Ds has applied to 8 schools and has most of the suplemental stuff (transcripts, scholarship apps, letters of rec, etc.) submitted. So now he is just waiting.
I believe most of the schools he has applied to have rolling admissions.
So over the next few months, he’ll receive accept/reject letters, right? Will accept letters contain info about merit awards? If not, when/how does he receive that info? When will he know exactly how much he is supposed to pay?
Also, I saw it mentioned that you put housing deposits down right away so you can get a good dorm. What does he needto do if he’s waiting on financial info in order to decide where to go? Do you put housing deposits at multiple schools?
Just confused about the process now that applications are mostly done.
It varies a lot. You could check last year’s posts out here for when info came in. The deposit process also varies. Some schools require an enrollment deposit before you can put in a housing deposit, and it isn’t always all refundable. I’d build a spreadsheet where you can track details for each college.
Have you checked the financial aid page to see what they want and when? That is another key step.
I have not looked at anything for financial aid other than the school scholarships he applied for. Do I need to look at a financial aid page on the school’s website or in the applicant portal?
Even if the admissions is rolling, the FA is probably not. One of my kids was accepted in October but didn’t get the FA stuff until late February, and even then it was incomplete (and the merit aid was wrong). That was in the days when FAFSA wasn’t available until Jan and you couldn’t use the IRS tool until Feb, so it may be a little earlier now.
There may be a few schools where getting a housing deposit in early matters, but we found it wasn’t a big deal. Mine each got a bed to sleep in and they seemed like every other bed in a dorm room. I’m too cheap to put in multiple deposits that could be lost if you didn’t go to there.
You seem to know that you will not qualify for need based aid. Is that correct? If not you need to run each school’s NPC.
Ds applied to one private school, and that’s the only one where he’ll get need based aid. I ran the NPC on that one.
The other schools are public schools where he should get automatic merit and/or (hopefully) competitive merit. I just don’t understand the process and timeline for finding out how much (if any) he will get.
It varies. Each school is different. Some will notify about merit aid with the acceptance letter. Some will notify a few weeks later. Some later than that. Even then, you won’t know the full price you’ll have to pay because the 2019-2020 cost of attendance might not be announced until June, and it will definitely go up, as it does every year.
Your best bet is to call or email each school to ask about their timelines.