Check her email account and review whatever came with the pre-May1 Housing contract.
Then go higher up - €900 is a huge amount of money.
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I’m also not trying to say don’t fight it. By all means try to fight it, I would too. But you also need to realize she signed a contract. Contracts are binding. Hard lesson for an 18 year old but in the future she will know to read everything before signing.
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Most schools start sending stuff in June or July, “welcome to Baker Hall Rm 212. Your roommate will be Sally Smith and you can reach her at ssmith @college.edu to make your plans.”
I just don’t believe any college thinks you are going to show up on move in day with NO other information.
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Agree with this. At a minimum, most colleges send out the “here’s where you can park to unload your stuff behind Baker Hall” email in July, with a follow up “you can’t move in until 9 am on move in day, but we will accept Amazon or Bed Bath shipments for the week prior to your move in. Any questions? Call XXXX”.
And then ANOTHER email with “reminder, Baker Hall is not air conditioned so you may want to bring an electric fan for the first few weeks. Room air conditioners are not allowed.”
In her spam file Or your D just ignored because she had already made a decision?
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Have you read the contract your daughter signed? I would want to see what she signed before I spoke to someone about waiving the fee. But I also would have read it before she signed.
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Looks like they wouldn’t know because his daughter never checked the school email acct that was set up in her portal.
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In our experience, those school email accounts stopped working after my kids declined the admissions offer.
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@JD7777 thanks for correcting me. I guess I’m still confused why she would accept (and pay a deposit) at 5 schools?
Certainly, if she was waiting for a specific school, I understand accepting one (a safety) snd then declining upon the desired school’s acceptance. But to accept five?
There must be another factor at play here - was she scholarship shopping or awaiting an athletic walk-on position?
I guess I don’t understand the “apply for housing to be guaranteed housing” at five different schools. That means that some other kid didn’t get housing. Actually, four other kids didn’t get housing. Maybe I’m just not understanding the timing.
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Probably means that up to four other students may have been put on a housing wait list and gotten late housing offers after the OP student was eventually determined not to be attending and using housing.
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Yes, they were mistaken (they thought they can cancelled), that‘s not the same as being selfishly (intentionally) holding the housing assignment.
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Some colleges only guarantee housing (or best housing choices), if one puts down a deposit EARLY (long before enrolling/accepting). So this family was anxious not to lose out and deposited at several „likely schools“, before having decided, which one to enroll at.
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Yes…. Mistaken because they thought they cancelled.
Selfish…. For knowingly holding 5 spots when knowing 4 of them won’t be used.
It’s unfortunate yet being mistaken does not cancel out the binding nature of a contract.
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Let’s move on from calling users selfish. We don’t need to belabor the point or use language in violation of general behavior
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Every year there are threads asking whether or not to deposit for housing early if the student isn’t sure they will attend. In some cases a housing deposit is not dependent on an enrollment deposit.
This thread from last year is an example of another user questioning whether or not to put down an early housing deposit.
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Many schools request housing deposits early, some in fact before you are even admitted. It’s not uncommon to get your place in line at multiple schools.
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I was just looking at UT Austin’s website. It says, “You’re eligible to apply for on campus housing as soon as you complete your admissions application. Access the housing application within MyStatus.” That’s not putting a deposit down, but it surprised me.
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This is a money grab, full stop. $900 because they also didn’t jump through hoop #2 after they jumped through hoop #1? Money grab. Housing has not lost out on any space; the child never enrolled. This is no harm here. They’re just trying to extract even more profit from the hybrid child/parent application process. I generally agree with “this is the contract the child signed,” but was anyone in this thread aware of a potential $900 fee for this kind of oversight? This isn’t common knowledge to me. I agree with “you signed a contract,” but I’m also in favor of just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. A fee should be connected to a harm.
If OP’s family is in need of financial aid, this is a billion times worse.
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@lkg4answers I certainly understand putting down one (the safety) while awaiting the reach decision. What I don’t understand is depositing at five. Were those all five safeties? There was no preference among those five?
I am not name-calling, just looking for a reasonable explanation.
Every year, there is summer bleed. People complain about how competitive admissions are compared to 5 years ago. This is a contributing factor. I think about how the media every year makes a big deal about the kid who got into all Ivies. Realistically, all Ivies are incredibly different and applying to all of them isn’t more than an ego exercise, because the kid who wants Dartmouth is different than the Cornell kid than the Brown kid.
This isn’t double depositing, this is quintuple depositing. I’m just seeking to understand.
UGA. UF. Florida State abd mlre. Not sure about signing contracts. But that’s deposit. These are b4 you have an acceptance. May be Alabama.
Totally common what OP did.
I don’t know the school set but makes sense.
The schools make you think you have to do this to not be shut out in housing - b4 you know if you’re admitted and b4 finalizing a choice. Far before.
Odd to me people find this odd….
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I believe there is a misunderstanding. The OP did not submit enrollment deposits at multiple schools. They only put down housing deposits. Many schools allow and even suggest doing so if your student wants first choice housing in the event they enroll at that school.
We put down a non-refundable $35 housing deposit to get my D21 “in line” for housing selection at a school she ultimately did not enroll at.
We considered doing so at another school, but it required both a refundable enrollment deposit plus a non-refundable housing deposit, which was several hundred dollars. We opted not to in this case but many people do.
Those policies are on the schools. They scare families about running out of “the best” housing if you don’t submit the housing deposit early (housing choices in order of deposits received) and those deposits are typically not refundable. Texas A&M is one that comes to mind… check out the discussions in that thread.
But to be clear, I’m referring only to housing deposits, not enrollment at multiple schools.
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