<p>Will paying the deposit affect (increase/decrease) your chances of receiving merit OR need based aid at all? </p>
<p>If I pay the deposit, is it refundable if you tell them before May 1st? U of M is my top choice by far and I want to pay the deposit, but there is a small chance I won't be able to attend if I get sucky aid.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>You won’t get a refund. Once paid, the security deposite is non-refundable. This said, I recommend paying the security deposite ASAP.</p>
<p>What benefits would you get from paying the security deposit ASAP?</p>
<p>Thanks Alexandre, but why do you recommend paying it ASAP? If it’s non refundable and there are no other benefits, I’d rather wait to be 100% sure I can attend before paying.</p>
<p>That’s what I was thinking.</p>
<p>^ same here</p>
<p>Yeah me to…Especially because if I do not go to Michigan my backup school has a 7 year program im interested in…and that requires a $150 deposit that IS refundable, and the spots are filling up quick…</p>
<p>Im really interested in Mich, but if making a deposit now does not help me in any way I might as well go ahead and deposit at the other school…to hold my spot until I find out my aid from Michigan…</p>
<p>Im curious if the deposit will help chances at merit aid, otherwise ill hold off</p>
<p>^ Yup, yup, I’m wondering the same thing</p>
<p>deposit will definitely not help with merit aid lol. anyway just take your time, and decide wisely. Yall still got about 4 months to decide.</p>
<p>^ Kk, but will it help with financial aid at all, or no? I would think not, but I just want to make sure.</p>
<p>There are benefits to paying the security deposit early, such as earlier orientation and class registration and better dorm options. I am not sure about that of course, you may want to ask around, but back in my day, that was definitely the case.</p>
<p>I can assure you that isn’t the case.</p>
<p>Paid my deposit in early march and got first orientation</p>
<p>Alexandre, that is exactly what I was worried about, and I’m hoping flapm_08 is right. Colleges sometimes pay lip service to allowing applicants until May 1st to accept their offers, but if waiting to find out what the financial aid package is causes you to lose out on the earliest registration dates and/or housing choices, then you really are put in a bind. You could, of course, accept and then lose part or all of your deposits if you decide to withdraw before matriculating, but putting applicants in that spot seems a bit predatory on the part of these pristine institutions of higher learning. I’m not saying Michigan does this, but certain things come out for online registration (for housing, registration etc) prior to the May 1st deadline at many universities. If that registration is first-come-first-serve, then that presents a problem for those who truly want to wait to evaluate the financial aid offers before accepting.</p>
<p>I’m wtih Flapm on this one. We did pay early to hold a scholarship and I still feel the benefits were very negligible. First off, you really don’t have much control over housing as it is lottery. With orientation, you may wish to take the early offerings, but believe you can still do so in March if you sign up as soon as you are able. If you can get your FAFSA in like, right now or by end of month, you will likely hear about your package earlier, eg. Mar. 15th, and have ample time to register.
While it’s true that classes fill up, this will be an issue for eight more semesters as well and is a fact of life. Making a rash financial decision that could have consequences in the neighborhood of six figures for an OOS student seems to me far weightier than the illusion of control over housing or an arbitrary orientation date (and they dole out spots in classes, btw, so a class can “fill up” in the June orientation).</p>
<p>That said, $200 is a small “cost” in optimizing the experience. But the deposit means, in terms of integrity, you are committing to the school, and one should not cause duplicate matriculations.
Just my .02</p>
<p>One additional thought as a parent…Paying the deposit is symbolic of agreeing to send your child to this school. If it were possible that a less than ideal financial aid package could CHANGE that decision, psychologically it is probably better for the student not to be wholly operating as a matriculating student – meaning their mindset is appropriately open to a final determination. You do not want a young person highly emotionally invested in an option that might evaporate due to circumstances beyond their control. Paying the deposit is or should be an emotional investment in Michigan.</p>
<p>With my s., when we agreed to pay the deposit it was because after a discussion with my son, he agreed that even if the package did not meet our expectations, even if our set amount of contribution was lacking, he would personally find a way to meet the costs (even if it meant picking up a PLUS loan that has to originate in our name.) That’s fine and well for an instate student with a substantial scholarship, because the consequences for him were not as fiscally significant.
Hope these considerations assist you.
Cheers, K</p>
<p>Unfortunately, documents needed to fill out your 2010 taxes trickle in starting near the end of January. I’m going to be calling around to try to get either the information on the particular document, or the document itself. I’ve found bureaucrats at banks etc. to be less than sypathetic towards your need to fill out financial aid forms for colleges.</p>