I just discussed all of this with dh, and he was wondering if it is a bad idea to commit to a school and place a housing deposit BEFORE receiving merit offers. He is thinking that if ds is already committed to the school, they might not offer merit because they already have him on the hook.
Does this make a difference?
@jazzymomof7 You do not have to commit to a school to place a housing deposit. You don’t have to make deposits at all as previously mentioned. It sounds like your son may get some nice offers, so there’s no reason to commit before receiving merit offers. Honestly, it’s really early, and he may very well change his mind a few times between now and next May. There is no way to predict who will offer what, so please wait and let your son explore his options. You’re a good parent for wanting the best for your son, but let him enjoy being courted by a few colleges!
@chercheur Okay, thank you. I will take your advice and chill out a little. For some reason I feel more nervous now than I did before he put all of his applications in!
Believe me, I understand! I lost a lot of sleep last year, but it has a way of working out in the end. Good luck to him!
It’s not just a question around if housing is tight. It’s also a question of how housing is assigned. Some schools prioritize by the date the housing deposit is received, so students that submit their deposit early have a much better chance of getting the housing that they want. Other schools work on more of a lottery system where every student that submits a deposit by the deadline has an equal chance of getting their preferred housing. For the latter, there’s really no benefit for submitting a deposit early.
@shortnuke Do the schools tell you whether or not they do lottery system or give priority to those who pay the housing deposit early?
Colleges want you to put down a deposit because it “anchors” that college in your mind as your choice.
Like others say, try to find out how housing is assigned and if the college has a history of not giving freshman housing. Usually freshman all have the same housing and there is no real difference between rooms.
As to picking, after he gets all his decisions:
Is this a commuter school? (do students go home on weekends)
Surrounding area - what is the nearby town/amenities like?
Urban/rural/suburban Transportation - how would you get home
AP Credits - can you get credit for AP tests you have taken
Male/Female ratio
Greek life - what % of students are in greek life
Parking
Diversity
Safety
Sports
Campus
Jobs - what happens to seniors after they graduate
Internships - depending on your major, is it easy to get internships?
…and whatever makes sense for you
and rate them for each college for each of these factors
My oldest DD had no clear favorite…but picked SUNY Binghamton because it gave her the most credit for her IB Diploma.
A lot of us posters on here have current students and went through just what you are going through (some of us several times) so if you want to drop one of the school’s names, I am sure you would get feedback on housing issues, if any. In one case we had to put a pretty chunky deposit down months early, but when they decided to attend elsewhere and cancelled the housing, we came to find out they never actually hit our credit card with the charge. Odd things like that happen and unless one goes through it, they may not know. It’s a pretty collective brain trust on here. So if you have one you are leaning towards, I would suggest naming here or on the school’s page to see if you can get some advice from those experienced with that school.
My daughter committed very early (Oct/Nov) and put down a deposit for housing as suggested. For some reason she picked out a dorm and really wanted to live there, although all the dorms and rooms were pretty similar. She did get her first choice sometime in June. The the original assigned roommate disappeared immediately after assignments came out (daughter never ran into her at school, and daughter knew everyone). Then about 2 weeks before school started, she was reassigned to another room and another roommate. It was in the same building, but I think on a different floor.
Her friend also deposited very early and got her first choice, to be in a Freshman Interest Group (a dorm floor by major or interest). Hated it. Moved into the sorority house second semester.
All that to say you can deposit early and some things are still going to change. Life will go on.
I wouldn’t deposit until you are more sure of where you are headed.
@jazzymom The schools make their housing assignment policy available. It’s almost always mentioned during their tours, and you can usually find the information on the schools’ websites. Find the housing webpage (typically under the “Student Life” section and look for housing policies.
How have you gotten decisions already, wow!
Don’t worry about housing until you have decided on schools, and that won’t be until the others come in. Way too early - they just want to trap you to the school with these deposits.
@jazzymom , it’s not the end of the world if he ends up in mediocre housing. Many colleges have only mediocre housing and the kids love their schools anyway.
I thought my daughter’s freshman dorm was seriously gross and horrible. She loved the community there so much that she ended up signing up to live in the same dorm her sophomore year!
I only say this to take the pressure off of depositing somewhere when you’re not really sure about the merit aid yet. There really is no urgency to housing. If he ends up somewhere he doesn’t like his first year, he certainly won’t have to stay there the rest of the time there.
If the concern is not being on campus at all, that’s a different matter, but it still seems worth the risk of waiting until you have all of the financial information you need to make a good decision.
It is great that your son already has acceptances so early in the cycle. He does not need to commit or send in a deposit, unless that school is one of his top choices, affordable has priority housing, otherwise you can just wait and watch. My son sent a housing deposit to our state flagship, which had priority housing, and was his safety school, if none of his reaches panned out. We were ok to send a non-refundable deposit, because of the housing situation,
I had ds submit all of his applications in August so he could get it all done before fall semester started and things got busy.
Also, I think it helps that he’s not applying to any elite schools. 2 OOS schools, 1 private, our state flagship, and 4 in state publics.
Thanks, all! I’ve been looking into it, and I think Texas A&M is the only one he needs to put an early deposit at. He hasn’t been accepted there yet, but he’s auto admit so should be hearing from them soon.
Another question… Is it important for ds to attend accepted students’ events at the colleges to show interest even if he has not decided to go to the school? He has already been invited to events in October at 2 of the schools he’s been accepted to - a distinguished scholar luncheon and an all day campus visit.
Our kid applied to 7 schools, and we had all acceptances/rejections in by mid-December.
There was a clear #1 and clear #2 (to us parents. affordability), and a #3 if a competitive scholarship came thru.
We put a housing deposit down on the #1 right around Xmas, after getting an email from the university encouraging us to do so by a certain date.
We ignored prompts to put down a housing deposit at the other acceptances.
We signed up for a spring accepted student day for the #1, and ignored all the rest. After the spring accepted student day, and it was decided that was the one for sure, she declined the other schools.
Fall events for students? When he has been accepted already? Will attending help him make a decision or help with a scholarship?
Sometimes these are to award scholarships, so yes, those are important. If he’s not sure, these weekends could help him decide. He’s already been accepted so not going to help him get in.
If your S decided not to go, why would you go to the event?
@jazzymomof7 Texas A&M is one school you will want to pay the $75 application fee if you can and apply for housing once you’re accepted. One thing to note, however, is if your son applies to university honors or departmental honors and is accepted, he will be placed in certain dorms with other honors students, so your early application really won’t matter in that case.
You can see which schools track a student’s interest by googling the school name and Common Data Set. Here is a link to TAMU’s Common Data Set. On page 8, it shows an applicant’s level of interest is considered but not very important https://dars.tamu.edu/Student/files/CDS_2017-2018.aspx
My son was accepted Rolling Admission last August 17. We paid the housing deposit in January 18 after a final tour.