<p>Some students have reported receiving letters from their rolling admissions and Early action schools offering a merit scholarship with a caveat saying that they must accept the scholarship and send in their agreement to attend that school, before the May 1 Candidate's Reply Date.</p>
<p>Please keep in mind that accepted students are under no obligation to reply to ANY school before May 1. If schools offer you a scholarship that is contingent on agreeing to attend before that date, you have, under NACAC regulations the right to request in writing an extension of the scholarship offer to that date.
You can cite National Association of College Admissions Counselor (NACAC )rules when doing this and give the following link as evidence:</p>
<p>Again, Colleges that request commitments for admission offers or financial offers prior to May 1 MUST offer candidates the opportunity to request (in writing) the opportunity to postpone their decision until May 1, even if they say initially that the offer is only good if attendance is accepted before then. If any school balks at granting this request, report them to the NACAC. </p>
<p>this is really a different topic, but on the same website they have a sortable (by state) list of all the colleges and their ED/EA (or both) admissions plans.</p>
<p>That brings back memories of a colleague who used to hand out a copy of the student's rights and responsibilities and the colleges' rights and responsibilities as outlined by NACAC whenever he conducted an interview.
He was formerly in high school guidance before working in college admissions, so he made a point of letting students know their rights in the application process. I would hope that most hs guidance offices would have these materials as outlined by NACAC.</p>
<p>This message seems too important to leave at the bottom of the heap. Is this one worthy of a thumbtack at the top? Seems to me that students and families might need this info...instead of feeling like the must respond earlier than the May 1 date.</p>
<p>The NACAC is the national organization for college admissions counselors, and MOST reputable colleges and universities adhere to their standards and guidelines. It is also an excellent source for information about the admissions industry, one I use quite a bit myself for research for my website and for posts here on CC.</p>
<p>My daughter was one who almost declined merit aid, because she didn't know her rights. It was through Carolyn's detective work that we discovered that she could request an extension in writing WITH NO PENALTY and give herself time to make an informed, rather than hasty, decision.</p>
<p>Although I would like to assume her GC knows this information, I'm not taking any chances. I printed up the students' rights statement to give to her, along with an explanation of the situation we ran into. Hopefully, no other student at my daughter's school will decline a scholarship based on an artificial deadline.</p>
<p>pafather, your link works. Thanks. Maybe it's an aol thing. </p>
<p>Thanks for the heads-up, carolyn. I'd have @$#!-canned any school that tried GlennGarry-GlenRoss sales tactics on D anyway but it will be nice to have ammo. </p>
<p>Does anyone know of schools that have tried the hard-sell in the past with merit scholarships? Are you willing to share ? I'd sure like to be prepped if it is one my D's choices.</p>
<p>Thank you Carolyn. This is a very important post and I am going to stick it (what a phrase!) because not everyone realizes these rights to have until May 1 to accept such offers or not. This topic has come up often on the Musical Theater Forum and some posters have told others who have said they are being required or strongly requested to accept scholarships and/or places in BFA programs now, that no school can make them commit before May 1, the National Reply Date. I am going to copy this thread on the MT Forum because it links to the "official word", not just the knowledge of some long time posters on that forum who have tried to get this message across to others. </p>
<p>Thank you Carolyn for the sharing of your wisdom and resources with our readers.
College Mom</p>
<p>In reply to curmudgeon's request for examples:</p>
<p>In spring of 2004, DD received such an offer from Plan II at the University of Texas. We had no idea we could request a later deadline and reasonably expect them to grant it. I can't remember exactly what the deadline was, but it must have been pretty early, because it was before we expected to hear from Rice, to which DD had applied Interim Decision. We turned down the $, reasoning that (a) D was likely to get into Rice given her record, and (b) if not, she was still getting some merit $ from UT and the cost was not going to be a problem. Fortunately, Rice came through, and with their own merit $ too!</p>
<p>Curmudgeon, while I understand your point of view, at the time it did not strike me as cheesy, only inconvenient. I got the impression they had only one or two of these awards to give away, and I saw their point of view as, "We want to use this money to attract a good student; if you're not going to take it, at least let us offer it to someone else early enough to make a difference." It certainly seems no more objectionable than the whole ED quagmire></p>
<p>I didn't know there were existing standards which this behavior violated, and I think it's great that carolyn is letting people know about it now!</p>
<p>Thanks so much for this info. My daughter recently was notified by the communications school at Penn State that she had been selected for a small scholarship, but that she needed to accept by 4/1. Now we know that she can request the extra month if she needs to. Thanks again!</p>