So we are freaking out a little bit as we have less than two weeks to deposit. I am hearing mixed things about whether or not the highly selective waitlists will have serious movement. Just wondering what others are hearing? My S is on a couple of WL we are questioning whether he would take the spot over his top two admits. Maybe only 1 WL out of the 4 but we will determine that later I think after we get through the 5/1 decision.
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Same boat here. Freaking out. D wants two WL schools over admitted schools. Hearing mixed things about WL chances this year.
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With so many applicants offered waitlist spots this year, Iām thinking that many are putting off committing to their current top choice, hoping that something else opens up before the deadline. Of my daughterās friends, all but those that got into their first choice or an Ivy have not yet officially committed. Once May gets here, there will likely be much more movement in the waitlists, since people have to make a decision.
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What are the odds I can get them to decide by April 30, or do you think Iāll be here asking āby what time on May 1ā is the deposit due? (not entirely kidding, 11:59 pm eastern?)
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He is really starting to hear a lot from the less selective schools he hasnāt declined yet. I bet deposits are slow in the 30-60% selectivity range. Wonder if thatās more across the board though.
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Interesting podcast re admissions professionals meeting on last cycle events
Also includes a brief discussion on waitlists.
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I found it interesting that when S informed Davidson heād not be enrolling, his regional AO replied very kindly and quickly (less than 30 minutes?) and so very graciously. Whereas WF Admissions office took 3 days to reply and confirm that they received his decision not to enroll. (He did receive a nice tshirt from Wake during that time!)
And UF makes it ridiculously challenging to find how to decline, whereas FSU is easy to find and do.
My sophisticated analysis post-decision, hahha.
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When D was declining her other admittances, a couple schools required you to click on the āacceptā button first, the only option available on the page, in order to get to the āaccept or declineā page, which I found confusing and weird.
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When we lived in Juneau Alaska I would see boys standing out on the street corner in winter waiting for the school bus in 5ft snow drifts wearing shorts and flip flops.
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I was surprised to recently learn that some big lenders (like Chase and Wells Fargo) are exiting the student loan market. I looked into this and found that some government officials are pushing bankruptcy reform that will allow both federal & private loans to be dismissed when someone files for bankruptcy. I strongly believe that stopping the willy nilly distribution of private loans will help a lot to drive down ridiculously high tuition costs. Do you agree? Hereās a great article discussing the proposed change in bankruptcy laws - Major Bankruptcy Reform Bill Would Permit Student Loan Discharges And Make Other Dramatic Changes
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It might help a bit but, I think it will also preclude many students, especially graduate school students, from attending school. Borrower credit scores will be more important. Co-signers or guarantors may become mandatory. It will also drive up the cost/interest rates of those loans because theyāll be basically akin to credit cards debtā¦unsecured and much more risky.
Few of any lenders will be willing to issue the loans.
I predict unintended consequences.
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Yes. Credit is exceedingly available for the upper middle class in todayās America. HELOCs, credit cards with MASSIVE lines of credits, 401(k) loans, and just ordinary loans. Eliminating actual student loans like Parent Plus loans wonāt really reduce the amount of credit floating out there.
The way to bend down the cost of college is to reduce the ACTUAL costs for public schools, which is something the government does have control over. And then to hold private institutions to higher standards such as we used to do with for-profit colleges. Also perhaps start capping what private colleges can write-off as expenses, such as gold-plated executive salaries, coaches salaries, and all the other perks that ultimately get funded by students one way or the other. If a school wants to pay itās president $3 million/year like Penn does, fine. But the taxpayers shouldnāt be subsidizing it through tax exemptions.
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Is there any downside to waiting to deposit until right up until the deadline? Beyond the stress it gives the parents, that is. My D is accepting 2 WL spots, but I am encouraging her to get very excited about where she accepts.
Iām not really an expert but I think the only potential disadvantage is if your top 5/1 school starts housing registration before then and there might be some priority given to early depositors. My S only had one big public like that but it didnāt make the top 3. Heās on the WL for another big public and I think their housing registration is very shortly after 5/1 and you get knocked to priority 2 level with transfers after 5/11, so we probably need to look at that. It used to be that that school could only house 70% of freshman but they built some new dorms since then, so Iām not sure where a WL might end up.
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Iāve always thought handing out huge amounts of nondischargeable private loans to so many students (w/parents as cosigners) played a role in driving up tuition costs. Maybe Iām wrong.
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I agree that many salaries are way out of bounds, but at least itās market driven to some extent and they are held accountable.
Iām more upset that as a middle class family that they get us paying full price (minus any merit) then we also through taxes and higher tuition pay for need based students. For public academic institutions I think more merit for actual achievement should be awarded and less for perceived need.
You might be right. Iām no expert. Iām just pointing out that we live in a sea of easy money right now and cutting off one particular type of loan doesnāt mean there still isnāt going to be enormous amounts of credit out there for people to tap into for college education or vacation homes or new Teslas or whatever else they want to borrow money to buy.
Right now basically EVERYTHING a school like Harvard does is tax-exempt. Which means taxpayers are subsidizing all of it. No reason why that has to be the default. We could easily make the core educational aspects of college tax-exempt but make them pay taxes on all the other stuff that add to college costs but arenāt defendable. Like $3 million college president salaries, or luxury skyboxes in stadiums. Etc.
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Good point
@annegp Some schools do orientation in waves. I know UCI does this so out of precaution, my son deposited a non-refundable SIR just to hope for the first wave of orientation, which is when students sign up for classes. We also put down the $20 housing app just in case it impacts priority standing.
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