<p>My son is deciding on which colleges to attend, money will be deciding factor. most colleges (after being admitted) imply the sooner you confirm and pay your admission fee the more benefits you will get i.e housing choices.</p>
<p>So is it wrong to say you are attending more than 1 college and pay more than 1 admission fee till you decide what and how much you will get?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>As with most answers, it depends. For many colleges, the housing fee is separate from the admissions fee, and there is no problem in paying that fee. There are colleges who combine the fee into one amount, and you do commit to attend that college, signing a form saying that. Some colleges even say right on the form that if they find out you have committed to more than one college that way, they will revoke their acceptance. In a case like that you are taking a risk.</p>
<p>Also some guidance counselers are part of a network that say they will not permit this to happen on their watch. I think that it is mainly independent schools in this network, and this would be part of the school’s rules regarding college applications. In a case like that, you are also taking a chance.</p>
<p>Otherwise, IN MY OPINION, it is not an issue. If the college and your high school have no objections, you can do what you please. You can lose some or all of your deposit in doing this but there is no issue. In some cases, you have signed a commitment to attend, which is a moral issue, if you are signing more than one, but it is not something like a legal letter of intent. Guidance counselors that belong to that above mentioned group will disagree with me strenuously.</p>
<p>As always, check the fine print from each school. Do not worry at all about your local HS rules- they are your past and have no legal jurisdiction over your relationship with any colleges- tough luck if it gets them in hot water- I like the above poster’s attitude on this. </p>
<p>Morally speaking the best bet is to make your decision as soon as you are able- this frees up your space to another student who can then choose your vacated spot, thus freeing up their spot to yet another… Sending in deposits to hold a place makes sense if this gets you into the financial aid possibilities needed for the final decision or makes a difference in housing preferences (some schools hold a lottery for all admitted students, others base it on date admitted). </p>
<p>At some point your child has to let go of all but one school and it really helps other students for him to make his decision and not hog places. I’m sure you are needing the financial aid package numbers, which probably need the deposit. Likewise if housing preferences are honored in order of date deposit made you don’t want to wait until the last minute.</p>
<p>Once the final decision is made you are always subject to “buyer’s remorse” so you/he has to make a decision and not look back at the “what ifs”. By this time of year you won’t learn much more about each college to change your decisions before deadlines, unlike last fall when it was easier to apply and then do more research.</p>
<p>Ha, ha. Having gotten into hot water for my views, I would advise keeping your mouths shut about where you have sent deposits.</p>
<p>Out of courtesy, if you later back out, please notify admissions ASAP. The spot that your child doesnt want, someone else may.</p>
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<p>cpt-ofthehouse - Is that because there’s also a mjr-ofthehouse?</p>
<p>No, the counselors at S’s school are part of the group that does not condone this practice. They go nuts if they find out any of the students have sent more than one acceptance deposit unless it is clearly for housing only. They found out.</p>
<p>My D accepted her first choice, which has rolling admin, and although I cant imagine her changing her mind, I did double check the paperwork, and it just said, to reserve your place and receive housing info.</p>
<p>As one of the people who it is </p>
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<p>I definitely do not condone the practice. It is not so much a matter of getting “me” in hot water as a matter of the i may have a student waitlisted trying to get into the same school that your child is holding on an admission to. And yes, because we do advocate for your waitlisted child, it would be disingenuous to have a student holding a spot. How would you feel if you were the parent of a waitlisted student and you knew that another child paid a deposit to hold a spot at that school along with another school?</p>
<p>In addition, we also advocate for the student who essentially is left without a school when the NACAC list comes out in May. Don’t put us in the postition that we need to and will do what is best for many even if it is at the expense of your individual child. Remember that there is no right way to do something that you know is wrong.</p>
<p>And since I work really hard to maintain the relationships I have with the regional admission counselors that handle my kids, I do ask about students from my case load who have been accepted to different places. (For example: I have a group of students who have been admitted to one of the SUNYs. The school requires the students to take the placement exam. Instead of having the students arrange to leave the city to go to the college to do this as the cost associated with taking a trip to the campus before enrolling can be onerous for some of my students, the school sends the placement exams to me. I arrange to have the exams proctored, my students take the placement test and I overnight mail them back to the school). Again, don’t put us in an awkward position because at the end of the day we are the ones who will send the final report to the schools and we may just mention you/your child’s lack of ethics in the process.</p>
<p>Since May 1 is the common response date, I would consider asking if the housing and admissions deposits are 2 separate entities. Schools (especially publics) will ask for a housing deposit (where housing is done on a first come/first served basis) that is usually refundable if you request it back by a certain date.</p>
<p>As I said in my post, there are moral implications about this. You are taking a spot that someone may want (sometimes, sort of). The parentheses are there because it is not quite that way. Schools do take into account that there are kids who will not be coming even after they send the depost and say they are. Even to the last minute, until the kid arrives on campus and tuition is paid, there is some melt. In fact, there is a term in admissions “summer melt” that refers to this directly. </p>
<p>Most high schools I know have a policy in place that they will only send 1 final official transcript to 1 college at the end of the year. If you want more than that, you would need a good reason that would have to pass muster through the guidance office. However, until that final transcript needs to be sent, the high school is rarely involved in the process of the students accepting the college offers. </p>
<p>If more kids start doing mulitiple deposits, the college will have to revise their yield stats that they use for those who send the deposits. If this is really a problem for them, they can request a commitment with the checks, which some schools do require, and signing that commitment statement can be an issue. Some colleges don’t care. I know because I called and asked once upon a time. We did have an unusual situation, however. </p>
<p>It is not considered a nice thing to do in the college admissions circles.</p>
<p>I don’t think you are taking a spot away from someone else. I presume that you will withdraw from one school by the May 1 response date. Kids who are wait listed are waiting till then anyway.</p>
<p>When my Daughter was accepted, one school made it a point that you could accept right away, and get a refund as long as you withdrew by the May 1 deadline. So we accepted to that school, and ended up withdrawing later.</p>
<p>Housing is such a minor issue that I wouldn’t game the admissions process for that alone.</p>
<p>Opera,</p>
<p>I dont think housing is such a minor issue. It depends on the school. At some schools, especially state ones, students will be put as triples in rooms meant for 2. Studying in the room becomes difficult. This happened to a friends son last year, and he was miserable. If this can be avoided by sending in deposit, even if one loses it, as long as not unethical, I would recommend it.</p>
<p>There are kids who hold multiple spots beyond the May1 date. They put down mulitiple deposits because they cannot make up their minds. It puts those counselors who have personal interactions with college admissions folks in a dicey situation as Sybbie very clearly illustrates.</p>
<p>Again, I stress there are moral issues involved here. I know a kid who just could not make up his mind between NYU and UChicago. So the parents paid two deposits, and gave him the summer to make up his mind. They were buying time for their kids’ inability to make a decision.</p>
<p>However, sometimes there are reasons to delay a decision beyond May 1. In my experience, the colleges and counselors are not at all sympathetic to most of these reasons and will not grant extensions if you bring up the issue. I have seen this. I know about a half dozen kids who were burned because they made a decision by the deadline and some events occurred a month or so afterwards that made the choice a bad one. And they knew this could be the case, brought up the issues to the appropriate folks, and were told, “them’s the breaks”. If they had simply sent in two deposits, and waited out the situation, they would have been much, much better served. There are a number of situations where this can occur, and I would not hesitate to tell such kids to send in multiple deposits because there is a definite chance that bringing up the issue will not result in counselors and admissions offices being supportive.</p>
<p>Some colleges have not separated their housing deposits from their admissions response and deposit. In fact, a number of schools assign housing in the order the acceptance commitments and deposits are received. You risk having your kid live in the least desirable situations, tripling or in a hotel or in barracks by not sending in the deposit early. Not just by May 1, but ASAP. I’ve been burned twice with this. Both times my kids ended up living over a mile from campus with irregular shuttles in an area where the winters are brutal. In both cases, the housing deposits were intermingled with the acceptance deposits. In addition, in one case, my freshman did not get a room assignment at all until a week or so before school started because so many kids send in deposits that do not show up. As the summer procedes, some of those kids become part of the summer melt and let the college know they are not coming in return to some portion of the deposit returned. Others simply do not show up in September. Those numbers are built into the yields that the colleges project. The housing officer was able to tell me that they were reasonably certain that my son would get a room before the end of the summer. They knew there were phantom deposits in the bunch and a pretty good idea about how many there were.</p>
<p>I think it is up to the colleges to monitor this situation. You can find your kid at disadvantage by following their rules. If colleges really felt this was important, they could increase the deposit tremedously with no refunds, require students to sign a commitment to the schools, send around an accepted student list to other schools with the same problems. Some schools have already implemented the first two scenarios. Most state schools will tell you they don’t care if you send in multiple deposits, and in fact, you had better if you want decent housing.</p>
<p>To me, as long as you did not apply under a binding ED rule, May 1 is a very reasonable decision day. </p>
<p>Every college has different rules about what you need to do to secure yourself a dorm room. As long as by May 1 you are down to one school, I really don’t see a problem with it. </p>
<p>If you are waffling between two earlier and you want to save yourself dorm room space at both so you tell both you are coming in order to buy yourself time til the May 1 decision date, in my mind, it is okay. If in February you want to save yourself a dorm room at a rolling admissions state school until you hear your admission and financial aid info from a private school in April, again, I really feel that it is okay. (You might lose your deposit money.) I think it is only fair to kids who might be on a waitlist that you should choose a school by May 1.</p>
<p>I am talking about putting down multiple deposits beyond the May 1 deadline.</p>
<p>What do people recommend where child is on wait list on May 1? Waiting for the drill down? I would hope everyone would say go ahead and put down a deposit somewhere.</p>
<p>Wait list is one exception to the rule. Any counselor would tell you to go on ahead and put down a deposit to your best choice among those schools that have outright accepted you. All colleges would say the same. Absolutely go ahead and put down a deposit somewhere. It would be foolhardy not to do so. Everyone will understand if you have to renege on that commitment upon clearing a waitlist. Not that you will necessarily get your deposit money back. But the waitlist is one situation that all are in agreement that a student should go ahead and make the commitment with the intention of breaking it upon acceptance of another school.</p>
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<p>Ah yes, here’s where the rubber meets the road. DD and a classmate each applied to the same small selective LAC on opposite coast. DD accepted, classmate deferred. DD was strongly leaning toward a different school. She handed her “No thanks” card to the GC in mid-April, and with it the GC was then able to get classmate off the Deferred list. (She also sent a letter to the college in support of the classmate.) Happy ending for all. And frankly it wouldn’t have happened if DD sent in deposit to hold the spot “just in case” she changed her mind about where she wanted to attend college. </p>
<p>It’s just one more anecdote I know. And I do understand the temptation to send in an extra deposit when the situation is truly muddled (you know, like the preferred school is expensive and Dad’s job looks shakey).</p>
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<p>Absolutely put a deposit down! It would be irresponsible not to, even if the deferring school suggested that a status change from Deferred to Accepted was likely.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the opinions, it is good to read all the views.</p>
<p>This our oldest child. It was not this complicated when his Dad and I went thru the process. First of all it all done by snail mail. Now when colleges send acceptances they want you to establish a e-mail account, apply for more scolarships, visit the school again,meet other kids, take tests and most will not let you do that untill you give the acceptance fee.</p>
<p>I have not made more than 1 deposit. It just seems more complicated than it has to be.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing your thoughts, the counselor at our school is no help at all.</p>