<p>Our son has been offered a school-based scholarship which is only offered to NMFs, but there is a limited number available, and it is "first come, first served." He is awaiting offers from other schools, all of which should be in by around April 1. This opportunity is very good, but he my want to take another if it comes through. We have a couple of visits planned in the next couple of weeks as well.</p>
<p>The question is: Would it be unethical to accept the scholarship, and put down a housing deposit there, with the possibility that he would later decline the scholarship (and obviously forfeit the housing deposit)?</p>
<p>Is there a reason you want to accept when your S isn’t sure? We waited until S was sure before accepting and making any deposits. We were even able to get his 1st choice to slightly increase their merit award, matching a competing U. </p>
<p>Even tho he didn’t get his housing deposit in as early, he still got his 1st choice dorm and was very happy. We were glad not to have wasted a deposit. </p>
<p>Sorry, I missed that part of the post. I guess you have to weigh the cost vs benefit of accepting and potentially losing the housing deposit vs waiting to see other offers and possibly losing the scholarship. </p>
<p>Is there any way you can ask the U to give your kid more time to decide while the scholarship remains available? Seems they put students in a very awkward position. </p>
<p>It is fine to make the housing deposit, but if he isn’t pretty sure he would attend, I would hold off on accepting a scholarship.
Given your description I would probably pass on both, because if the offer was too good to pass up, he wouldn’t be waiting to hear from other schools.</p>
<p>I hate to ask the obvious, but is there a deadline for acceptance of the scholarship? If you’re not sure, ask the admissions office. As much as they may want to pretend they’re the only college on Earth, they know darned well that your student (and others) may be waiting to compare offers on April 1.</p>
<p>While there is no actual deadline, there is the possibility that he would lose the scholarship if enough students who were offered one were to accept before he did.</p>
<p>I don’t think that it would be unethical to accept it. At this point, when you accept it, your child is truly considering making use of it. He has no other ‘bird in hand’. IF something else comes through and you know you will not use it, call and email asap and release the scholarship. This will allow another student to possibly get great news later in the game.
If you do NOT take it and later want it (or really need it) and cannot get it, you will kick yourself for not grabbing it while the option was there.
If you take the scholarship now, and later decline it, the school will pocket your housing deposit. Fair enough.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about the ethics if it. Right now, the school has offered your S a scholarship, but they may pull it if others accept. So your S can accept it, and pull his acceptance if other schools accept/provide merit to him. I don’t see a big difference. </p>
<p>To me, the ethics depends on what happens to the scholarship if he accepts it and then later declines to attend. Does the scholarship then go to another person? If it doesn’t, then I’m not sure it’s ethical to accept.</p>
<p>It’s almost a certainty that the school has a waitlist or backup list for the NMF money, and that if your son accepts and later declines then another worthy candidate will be offered the scholarship. A lot happens in April to acceptances, waitlists, and so forth. So I do not think it’s at all unethical to accept now, even if he withdraws later. But (my only but) if he does withdraw then the earlier he does this, by notifying the school, then the better it is for the school and the backup candidates. (From my observation, many students, after accepting admission and putting down a deposit at one school, wait til the last minute to notify the other schools to which they have been admitted that they are not coming. It’s a courtesy, and good etiquette, to notify those other schools asap, so that offers of admission or aid can go to other qualified students as soon as possible.)</p>
<p>One of the schools my D was admitted has changed the policy this year. It used to ask student to accept or reject merit scholarship offers in March. This year, it has moved it to May 1, the same time for admission decision. Also, on the FA package, the merit scholarships are considered accepted offer automatically.</p>
<p>I’ll give one other scenario in which (in my opinion) it would be unethical to accept the scholarship: if you already know you will not attend that college, even with the scholarship. This is just trophy-hunting, and isn’t fair to other people who would use the scholarship.</p>
<p>Our local flagship does not re-extend the big merit awards to other students if another accepted student has declined that offer. Check with the school on its policy. It can be a tough decision – if the big merit award school imposes a deadline before you’ve heard about FA/merit at other schools, it can be tricky. Many families would not want to let go of the bird in hand until all packages are known (esp. if the big award is at a school the student would be happy to attend).</p>
<p>There is no ethics problem, take the scholarship. Review your offers come April 1 and make the best decision
for your family.</p>
<p>If there is an ethics issue here, it’s the schools problem playing you against others with a “limited tine” scholarship.
You either offer a scholarship or you don’t. This shouldn’t be a game of chicken.</p>
I’m sure people won’t like this, but I have worked in the admissions arena for years, and this is the most frustrating situation when a student has said they are accepting your scholarship and then decline it later.
Obviously, people don’t look at it from the institution’s POV. When most colleges offer major scholarships, they wait and wait while the student makes a decision. In many cases if the student waits until the last minute to turn it down (let’s say April 30), other viable candidates have made their decisions to go elsewhere so the university is not able to re-award the scholarship in some cases. They’re not just going to give it to any random student. While I understand that students are trying to make a decision, if you get a great offer from a university that you are perfectly happy attending, please take advantage. Else, why did you apply there?
I don’t think many students would be happy to receive news that a college was giving their scholarship to another student who just said they wanted to go there.
Be open and honest with the admissions or financial aid staff you are working with. They work hard to make these decisions and get the information out to you in a timely manner. Someone mentioned asking for time… That’s a good idea, but adhere to the agreed on timeframe. Do your research and make a decision.
I honestly have never heard of this before. Scholarships on a first come first served basis. What schools offer these?
I didn’t know that some schools had a practice of offering scholarships to students they hadn’t previously offered anything to if their first choice for scholarships turned them down?
Just curious. My last child is done with the admissions process, and will be attending college in the fall. Big Sigh. It took a long time to be able to say that – hard to believe this milestone has finally been reached. 5 kids, 4 of whom got the benefit of the collective wisdom of the College Confidential community throughout the process. Oldest did not. Thinking back on it now, how did I discover CC? I’m pretty sure it was in 2003 when S #2 was a senior. But I can’t remember how I stumbled onto it. Glad I did though.