My son is offered admission to a university with top 5 program in CS as well as honors with tuition waiver in our state flagship college. The difference between the two is around 40K (55K vs 15K).
He is determined to attend the top 5 program by taking on the student loan and we are ok with that . We should be able to support him half way (which means he will have to to take loans for about 25K).
The monkey in the wrench is that he is required to get a Parent Plus loan. While we are absolutely ok with signing on it, we do have an adverse event 2 years ago (a business related personal CH7) that could result in him being denied that loan.
While we would try our best to make it work, if it should fall through, we want him to take the state university offer and apply for transfer a year later (if he still feels the need to go elsewhere).
Is it acceptable to send deposits to both schools in this scenario? Both are non Common App and neither had language in their application that explicitly prohibited double deposit.
Double depositing is considered unethical and you really should check the fine print again. I have yet to hear of a college that won’t rescind an offer if they discover a student has double deposited.
He challenges anyone to produce the example of one case where a college rescinded the offer. His point is, it may be a violation of anti-trust law for colleges to prohibit double depositing and the colleges don’t want to be the first to test the waters.
Thanks for your advice. If everything works out with the top 5 program financially, then there is nothing to transfer out to. He will only transfer out of Honors college (assuming he has to opt in these for the first year) only if he gets accepted in a more desirable program and hopefully our finances are in better shape at that time in future.
About being test case, No we certainly don’t. However, I wouldn’t want to deny my son his opportunity for no fault of his. He has made up his mind and it is only our other situation that is forcing us to this alternative. We are considering it only because it seems such a gray area with no precedents set. I am hoping the colleges would be a bit more receptive to our predicament than the case of whimsical procrastination that seems prevalent.
While it does gnaw me, I am willing to take that lapse in ethics on me for my son’s future. I am only worried about possible adverse impact on my son’s admission due to double depositing.
I appreciate the feedback but I think we have decided to go with the option of the higher priced college after a month-long discussion. We have already eliminated three other offers at good and somewhat pricey schools which were not significantly better than the Honors program in state college. I wouldn’t do it if there wasn’t a significant difference between the two offers and we sincerely believe there is a difference. We are talking about a program that is better than CS in Princeton, Harvard and Yale. I think he certainly earned it to get our support for his education.
You realize, of course, that by co-signing the loan, you’re taking on all of the responsibility of the full amount of your son’s loans, in this case around $100k. As you already know based on your previous ‘adverse’ event that stuff can happen even to the most careful of us. The most frugal, thoughtful, hard-working, determined kids can have set-backs that could result in an onerous, large outstanding debt.
For example, a friend’s kid had a case of mono mid-semester last Fall and took a medical withdraw after the refund deadline for first semester, and after Christmas break thought that he’d be well enough to attend the second semester, but ultimately wasn’t.
He ended up paying for what will now be an extra year, with that insidious compound interest clock ticking on regardless. Could your son (or family) sustain the extra debt, if faced with any kind of set-back?
Yes, especially after going through that harrowing CH7, I am aware of stuff that can happen. Thankfully, I have been diligently saving for my retirement over 20 years (which was exempted in CH7) and in a worst case scenario, I can part with some of that money to clear the student debt.
I don’t really see what’s unethical about double deposits. I’d say it should only be done with a really good reason, such as the OP’s and that common courtesy requires that you let a school know as soon as you change your mind. But unethical? The schools don’t like it because it inconveniences them and, as Hemphill points out in the linked post, that’s why there’s language against it in the Common App. And when schools stop playing games designed purely to protect their acceptance and yield rates at the expense of applicants, I’ll be a lot more sympathetic about their inconvenience. One could argue that the effect it has on other students who might not hear from a place they’re wait listed until that much later isn’t fair, but neither is it fair to have to decide between schools without all the relevant information.
At my kid’s HS, once my we make the deposit, the college and the HS coordinate the final transcript which colleges require. If we double deposited, it would be found out there. My kid’s HS would not send out two final transcripts, and I’m not sure what else would happen.
Perhaps not all highschools take care of submitting the final transcript, but I think that is where double depositing could come back to bite you. However, I just reread your original post and you say that the schools are non common app, and don’t have language that prohibits double depositing. You might want to check with your S’s high school about all this.
I also don’t know how these loans work, but is that something you can get approved now, so you don’t have to double deposit? Then the worry of the problem of being rescinded is taken away if you can single deposit because you know which school your S will be attending for sure.
I have to ask. If you have decided after a MONTH-long discussion, why even bother posting the question an hour before this post? Even if the family decided 45 minutes ago, you probably knew the decision.
Go with your decision but don’t expect people to endorse it. Double depositing is unethical. It hurts people, and quite frankly, I don’t see the benefit. Good luck to you and your son.