<p>My son was recently accepted to a good OOS school. We've read on these boards that housing assignments are competitive, and that we should apply immediately. In fact, we may be too late for his first choice because he applied regular decision. We are still undecided about whether he will attend because he has also been accepted to an in-state school that is fine, just not nearly as highly regarded in his chosen field of study. We are fiscally conservative and will not qualify for financial aid. Will accepting immediately lower our chances for merit scholarships? I should mention that his HS GPA is just 3.5, it is his test scores and course load that probably got him in.</p>
<p>The schools that my son has been accepted to have either mentioned his merit award in the acceptance letters or have told him which he might be able to apply to and by which date. You should check with the school to see what their policy is. I don't mean to be discouraging. Some schools don't even award merit money, only need based.</p>
<p>We put down housing deposits at several schools before D1 made a decision. Scholarship offers came at various times and didn't seem to be affected by whether she had those deposits in. Most deposits were refunded by the schools she did not attend.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick responses! The information said merit scholarships are based on the qualifications as stated on the application (no extra applications) and will be awarded by early April. From these responses, it sounds like we should just go ahead and get the housing application in and hope for the best.</p>
<p>Pay attention to the nature of the deposit. If it is a housing deposit, it is often fully refundable if your student does not enroll. If the deposit covers enrollment and housing, the enrollment deposit portion will not be refunded.</p>
<p>Just make sure you check the dates to request housing refund; they are usually written in stone. Make sure you apply promptly for housing refund when your kid decides where he/she is going to attend.</p>
<p>I don't think accepting now will hurt the amount given in merit money if the merit money is doled out based on strict criteria such as GPA, SAT, etc. </p>
<p>For the competitive scholarships- which require essays, interviews, then I think that accepting early can hurt the chances- very often these "prestige" scholarships are a cherry picking device- if they know you are already committed to going there, they have less of a need to cherry pick you.</p>
<p>For some schools, the early bird gets the worm re merit $$. I'm not sure it's "early bird" to put down a deposit, as much as early bird wrt application date (EA applicants often doing better on merit $ than others).</p>
<p>But, if you are sending in a housing deposit, I doubt that Admissions will even know that you did so. So I don't think it will help or hurt chances of getting $$. At least at most schools, the Housing Office and Admissions Office are so separate and busy that they are not cross-referencing who's done what. (This info could be different for your school and, if so, I hope someone will post here to correct me).</p>
<p>agree w jmmom....but w/o knowing the school, hard to be 100% sure....</p>
<p>nm: it's UIC engineering.....no idea about whether your scholarship hinges on housing dep....you may want to post on that thread......</p>
<p>fwiw, if you are referring to UMich instead, I don't think a 3.5 would be eligible for much merit instate.....</p>
<p>Right, it's UIUC engineering. He went ahead and accepted today. The housing application is next, and is refundable except for a small deposit. Son is in at MSU but still waiting to hear from UM (deferred). UIUC comp sci has a much better reputation than MSU. We won't qualify for aid from either, but were hoping maybe some merit from UIUC? If not, my son will need to decide if he wants to bare some of the burden to attend the more prestigious school. If he ultimately gets in to UM, he will almost certainly attend because the programs are too comparable to justify paying OOS at UIUC, even if we are rather annoyed with UM at the moment. It's nice to feel wanted : )</p>