<p>We are not at the point where this is appropriate action on D's part , but we are remarkably close. My gut tells me that once she has ruled out school X that we should wait a bit , see if that decision sticks and then release that cash to benefit another worthy kid. D has been fortunate enough to secure several large merit awards already and I'd be sick if she caused another student to lose out on an opportunity to attend the collge of her choice. Just because my kid didn't send a letter as soon as pract}]}declining acceptance and scholarship.</p>
<p>Just wondering what the thoughts of this august body were on this pressing issue of "the day after tommorow".</p>
<p>Once the decision is "sure", you should have your d. send a letter. For one thing, the act of doing so will help cement in her mind where she is going, and why. It will allow her to shoulder final responsibility for her decision, and is defense against "buyer's remorse". </p>
<p>I would worry less about what happens on the other end. Chips fall where they may, and schools already figure on a certain attrition rate among those to whom scholarships are offered.</p>
<p>In my S's case, we discovered that the large merit offer he got from Umich wasn't going to anyone else: they offer more than they know from past years' experience will be accepted, and they don't re-offer them. I don't know if that's how it's done at other schools, but it may well be.</p>
<p>My understanding is that colleges offer more students merit aid than is in the colleges' budgets. This is from a thread that came up earlier this school year. As a result, I don't think that it matters when students turn down their merit offers. If your D is sure that she would not accept a certain offer, graciously turning it down early might ensure that she won't have to field calls from the college urging her to come.</p>
<p>I do not view either the colleges or the students as "gaming" the system. The colleges use merit money to attract the strongest students that they can. The students submit applications to colleges in order to assure themselves the best educational and financial offers that they can get.</p>
<p>...on the other hand...
My s. turned down several "general" scholarships, fully believing in March that he was going to school "A", which offered him full tuition. (in which case the general scholarships could not be used). He felt the next student in line deserved a chance. At the last minute he chose school "C". Those scholarships would have come in VERY handy!
MAKE SURE the school is off your D's list first.</p>
<p>In most cases schools do not re-award scholarship money in the same year. They use attrition and acceptance figures from past years in determining the total offered in any given year. They know that 100% of money offered will not be accepted. They base the total sum offered on past actuarial statistics, with an acceptable percentage margin of error. In the case of over or under estimation of the acceptance figures, the difference is usually accounted for and adjusted in determining offers for the following year. Although the above seems to be the scenario for most schools, I am sure there are exceptions.</p>
<p>I find the whole process to be a bit of a boggle. Some of the numbers are so small as to seemingly make concepts such as margin of error inappropriate for use. Right now my D is on a scholarship weekend. There are, lets say 100 kids attending. They say that 40 scholarships are awarded to entering students. Their data as reported reflects that @ percentage of students actually attending the college as receiving merit aid. This is the only scholarship the school offers. If what y'all are saying is true then they would have to "offer" every student attending the weekend the scholarship to yield 40 kids. Hurray if that's the case but ....</p>
<p>Or a situation where there are 3 top awards given to students of full rides (Tuition and Fees, Room and Board) and 10 full tuition awards. The schools then lists each year the recipients of the highest award on the website with their profiles. When you are dealing with that , there have to be some years when nobody accepts the offer. I just can't imagine them not selecting somebody else as an alternate to keep from the embarassment of having zero "Flinstone Scholars" one year. </p>
<p>And thirdly, my daughter has applied to one of the most difficult programs imaginable to attend. 1-2% acceptance rate and they specifically state that they take 10 kids each year and then there are alternates. I guess they don't feel that confident about historical actuarial tables resulting in the perfect "10". </p>
<p>I guess when it starts to shake out more clearly , maybe we need to snoop around a little about each scholarship.</p>
<p>My previous post reflects past experience along with conversations with admissions people. As I stated, I am sure it is not universal and there are probably multiple exceptions. In many cases the scholarship description reads "up to __ scholarships". At times this number can be divided between partial and full scholarships. In the case of your example, I would imagine that the number of students invited for the weekend and the number of offers made is based on past yields. My understanding is that although there is variance from year to year, it is usually not dramatic and is adjusted for in subsequent years.</p>
<p>In the case where a school specifies an absolute number and indicates that altenatives are chosen, the answer is self evident. I would also imagine the same could be true when an absolute number is specified. My experience with Scholarship weekends is that most, although not all, attendees are offered some kind of scholarship.</p>
<p>Best of luck to your daughter and I am sure she will enjoy multiple Scholarship weekends.</p>
<p>Curmy: it is very thoughtful of you to be thinking of other kids. that kind of thoughtfulness is not always found. At my kids private grade school, there was often a "waiting list" and I was always disgusted with parents who knew that their child wouldn't be returning but didn't notify the school until the last minute -- this hurt people on the waiting list because with such late notice many had enrolled their kids at another inferior private school. Since uniforms are required at both schools and had been ordered by the time the waiting list parents were notified of space availability often times they had to sadly decline the recently opened space. Some people only think of themselves.</p>
<p>I agree that it's most thoughtful to decline a scholarship or admittance as soon as the student has made a definite choice. I felt bad about this last year, but when we were down to the last 3 or 4 schools, the decision literally came down to the day decisions were due. One of these involved a prestigious, full-tuition scholarship. I know it may have seemed like we were just dilly-dallying, but the decision was just very difficult to make.</p>
<p>I really had no idea that the merit money is not re-awarded to another student if turned down. As soon as my D was admitted to her EA school, she knew she would not attend U Mich with the merit money she received there. I made her sit right down and send them a letter telling them she wouldn't attend, because I thought the $$ would go to other kids.</p>
<p>QG: I can't find it on the website, so it may have been a phone call, but somehow, we knew that about 80 offers had been made for the 50 Dean's Scholarships at UM. (S was awarded a 15,000 one, and was nominated for some other things we didn't follow through on). We did contact in a hurry, since we knew in December he wouldn't be going there, so maybe they told us then.</p>
<p>I also would like to know when it is appropriate to notify schools my D won't be attending. As of now I have several schools that highly unlikely she will end up going.
Couple of schools are her safeties and couple are good schools that just did not stand up test of time. Do we wait until we receive all aid offers and compare them even if those schools are low on her list or just concentrate on top 4 and let other schools go now? We do need to compare offers.</p>
<p>If colleges get their replies in good order, they will be able to start pulling kids in off waitlist limbo sooner. My son sent his regrets out a day or two after the deposit check to his university went out. One of his schools sent a letter that basically said that if something when wrong, they still wanted he, and would honor the scholarship, which was pretty neat.</p>
<p>We notified most schools at the end of April, but among those that had offered merit aid, we notified them right away if my son determined they were not in his top 3 or 4.</p>