I know a handful of students who contacted schools to ask for a refund of a non-refundable deposit and received it back. It doesn’t hurt to ask.
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My daughter is a junior at UTampa. Hers was the class where kids received the dreaded “you’ve been waitlisted for on campus housing” email AFTER May 1st. (thankfully mine did not receive the email) Tampa is very clear that they do not guarantee on campus housing for anyone, including freshmen. They encourage accepted students to send in a (fully refundable) housing deposit ASAP, as filling out the housing app and sending the deposit is what gets you on the list. And it goes by date submitted, so the longer you wait, the higher your chances are of not getting housing. The housing deposit is fully refundable up to May 1st, so there really is nothing to lose by sending in the deposit if you think you may attend. So I can see why OP did what she did, although 5 does seem like a lot.
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For sure. But shame on this college for requiring teenagers to report their non-enrollment to two different offices. The kids shouldn’t bear the cost of the school’s failure to establish internal communication.
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I agree. I have worked in higher education and understand the capabilities of student information systems. There is no reason not to have a system in place that cancels the student’s housing when they inform the school that they won’t attend. Do they want a student who chose not to attend their school to live in their dorm? Of course they don’t, and of course they have a process in place to make sure that doesn’t happen. Then why not have a process in place that automatically withdraws the student from the housing process when a formal notification of non attendance is made? I guarantee it would make the housing staff’s job a whole lot easier, so it’s a win-win.
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I know for a fact that GaTech has on their housing contract written that you have to cancel housing by notifying housing directly. Notifying admission would not cancel housing. However, we did not have any school on the list that would request to apply and pay deposit for housing before being admitted. (UMD asked you to choose Honor college (they have a few with different housing) before you commit…)
I think what complicates situation is a scholarship. Since nobody paid deposit for housing in case of OP, nobody worried about housing.
Again GaTech has crazy rules that canceling housing by that day cost you that much, by that day that much, once fall semester start you have to pay for spring semester too unless you have internship or study abroad. Not enrolling will not do it… What is even more crazy that they bombard you in spring and summer with emails suggesting to cancel housing… And I am not even getting to registration for housing. Last year the first day housing was available for registration all servers were down. Students were doing push button competition. I told daughter not to move until she is registered or she is living on streets. They have terrible lack of housing there…
There are some valid reasons that schools would not want to automatically cancel housing reservations unless a student specifically requests it. But for incoming freshmen, I believe it makes sense to just simplify everything in the withdrawal process. And if a school encourages students to reserve housing even if they haven’t made a final decision to enroll, they really need to make it simple. I am not saying that schools are doing something wrong by having rules that require specifically notifying housing. But it would be fabulous if schools could consider processes from a customer service point of view.
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Yes, and how hard would it be to add another yes/no question to the online form for withdrawing/declining admission which is “I have applied for housing and would like to remove myself from that process”? It seems it would streamline the process for a student who was declining and tidy up the process for housing at the same time.
Seems obvious! Then again, I still haven’t been asked to run the world.
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I spoke to a live human at this school yesterday and will update the thread more completely when I find out the result. There is a lot to be learned from this experience and I will share.
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I just started reading this thread and thought the same thing, because one of my sons started college at 17. I recall we had to sign a contract for something (it’s been a long time) because he was still underage at move-in.
My daughter was 17 through her first semester in college (16 at application). The only thing I signed was her medical/vaccination forms and releases when she was checking into college.
My other daughter was 18 when she started school but 17 when she sent in her housing contract.
Speaking as a legal lay-person - somehow this ought to be looked at from a “consumer protection” standpoint by states’ AG’s.
This is not an “even-leveled”, fairly negotiated business relationship: The college (and it’s various units) are unilaterally imposing boiler-plate contractual terms on consumers, who have no choice but to accept them (even if they disagree), and which are designed to “trap” people with cancellation fees.
A major business (like a college) can be expected to have the easily available organizational measure in place, where the withdrawal of the application to the college, will automatically update the housing status. As the “stronger” party in the contract, they should not be permitted to avoid taking minimally-complex steps.
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Is there a legal difference in making early registration (with a deposit) available in order to get the most desirable housing- vs. requiring early registration, with a deposit, in order to get ANY housing?
I know parents who have spent money they don’t have to make sure their kid doesn’t have to walk a block to the campus shuttle, and then spend ten minutes on a van in order to get to class. To me this is insane-- but it’s their money and their kid. I think there’s a difference between needing to make multiple deposits to make sure you have a dorm room in August. vs. multiple deposits to get “first in line” status on the “good dorms”.
But is there a legal difference? I.e. the deposit is NOT a requirement- it’s a way to jump the line?
Not that I can see.
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UPDATE:
After a 29 email exchange (several of which were mine), to various staff members in different departments at the University of New Mexico, I finally connected with the Director of Housing on the phone last week. As is the case in many large institutions, there is not a direct phone number to connect with the Director of Housing and, like many large institutions, it was very challenging to connect with voicemails left on extensions with no outgoing message and student staff members refusing to speak with me at all citing FERPA.
After some phone tag, I spent 15 minutes on the phone with the pleasant Director of Housing who understood our issue and was able to shed some light on pieces I did not understand.
In review:
Our daughter, currently a college freshman at another university, considered attending the University of New Mexico and was awarded a generous scholarship. On advice of the university she applied for housing before she made her decision to attend. Her scholarship included housing which looking back I think caused her to not pay as much attention to housing things like bills/costs/contracts because she thought “My scholarship pays for that anyway.”
She visited UNM last March and had a good visit. She met some nice staff and current students, although she did not meet a single student who was not from New Mexico during the entire 2 day visit.
She returned home and within 2 weeks received an additional scholarship at another school that covered 50% of her housing and that tipped the scale in that direction.
She immediately contacted UNM and declined her scholarship and indicated she would not enroll in the fall. She also sent a thank you to the professor who she connected with during her visit who was incredibly kind. From that point on, her decision made, she did not check her UNM email again.
In September she received a UNM bill for housing sent to our home. She was already at college. I contacted the university assuming this was a mistake as she wasn’t enrolled. About 3 weeks later she received that bill with an additional “late charge.” At this point I assumed something more complex was going on and began emailing staff to explain the charges appeared to be an error. I was told either the charges were not in error as she didn’t cancel her housing contract or the person would not talk to me at all citing FERPA. All parties understood she wasn’t enrolled and that she indicated she wasn’t going to enroll but the fact that she didn’t cancel housing led to the charges and she needed to pay roughly 900 dollars.
The Director of Housing understood and informed me that all communication to our daughter was via her UNM email. She saw the issue immediately- why would.a student who indicated she was not attending UNM continue to check UNM email?
In the end we had to submit an “appeal” which took us roughly 2 hours. We had to construct a letter (written by my daughter) and attach emails that showed she had notified UNM she was not attending.
Friday we received notification that the charges against our daughter were removed.
In the end, this only cost our family time and stress, although it was a lot of time. I said as strongly as I felt appropriate, a student who declines admission should not have to notify individual departments. The student information system should be comprehensive enough to make sure this doesn’t happen and this would lead to a more accurate picture of total enrollment and housing needs.
Hopefully this can help those students/families applying now. When declining admissions, pay attention to policies that could still require you to contact individual departments.
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Well done you! (As they say in Britain).
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Awesome outcome!
And just an FYI to all here: FERPA only covers students who actually enroll in a school. Because your child never enrolled, FERPA did not apply. Of course, student workers probably don’t know that, but it’s good for the adults in the room to be aware of - so that you can let them know that you need to talk with someone who understands FERPA.
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I was just going to say the same thing about FERPA. It shouldn’t apply if your student isn’t at that school.
Very happy to hear that you got to the director of housing and he was able to resolve it. I’m curious, because he must be aware that this is happening with other students, did he sound surprised at all?
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This isn’t true. If it were true, then any school could publish the application of any student who wasn’t admitted or didn’t enroll. FERPA covers applicants as well. UNM is 100% right not to disclose information to anyone but the student (or the parent of a minor). It would be pretty crazy if I could call UNM and learn whether @JD7777 's daughter submitted SAT scores or not based on the fact that she didn’t enroll.
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Technically, FERPA applies to the education records of persons who are or have been in attendance at postsecondary institutions. FERPA does not apply to records of applicants for admission who are denied acceptance or, if accepted, do not attend an institution. This is why an applicant who doesn’t enroll is not entitled to view their admissions records (as some who are denied want to do, citing the non-applicable FERPA).
Other rules may govern information collected from applicants who are either denied admission or choose not to enroll. For example, financial aid information cannot be shared due to Department of Education rules covering federal aid. The application I used as admissions director contained language that indicated that information provided would only be used for purposes of admission and scholarships - I assume other schools have similar practices. We would not have shared information with anyone else, but it never becomes an educational record if the student doesn’t attend.
A parent who asks about a school form (not related to federal financial aid or the admissions application) that their child, who did not enroll, signed cannot correctly be denied because of FERPA. The school might have another rule that would keep them from seeing it, but it’s not FERPA.
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Interesting. I wonder if the response “We can’t speak with you because of FERPA” is simply a tactic to avoid having to interact with fussy parents. I did noticed that it was a first response from the student workers answering the phone and emails but never came up when I spoke with the director of housing. Thank for this info.
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