<p>Colleges in general, not just Purdue indicate that you have until May 1st to make your decision to accept their offer of admittance. However, certain colleges use a lot of what some people might call incentives, and others night call coersion to accept the offer early. As a new admit, you need to be able to apply to housing, arrange for summer registration, and take any placement tests that might be required. In many cases, if you wait until april to make a final decison in order to see whether that MIT admit comes through, or wait for financial aid to issue an awards summary to arrive at a bottom line cost of attendance, you miss out on your first choice housing, earlier registration dates etc.</p>
<p>Does Purdue reward those who accept early, or do they give every new admit a fair shot by truly not penalizing them for waiting to explore all options and see what their aid will be?</p>
<p>I believe somebody posted on another thread that there is a lottery for housing as long as you accept the offer by the deadline. That leads me to believe that they don’t seem to pressure you into accepting early. I, for one, won’t be accepting until I can compare costs with other colleges.</p>
<p>Correct Tmac, I spoke with a counselor today, she explicitly said there is absolutely no advantage if you accept tonight or wait until april 30. For your own sake I would call just to be 100 percent sure and please report back, however I bet you get the same answer.</p>
<p>That is exactly what im doing Tmac, since there is no advantage im waiting until april. There are some cost cutting options im exploring, and if they work out I should be at purdue next fall.</p>
<p>We’re not accepting anywhere yet, either. Going to do a big pro/con comparison of all schools my son has been accepted to over the holidays. I know that there are 2 that we can pretty much rule out, but not going to make any final decisions until we’ve seen it all in black and white. And we still need to visit some schools.</p>
<p>That’s good to hear about housing TMac. I think I’ll call and ask about the registration for the STAR dates. Obviously, I’d like to wait until I’ve got all the offers of financial aid in front of me, so that I can arrive at a bottom line. The question is what I’m giving up by doing so.</p>
<p>TMac is right with the lottery system for housing. Housing is really the only important thing after you accept your admissions and since it’s not first come, first serve it doesn’t really matter. Just take your time and wait for other acceptances along with the financial aid packages that every school sends to you. The only thing that you lose if you don’t accept the acceptance early is you getting pumped for college since you already know where your going to.</p>
<p>I think the STAR dates are the issue though Jim. You want an earlier one as an entering freshman, be cause registration occurs at STAR and available spots at prime times begin to dwindle.</p>