Son got admitted last week. This is his #1 school choice. The admissions letter says that the earlier you pay the fee and confirm attendance, the better is the housing assignment. I’m sure there is some truth to that, but I don’t know how late is late for the purpose of getting better housing. The big question that I have is this: if we confirm attendance now before receiving decision on the National Buckeye scholarship, is there a lower likelihood that he will be awarded the scholarship at all? (They may think that he is coming anyway even if he doesn’t get the scholarship; which is true, but it’s a very hefty scholarship that we would want very much). His ACT is 33, GPA is 3.5 uw, 3.9 weighted; 4s and 5s on AP exams.
Any opinions at all??? Is anyone planning to confirm attendance before receiving scholarship decisions?
@Modeler9 I do not think it will hurt your chances for buckeye and (Maximus or provost?) scholarship to confirm attendance now. And as you say, it will give your son a higher priority on housing. You are confirming with the understanding, based on specific criteria on Ohio State’s website (under Money Matter), that your son will receive the scholarship(s). He should definitely receive it if all his application materials were in before the Nov 1 Early Action deadline. In the high unlikelihood that he does not receive a scholarship you would have bases to withdraw your acceptance. It can’t hurt to call admissions to find out status on when you will receive notice on scholarships. They usually come a month after acceptance letter. It seems that last year Scholarship notices were issued earlier, and they came in groupings, first buckeye and Maximus then a few weeks later buckeye and Provost, followed a few weeks later by Buckeye and Trustee. My son received a notice of the buckeye and provost around end of December, which was about one month after he received admission around Nov 20 2014. He waited until early March to confirm acceptance, but by then he was too late to get his first choice housing. Nevertheless he is very happy where he is. All the dorms are good, although West Campus (Morrill Towers) is a bit of a hike from central campus. Good luck!
Generally
North Campus is quiet
South Campus is social/parties/drinks
West Campus is dead.
100% send in your fee. It doesn’t impact scholarship stuff much at all, and housing is more important than you think.