<p>It might be good to bring the thread regarding schools abiding by May 1st deadline for acceptance of scholarship offers. One of the schools S has been accepted to is trying to get a written commitment before even April 1st - and we have told them several times that S will not make a choice until he has heard from all of the schools. Can someone help me do this?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>Please understand your student’s rights. Colleges cannot make you commit prior to May 1 for this very reason that the student has to hear from all their colleges in order to make a decision (and in fact, many colleges do not send out notifications until April 1). </p>
<p>The National Association of College Admissions Counseling puts out a document of Students’ Rights and Responsibilities in the College Admissions Process. PART of this document states the following:</p>
<p>***This is just an excerpt pertaining to the issues at hand</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>FURTHER:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nacacnet.org/AboutNACAC/Policies/Documents/StudentsRtsNEW.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nacacnet.org/AboutNACAC/Policies/Documents/StudentsRtsNEW.pdf</a></p>
<p>Please point out to the college that you know your rights according to the NACAC and that you have until May 1 to commit. You could request a written extension of their arbitrary deadline until May 1. </p>
<p>No student has to commit until May 1. These are the RULES. Further, imagine if you had to put a deposit down on multiple schools to hold your place and tying up that much money. In fact, that goes against the rules as students are only supposed to put a deposit down on ONE school. A school that is pressuring you to commit before May 1 is not following the rules (assumes you are not aware of them as a consumer) and is encouraging multiple deposits which are also against the rules. Show them you know the rules…cite them…get your request in writing of an extension of a reply date. </p>
<p>This topic has been covered before on the MT Forum, in particularly in threads concerning Point Park. </p>
<p>On a personal front, I recall one BFA program calling my D after she got her acceptance (was this same time in her year in fact) pressuring her to accept their scholarship…not really saying she had to send in her intent to enroll, but duh, if you accept the scholarship, that would only be if you intend to enroll. They lead unknowing consumers to think that if they don’t take the scholarship, they will lose it. NOT SO. We told them we have to hear from all her schools after April 1 and then would let them know. That is what we did and in fact, she did not matriculate at that school (preferred another), but ironically, I gotta say, they had the lowest scholarship of 7 BFA scholarships that came. </p>
<p>Please know your rights.</p>
<p>SoozieVT, I am trying to send you a PM but it’s getting rejected. Any chance you can clear a wee bit of space so I can PM you? :)</p>
<p>lesmizmom,
If you want to get a message to soozievt, you need to send her an email rather than a PM.</p>
<p>Thank you momof3. I am still relatively new to posting and did not realize I could send an email. 
I appreciate the tip.</p>
<p>soozie, taking this premise </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>what happens if one fails to request the extension? Given my interpretation, I’m assuming the original offer still holds even if an extension was not requested, provided the May 1 date is met. ED offers excluded, I’m speaking RD here.</p>
<p>While that is the officially statement from NCAC, I truly believe you don’t need to request an extension. Your rights are that you don’t have to commit to attend, nor give a deposit prior to May 1 for RD applicants. They cannot give your spot or scholarship away until after May 1. </p>
<p>Schools may pressure you to commit to their program sooner as it is in their best interests, not yours. They want to find out who may be coming or not so that they can make offers to those next in line before those kids commit some place else. But you have the right to have all your cards on the table, all your financial aid packages, etc. before committing. May 1 is the National Reply Date. So, even if they pressure you to commit sooner, you don’t HAVE to. These schools should not pressure you to commit or give a deposit this soon as they are encouraging multiple deposits to hold spots which is also against the rules. Students should only commit to ONE school.</p>
<p>PS…when I wrote that a school called my D up in March (it was the BFA program itself) and asked if she was taking the scholarship or not, we simply said she would not be able to answer until she heard from all her schools. We did not make any request in writing. We simply knew our rights and they did not argue with us (they know the rules too but doesn’t mean they aren’t gonna try this with those who don’t get the rules and worry that their scholarship or spot will be taken away…it won’t…not before May 1…only AFTER).</p>
<p>soozie, thanks. </p>
<p>(Mine are already out, but I just wanted the clarification.)</p>
<p>Corrections to my post #7 (I did not proof it as I am multi-tasking with something else that was pressing)…sorry…</p>
<p>That should have read:</p>
<p>“While that is the OFFICIAL (not officially) statement from the NACAC (not NCAC)”</p>
<p>Soozievt- thanks so much for your posts on this topic. We were very worried about this and you have helped ease our minds. As a transfer student, my D has already been accepted into 1 of her 2 top choices. The 2nd of the top 2 choices won’t notify her until mid to late April. We were not sure how long we could hold the 1st one off while she waits for word from the 2nd. The first is really pursuing her and being very generous so we thought she might have to make a choice before getting all of her results. I am so happy to find out that she is not obligated to make a committment until May 1. Several people had told us to go ahead and send in a deposit to the 1st campus and then request a refund if the 2nd one came thru. I did not feel at all comfortable doing that and now I find out that it is not only unethical, it is not allowed. Thanks so much for your info!</p>
<p>Soozie, does the NACAC have any actual enforcement or sanctioning authority? Just like ED is not actually legally enforceable against a student, I wonder whether the May 1 response date is enforceable against a school?</p>
<p>I don’t have the complete definitive answer, Michael, but if you go to the NACAC site, you can read their policy documents. For example, they have a Statement of Principles of Good Practice. They explain that member colleges and universities support this policy statement. If you read the statement, it outlines practices that all colleges agree to abide by, for example. All sorts of things are included such as financial aid practices, recruitment practices, Early Decision and Early Action plans, and so on. The membership includes post secondary institutions and so the policies outline things that they all agree to do. </p>
<p>The document, Students’ Rights and Responsibilities, which I linked to in my earlier post and quoted just an excerpt from it that was relevant to the topic on this thread, is an outgrowth of NACAC’s Statement of Principles of Good Practice. It outlines for students their specific rights based on the policies of good practice that all members (including all colleges and universities) have agreed to. </p>
<p>Also, right on the document, it says:
</p>
<p>It seems to me, and if you look at a paragraph I quoted in an earlier post, that the NACAC says if you having difficulty with a college around these “rights”, to contact the NACAC and that alludes to me that they would intervene since the member colleges have agreed to these principles of good practice that all colleges are supposed to follow. </p>
<p>I just looked up in the Statement of Principles of Good Practice that ALL POSTSECONDARY MEMBERS (those are the colleges) agree that they will:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So, colleges have signed onto these agreements that all will follow. I think you would have a case if they don’t abide by these agreements of good practice. I am not a lawyer, however!</p>
<p>Soozie, I wasn’t thinking so much in terms of a private right of action a student may have. As a parent I wouldn’t have much interest in suing a school for violating these provisions, kind of like if this is how they treat you while they are “courting” you, how are they going to treat you once you are “married” and instead would probably just write the school off in favor of others. Also, from a legal perspective there are probably a load of practical issues, let alone technical legal ones, impacting on the viability of a private suit.</p>
<p>Not being familiar with NACAC, I was curious about what kind of effective sanctioning authority they have over their members. I guess they could suspend or expel an offending member institution but I don’t know enough to understand if that would be a meaningful enough sanction for a school so that the threat would coerce compliance. What role does NACAC play in the structure of post secondary school education in the U.S.?</p>
<p>I don’t honestly know the answer to that. I infer that if a student were having an issue over one of these policies, perhaps the NACAC might assist them with it or intervene, not sure. </p>
<p>But I think some of these schools are abiding by the rule but skirting it in other ways. For instance, they may WANT you to commit early (before May 1) and ask you to because they want to get their yield and want to go to their wait list early before other schools snag those kids and so on. It is to their advantage. Thus they may TRY to get you to send a confirmation (notice to skirt the rule, they let you know that you can back out or get your deposit back before May 1) or they may ask you (like happened to my D) if you are going to take the scholarship, rather than ask you if you are going to enroll, but of course one would only take the scholarship if they were gonna enroll. What they don’t admit clearly is that you don’t have to commit yet but that is not going to stop them from trying. And look on CC every year, we get fearful parents and students who BELIEVE they must put down a deposit or accept a scholarship this early for fear they may lose their spot in the class or their aid. So, this strategy may be working for a few schools who try it. They are not breaking the rules as they are not forcing you to do it but they are strongly suggesting it to unsuspecting families who infer that they MUST do it to hold a spot or to hold a scholarship. Another thing is that some schools also tell the admitted student that they can get their deposit back before May 1, which allows the college to follow the May 1 rule, but it really is not appropriate for them to suggest this as they are encouraging students to deposit at more than one school which students are not supposed to do. So, you see, they know the rules and in the end, don’t hold anyone to anything before the May 1, the National Reply Date. But they try to skirt it in ways and know that not all students know their rights. They may get away with these tactics as they are not truly forcing anyone to commit early and do not take your spot away before May 1. But unsuspecting families may think they have to do these things. That is my observation.</p>
<p>I know exactly what you mean. I remember when my daughter got an acceptance early in the year, the letter intimated, without ever actually stating, that my daughter needed to get her deposit in upon receipt of the letter. This, of course, was not actually the case and we had until May 1. But the language of the letter was confusing at best and misleading at worst.</p>
<p>I think your comments are on the mark about how to handle explicit or direct pressure to commit a deposit early. I suspect a school would not want to risk poor publicity or tarnish its image in the educational community by intentionally and knowingly insisting that a student waive the “rights” articulated under NACAC’s policy statements. In the final analysis, it’s really not worth it to the school since RD students generally are going to wait anyway until all their decisions are in before making a final election (unless, of course, a student gets an EA or “early” RD acceptance to their dream school). The pressure tactics, I suspect, don’t meaningfully impact on yield, so from a “cost/benefit” analysis, it’s probably not worth it to the school to outright violate the policies.</p>