<p>Re: housing decisions. DSs #1 choice has already had Honors housing selection. This was done late March and AFAIK cannot be done again until late April. Those who did not deposit early are now in the situation of having to hope to be pulled into a room with someone who has already deposited and chosen a room/roommates. This is not hypothetical, I’m watching it right now.
Consequently there are quite a few students with rooms chosen etc. who may later decide to pull out when their remaining decisions come in. I don’t see any way around it, deposit and choose your room in the first round or risk not having your choice of living situation. It’s the gamble each family has to decide whether or not to take as the admit. deposit is non-refundable.
Additionally, orientation spots and group volunteer programs are filling up quickly. There is a genuine risk of missing out on choices for either if the student (heaven forbid!) waits until May 1 for his decision.
Is it better to have students make a hasty selection on their college before all the facts are in? The admits to certain programs, actual cost to attend etc.?
Are we penalizing students for taking heir time to make a measured decision based on ALL factors?</p>
<p>Unless this changes double-depositing will continue. I’m convinced some colleges rely on it as an additional source of revenue.</p>
<p>The above would be a reasonable schedule IF the following ocurred:
ALL APPLICATIONS MADE BY NOV. 1. No exceptions. Term grades received by Jan.
1a) for performing arts conservatory programs: ALL AUDITIONS COMPLETED JAN 30.
ALL PARENTS HAVE TAXES DONE AND FAFSA SUBMITTED BY FEB. 1</p>
<p>The likelihood of either #1 or #2 being “do-able” is approximately nil IMHO. </p>
<p>The issue around “colleges are a business that can fend for themselves” ISN’T that they can’t. The issue is that by encouraging a young adult to compromise their integrity by essentially LYING ABOUT THEIR INTENT is not leading by example.</p>
<p>In cases where a decision is difficult, a scholarship is a stake, or a variety of factors prevent timely campus visits or other due diligence, a conversation with the registrar’s office or a letter that a deposit is CONDITIONAL on final variables is a far more honest approach.</p>
<p>Further, most schools have a specific policy around rescinding, so they can’t just arbitrarily rescind an admission without a review meeting or cause, and they usually describe cause (eg. a D, 3Cs, criminal offense).</p>
<p>There are plenty of very competitive schools that announce their admissions on 3/1 or earlier. University of Florida, one of the most competitive schools in the entire Southeast, announces their admissions in early to mid Feb.</p>
<p>I do not think it is unrealistic for any college to release admissions on 3/1.</p>
<p>Paying a deposit is not entering into a binding contract to matriculate. It is more a kin to purchasing an option that can be excercised or not at a future date.</p>
<p><<<Come on folks, it’s integrity 101. You don’t enter two binding employment contracts, you don’t marry two women or men, you don’t put two binding offers on a house – why the hell would you legally commit to two schools?</p>
<p>And what school would want a kid self-absorbed enough to do it.</p>
<p>When it comes to personal integrity, it does not matter how you “spin” all that is “wrong” with college conduct or any external entity. It is about who you are being inside your life and within your own choices.>>></p>
<p>Here, here, and I imagine you have a child who, like you, has integrity, too.</p>
<p>Are we creating false dichotomies by saying that all students who do not push their decision to the last minute are making rash decisions based on incomplete information?</p>
<p>It is possible to have selected a college (or have an ordered list) before the results even come in.</p>
<p>^ sure it is possible, and in our case DS has a really good gut feeling of which he likes better - but when it comes down to financial decisions I find it unrealistic to expect someone to decide before all offers are in.</p>
<p>AL34-- In the case of students still waiting to recieve fin-aid offers, the double deposit situation is actually considered differently, kind of like ED is only binding if the fin-aid offer makes attendance do-able. I’m sure, based on the double deposit arguments I witnessed last year, that the fin-aid question is the caveat, and it is not looked upon as the same scenario. fwiw.</p>
<p>^^That is, of course, a legitimate issue – but also one that can be discussed in general before results come in, which would make dealing with the specifics once the results are there much easier as well.</p>
<p>The onus need not be placed entirely on the 18 year old. The schools are responsible and they are the ones who set up the system and they know they do not always get the fin-aid to the students in an appropriate amount of time. A contract goes two ways and there is an implicit contract in the process that says that schools will deal fairly with students vis-a-vis affordability discovery. It doesn’t need to be some contentious issue.</p>
<p>Not sure if I’m interpreting this right, but over-enrollment will occur if colleges regularly encounter enough non-matriculating depositors that they admit more students than they can really handle. If in a particular year they guess wrong and there is less depositor attrition than expected, they may have more students showing up than they are able to accommodate. In a perfect world, they wouldn’t have to play that game at all since virtually all depositors would show up in the fall.</p>
<p>When an airline overbooks, the last people to show up get bumped. At a college, they may have to cobble together dorm space or even offer incentives for some students to delay their start date (akin to an airline asking for volunteers to take the next flight).</p>
<p>What of kids accepted to one school in the fall, and another school that deferred admission to Jan. It seems fair to me to deposit on both. If kid does not like the fall admit, kid can matriculate in Jan at school #2.</p>
<p>Kid did not ask for a Jan admit. School with a fall admit is a state school and much cheaper so worth a try.</p>
<p>Roger, that precise scenario occurred this last fall at University of Michigan, which ended up serving a few hundred more students than it intended (more than 6,000), despite past precision in it’s yield calculations. The real-world result in the day to day is unnecessarily intense competition for class registration and resources.</p>
<p>And re:
Not sure if the poster was being tongue-in-cheek or genuine, but I will say that my child (his words) “constantly reinvents himself to be within a state of integrity” Hi ho.</p>
<p>For those of you talking about honors or preferred housing, orientation spots, volunteer opportunities, etc.: are these state schools and/or rolling admissions schools you are referring to? I don’t recall any of my S’s schools, including the state flagship which had rolling admissions, having any early deadlines for anything–just the normal May 1 one. My D’s first choice school also does not seem to have any programs requiring a decision before May 1. I’m confused about this ^.</p>
<p>The one situation we encountered with S that made us consider double depositing was that he was appealing his FA package at his first choice school, trying to get them to match a better offer given by a peer school. In the end, he pushed them to hurry and he did receive their revised package in time to make a decision. Frankly, we really couldn’t have easily afforded to lose $500 or more anyway.</p>
<p>My son applied to a bunch of schools, he is returning 1 deposit to University of Florida. They actually told potential admits that to ensure they had housing they had to apply and submit a small deposit BEFORE THEY EVEN FOUND OUT IF THEY WERE ADMITTED. On top of that, if you were admitted and wanted housing you had to return another housing deposit by April 1st. Yet, we don’t have to turn in the deposit for the school until May 1st.</p>
<p>People must always consider outcome of things when they are self serving. By painting the colleges as big bad business, then you would force them to act as such. At this time, colleges are only requiring minimum financial commitment for a seat at their school because the assumption is every student will only commit to one school at a time. The day that everyone thinks he is within his rights to double, triple…dip then it would ultimately hurt the general population.</p>
<p>There are private secondary schools which put it in their contract that a candidate is responsible for a whole year of tuition if a contract was executed, because they ehave xperienced too many no shows. I could see colleges in taking that step in order to protect itself. Do you think it would make things better for students? Could you imagine if you had only one chance at making the decision or lose out on 50,000? Yale does not require a deposit because it has enough candidates to fill any number of spots, but a small struggling LAC wouldn’t have that luxury.</p>
<p>Many business, like department stores, have more stringent rules now for money back guarantee because too many people are unethical and self serving. It hurts people who are honest and have legitmate reasons to return merchandise or services.</p>
<p>yes TheGFG, in our case the schools in consideration are flagship state schools with rolling (or early) admissions. You can, of course, go up until May 1 for the decision, but as I said, first round of Honors housing is already done, and we’re receiving calls about the orientations and volunteer week activities filling up fast (got one again just yesterday.) Another offered him their second-best merit award with a deadline of March 24, without him yet knowing if he got into the Honors College (got that extended until today, although he still has not received his decision.) Third will notify him of a possible departmental award during his visit on April 8.</p>
<p>Again, all three have started housing and orientation sign up.</p>
<p>At least in the case of the one with the March 24 scholarship deadline, they seemed unaware that Honors decisions had not gone out.
I think sometimes the different departments are oblivious to the deadlines of the others.</p>
<p>and OldFort - one solution I like to this is as one of DSs schools has done, housing and orientation sign up is based on the date the school received your completed application - NOT on when they admitted you. I can’t imagine double depositing for the hell of it - AFAIK you always have until May 1 to commit and your space is held until then.</p>
Hi ho.</p>