Need help through acceptance process

Paying for College
1

This is a pretty foreign topic to me, seeing that I didn’t college. My daughter has received 2 acceptance letters (1 with a scholarship, but it wasn’t an awards letter) and we are waiting on 3 more schools. I’ve been doing a lot of research online. We are waiting for all to arrive and the awards letters to be able to compare and make the best decision. But, the 2 letters we’ve received are stating that the process is to first accept, send in any additional paperwork for additional scholarships and fasfa (we already did fasfa during the Common App), pay the Deposit, and THEN they will send out the awards letter. That goes against everything I’ve been reading. Obviously, we don’t want to send in deposits yet, and I’ve read that’s unethical to send more than 1 school deposits, as well. So, my question is two-part.

  1. Do we have to accept before they send the awards letter?
  2. If so, do we accept, do the remainder of the finiancials, but don’t send in a deposit, yet?

Thank you for your help.

2

No, you don’t commit to a college until you have your financial aid offers completely…including both need based and merit.

I’ve never heard of a college that says you have to send in your deposit and maybe you will get additional scholarships or need based aid.

Could you share the name of the college?

In any event, you can politely call and ask when your need based award will be sent.

If they say you must commit first, politely tell them they you can’t really commit until you know your net cost.

And adding…the FAFSA doesn’t give you money. The data on the fafsa is used to determine the awarding of federally funded need based aid. For schools using only the fafsa, this info is also used to determine how much institutional aid you might receive.