadet's backup school and was told to send the deposit and if we notified them before 1 May our deposit would be fully returned to us. It gave our cadet time to make a solid decision.
I know of a couple of cadets whose parents paid the deposit and then requested a delayed entrance (Spring semester) to their cadet's back up school just in case things didn't work out for them during plebe summer or first semester.</p>
<p>Many colleges will allow you to defer admission for up to one year. If it comes down to your top service academy, top NROTC, and top Non-NROTC college (as applicable), Explain to NROTC and the college, that you are planning on attending the service academy, but you need to keep your civ college admission live in case something goes wrong at the academy (due to many other-than-academic requirements). Of course, to keep the civilian college at bay...you will likely need to send the deposit.</p>
<p>Hint: Also be honest with NROTC when they call about your scholarship (probably in March or April). Tell them about the academy and ask them to keep your scholarship status open (do not report accept or decline) until I-day, when your parents will call to report your academy swear-in. Note: once you swear-in on I-day, your NROTC scholarship is gone...forever. However, you should be able to affirm that you will absolutely accept the NROTC scholarship if I-day does not pan out for some reason...</p>
<p>Yes, not only having a spot but also making sure that the kids apply to enough different regular colleges so that they can feel good about that choice IF they don't get in to the academy, or they get cold feet. I was concerned at one of the parent parties in December for West Point (it was lovely) that the other candidates really seemed to have at most one other college choice. The process is quite fatiguing as we know so I told my husband that it was really up to us to make sure that the other applications got in safely as we really didn't help our d. that much during the app/nom phase for the academies. (We wanted her to do it on her own)But you can get burned out and not be interested in doing anymore. So we (M&D) pulled a couple of all nighters in late December and got those on line applications filled out for her. (Pasted in her essay) The funny thing was she got into some nice schools, many with scholarships, but wasn't really much interested in them. ((after all that)But I just felt as responsible parents you couldn't have a choice of a service academy or nothing!! I also required her to apply to at least two service academies, and not just one. I didn't care which, but I wanted her also to have a choice ofat least two. She did get into both, and actually went to a different one than her original choice. At parents weekend in Sept., my husband said, "you can still come home and signup for classes today at the U!" This is a great place to have this discussion ahead of time--I actually didn't even realize you could use a deposit to hold a spot until I talked to a neighbor. So yes---parents make sure your kids do have some attractive options so they'll feel good about their choice, whatever it is. There's also something about dads sending their girls off to military academies!!! ( Of course, the moms see it as an opportunity that wasn't available to them, but the dads see it differently) Of course he couldn't be more proud, but we actually think she's happier there than most of her friends are at their colleges. She has way too much energy for a regular college!! This is a girl that ran 4 miles in 39 minutes at age 5 1/2!!!!</p>
<p>When you consider the early first 6 months drop rate from all academies for many different reasons, it seems prudent not to put all your eggs in one basket. Some very good ideas posted here for both parents and applicants to consider. We hadn't considered the delayed or deferred option - very good idea at little or no cost! Several classmates bailed after grades were posted during the first year.</p>