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At what point do you have to make a commitment to a college (that has accepted you)?


Lynn in Caribbean
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My dd is looking at one college that gives her "significant student status" when applying - meaning she does not have to pay the app fee, and also that they will give her an answer in 2 weeks.  And there is another college that has rolling admission...

 

If we apply to these now, she will get acceptance (or not) fairly soon.  If she is accepted at a college with rolling admission this fall, and applies to another one that she does not hear back from till late March/early April, how does the timing all work out?  

 

If a college accepts you, will they "hold" your admission till April or so, when you have heard from the other ones?  When do you find out about scholarships?  That will definitely be a factor in her decision.  If she is accepted at her first choice with no scholarship, then gets a nice scholarship at her second choice, well...

 

Just wondering how the timing all works out.  Will all the colleges wait till April for a commitment, so you can get all your options in, then make a choice?

 

How did the timing work out for you?

 

Thanks!!

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The deadline for informing the college of choice of your intent to register is the 1st of May - or  is it the 30th of April?   Either way I don't think I'd want to cut it that close.  lol  But that gives plenty of time to evaluate the different options and offers.  An exception to this is if the student applies early decision.  A student only applies early decision if they have decided that that one college is the one they absolutely want to attend.  If accepted, they must withdraw all other applications.  Early decisions offers of acceptance usually come out before financial aid offers, so that should be taken into consideration.  (Early acceptance is different in that you can still apply to other colleges and don't need to withdraw applications if accepted.  Others have SCEA which means single choice early admission and you may not apply early acceptance to other colleges.)  For admissions other than early decision, you should have the financial aid offers before the May 1 deadline.  There may be exceptions to this, but dd had all of hers well before the deadline, usually arriving with the acceptance, or shortly thereafter.

 

Applying to rolling admissions colleges your student is interested in is a great idea as it gives them early acceptances.   I think there are lists of colleges which offer this, but don't know as we didn't do this.  I just googled, and there are lots of lists.  The one from Petersons's is probably comprehensive.  Another thing to keep in mind is that for some honors programs, or school specific scholarships, or best financial aid, it's necessary to apply early.  Be sure to check out all the application deadlines for the colleges and for specific programs.

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Another thing to keep in mind is that housing is usually filled on a "first come, first served" basis. This means the earlier you accept the offer, the earlier you can register for housing, which makes it more likely that the student would get their first or second housing choice.

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I agree with everything Teachin'Mine said.  There's no problem or conflict at all and rolling admission schools can make great safeties (or end up as a first choice).

 

Sometimes these schools will highly encourage you to put down a deposit and commit early.  Hold out on that one, UNLESS they tell you your deposit is refundable if you change your mind.  You do not NEED to put a true deposit down until May 1st.

 

Some schools want a housing deposit for "first in line" housing.  Those are generally ok to send deposits in as they have no bearing on whether you really attend the school or not and are refundable.  Just read the small print before sending anything.

 

Some scholarship offers have earlier deadlines for commitment.  They aren't supposed to, but it happens.  Such is life as they don't seem to be changeable.

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I agree with everything said so far; it jives with our experience.  With that in mind, though, it is never a bad idea to call the college and ask.  Every school does things differently, and I have found that admission office staff are very helpful. It is their job to answer these questions; don't hesitate to contact them.

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We are a little nervous about this as well. Ds had a really good check up with his ortho surgeon and it seems that we may be able to add some "away" schools that accept our health insurance to his list instead of keeping it only to commuter schools. But, and big caveat, we won't know until April if he will be able to go away or not. He needs to be able to hold off as long as he can on that final decision to allow as much healing and physical therapy as possible. We are still limited in campus size given duration limits. Ole Michigan State and U of MI Ann Arbor are still out (he has already been assured he can attend the Flint campus and transfer his Sophomore year to Ann Arbor). This has kind of turned our college search and application process upside down. With DD, she made her final decision around March 15th since she already had her scholarship award letters, and was pretty close to accepting by March 1st. However, we need to go as close to April 30th as we can go for ds. This is making me feel pretty tense.

 

We are working on Apps now, and as soon as his other letter of recommendation has arrived, we'll be able to submit.

 

 

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We have had a few schools offering significant merit aid that required earlier notification in order to receive the merit aid.

 

One college wanted to hear by January -- ds told them to jump in a lake! (And the merit aid wasn't that generous --- we never could figure that one out!)

 

Another college wanted to hear by April 7 so it could offer the merit aid to someone else if the student wasn't going to accept it. Since it was a full-ride, that made some sense, and ds had at least heard from all of the other colleges by then.

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We are a little nervous about this as well. Ds had a really good check up with his ortho surgeon and it seems that we may be able to add some "away" schools that accept our health insurance to his list instead of keeping it only to commuter schools. But, and big caveat, we won't know until April if he will be able to go away or not. He needs to be able to hold off as long as he can on that final decision to allow as much healing and physical therapy as possible. We are still limited in campus size given duration limits. Ole Michigan State and U of MI Ann Arbor are still out (he has already been assured he can attend the Flint campus and transfer his Sophomore year to Ann Arbor). This has kind of turned our college search and application process upside down. With DD, she made her final decision around March 15th since she already had her scholarship award letters, and was pretty close to accepting by March 1st. However, we need to go as close to April 30th as we can go for ds. This is making me feel pretty tense.

 

We are working on Apps now, and as soon as his other letter of recommendation has arrived, we'll be able to submit.

 

Faith,

 

Given the circumstance your son is in, would schools entertain a spring semester entry instead of fall? 

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I think it's May 1.  At some schools, you get your housing choice depending on when you pay your deposit (and sometimes it has to be specifically a housing deposit).  My daughter applied at 5 colleges and was accepted at all of them.  Two of them were her top choices, so we decided to pay the deposits on those right away (knowing it would affect her housing choice).  Both colleges also had the policy that you would get your deposit BACK if you backed out before May 1, so we felt comfortable doing it this way.  Not all schools will give you your deposit back.

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Here's a good little article from the College Board site about the differences between early decision and early action, and the pros and cons of each.

This article is a little misleading.  What they are calling Early Action is really a weird hybrid called Single Choice Early Action, which is much more limiting (and much less common) than plain old vanilla Early Action.  For regular Early Action, you can apply to as many schols as you want, you don't have to be sure of your top choice, and there is no downside (other than having to get your apps in early.)  There is no commitment.  But, it can be helpful for schools offering merit aid because that pool dries up faster.  If you don't get accepted EA to most of these schools, you are often put into the regular decision pool.

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We are a little nervous about this as well. Ds had a really good check up with his ortho surgeon and it seems that we may be able to add some "away" schools that accept our health insurance to his list instead of keeping it only to commuter schools. But, and big caveat, we won't know until April if he will be able to go away or not. He needs to be able to hold off as long as he can on that final decision to allow as much healing and physical therapy as possible. We are still limited in campus size given duration limits. Ole Michigan State and U of MI Ann Arbor are still out (he has already been assured he can attend the Flint campus and transfer his Sophomore year to Ann Arbor). This has kind of turned our college search and application process upside down. With DD, she made her final decision around March 15th since she already had her scholarship award letters, and was pretty close to accepting by March 1st. However, we need to go as close to April 30th as we can go for ds. This is making me feel pretty tense.

 

We are working on Apps now, and as soon as his other letter of recommendation has arrived, we'll be able to submit.

 

REALLY glad to hear your son had a good check up!

 

He can still apply this year, and if his health isn't quite where y'all want it to be, ask for a gap year at his top choice.  I seriously doubt it will be denied.  Quite a few kids opt for a gap year for various reasons (travel, various experiences, health).  He would not be out of line at all and he'd have that acceptance in hand.

 

Spring entrance is another option, but if he's looking for a 4 year "experience" he'll really want to enter in the fall when the vast majority of freshmen come.

 

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Yes Creekland, his writing and journalism program has a very strict four year plan and if he entered in the spring, the classes he needed would not even be offered again until autumn of the following year. A gap year would be better. However, one of the schools told me that his scholarship money would be zero for taking a gap year.

 

The reality is that his two safeties close to his medical team are really very strong in his major. It wouldn't be the end of the world if he landed at one of them. I just wish, for his sake, he is able to go away to school. .

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However, one of the schools told me that his scholarship money would be zero for taking a gap year.

 

Bummer!  FWIW, that's an unusual stance for a college to take from what I've seen, but we all knows schools can be different in what they choose to do.  This just proves it (unfortunately).

 

I'll be praying that something "perfect" works out fit-wise whether near or far.

 

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