chrism

I remember when we went through this 2 years ago it was the housing deposit that was the main issue - there was some threat that if you didn't send money right away, if you ended up attending there would be no housing for you.

soozievt

Yes, Elon has a situation where you have to give a deposit to attend the event in April. I also find this an unusual practice. Most colleges hold an open house event for accepted students during the month of April as students are deciding amongst their list of acceptances, where they wish to attend. In other words, the events are not just for those who have committed via deposit. With both of my children, we attended accepted student events in April and none required deposits to attend and many attended who were never going to end up enrolling because that was the whole idea of it. The deposits are due May 1. It sounds like Point Park and Elon hold these events for accepted and DEPOSITED students and they even register for classes and so forth at that time. However, even for those schools, you really do not need to send a deposit now but simply in order to attend that event and then it is still refundable through May 1 I believe. I had a client get into Elon's BFA last year who wanted to attend the event but was deciding between two schools. She had to pay the deposit to attend the event (but didn't pay this far in advance) and attended but opted to attend the other university and got her deposit back. However, most schools don't have a deposit to attend an accepted student event and they use that event to show families their school in the hopes they will choose to matriculate. But no school can make you commit before May 1 unless you are applying Early Decision. Imagine if every school wanted your deposit now, and you'd be tying up thousands of dollars, let alone may not have it. The idea is to weigh all of your options in the month of April when you have all your acceptances in hand. Encouraging families to do otherwise goes against the intended process, in my view. In any case, familiarize yourselves with the students' rights as I linked you to them.

PS...while I am giving both my opinion of this practice, as well as my knowledge of the procedures, I want to reiterate that both Point Park and Elon are GREAT MT programs and I suggest both of them frequently to my advisees and in fact, many have applied or are applying to these schools.

letsfigureitout

My son received academic acceptance letters from PPU and from Otterbein, and they both asked for deposits, although PPU was much more forceful about asking, even stating a date in November by which they wanted the money. Does putting in a deposit make a difference in terms of obtaining housing at these colleges? No matter what, it is too early to write any checks! He hasn't even auditioned for the conservatory part of the programs, yet! I'm glad I noticed this discussion, or I would have become quite concerned. Thanks!

Ericsmom

We never got far enough with Point Park to know your answer on housing (and we didn't ever work out visiting or auditioning for Otterbein), but for the initial request at Point Park, we wrote a letter asking for an extension date, until after audition results were known. We were granted an extension of time for giving the deposit. Later, my son was asked to come for a Presidential scholarship interview, and by that point he had several other options and had made the decision not to go to Point Park. He actually wrote them and gave up the acceptance for MT and for academics, before the scholarship interview and I think before we ever sent any money for a deposit.

letsfigureitout

Soozievt: I e-mailed my son's admission counselor at about the deposit, and his respoonse was that "the deposit is refundable up until May 1, 2008. If he decides to attend another school all that he needs to do is e-mail me and the school will refund his money." At this point, he seems pretty clear that the money should be in by Nov. 19th. Is it correct to specifically ask for an extension? I really can't believe that many families would be able to tie up hundreds of dollars at each school for the next 5 months. Thanks!

Ericsmom

It wouldn't hurt to try asking for an extension.

soozievt

I would do as I suggested earlier and bring up the National Reply Date and a student's rights to not have to commit before then and to request to not have to notify or deposit before May 1. Point to the NACAC policy. You are entitled to request in writing for an extension until May 1.

Imagine if every school required you to hold a spot via deposit all these months. They cannot make you do that.

letsfigureitout

Today I had my son's school college counselor contact PPU. He talked to the Head of Admissions, who said that if the money were not sent, PPU would simply keep exending the deadline cited in correspondence to us, up until May 1st. They no doubt will keep sending letters. He did not get the impression from the conversation that we had to do ANYTHING, such as write to request an extension. As you have said, a college cannot require a student to commit in any way until May 1st.

kimoki

Just an update from me too.

I called my D's counselor directly last week and left a message and I also sent an email to the admissions department. I never heard from anyone. So just this morning I sent another email and voice mail to the counselor quoting the NCAC rights and responsibilities and requesting that they get back to me with a response. When and if I hear from them I will let you know.

kimoki

soozievt

letsfigureitout....exactly....they can't make you commit or give a deposit until May 1 and your child would not lose his/her slot which cannot be given to someone else. I'm not saying you have to put a request in writing but just be clear with the school that you can do this. You can. If they didn't let you, I'd not be too keen about that myself. Again, if every school required a deposit in advance of May 1, imagine all the money you'd have tied up!!! (that's even if you even had the money to tie up in the first place....I dont think a lot of us would.

kimoki

Deposits

I got an email back from the counselor at PP about the deposit. Here it is...

"There is no problem with sending in her deposit later. We understand the situation and a lot of our students do that. We have that on our letters due to the fact that some of the majors will fill up faster than others and we want the students to fill their spot. May 1 is the NACAC deadline, but sometimes spots fill a little faster than that. "

I guess I could still request it in writing or maybe I'll just save the email.

kimoki

letsfigureitout

Well, when I communicated with the admissions counselor about the deposit, he indicated that -- yes -- we could just wait to send it in. HOWEVER, his e-mailed response was clear in reminding us that we could not register, attend any pre-college activities, or learn about housing until the money was received. It will be interesting to see if this comes up at auditions on Saturday.

letsfigureitout

This is interesting. At auditions this AM, the issue about the deposit and accepting offers at PPU came up. Families were "warned" that the conservatory programs often filled up by April 1st and housing filled by early May. While they recognized that many students would be auditioning at many places, they said that if you get an offer of admission to PPU but the program fills before you commit, you will be put on a waitlist. Similarly, you may not get housing unless you complete the housing forms early--and you can't do that until you send in your deposit. This sounds like they will NOT necessarily hold your spot until May 1st without a deposit. Further, they encouraged everyone to ask questions about this at all the schools they were applying to, suggesting that other schools will fill their slots early. The talk among parents was that they'd send in the money to hold a spot and then ask for a refund if their child decides to go elsewhere.

This seems as though it should be simple, but it's not.

soozievt

This is not how it works at other schools that I know. If you have an offer of admission at another school, your "slot" cannot be taken away from you before May 1. They only should accept the number they need to accept to yield a certain number of slots. In other words, most colleges don't take your slots before May 1 and let them fill up and then offer YOU (the already admitted student) a wait list! Rather the admitted students' offers are good through May 1 by which time you must commit and send a deposit and if the college or program does not fill the slots, the college (not YOU!) goes to a wait list. The accepted student never goes to a wait list at another school!

PPU should not be asking for a commitment prior to May 1. What PPU is doing is pressuring students to commit by deposit before they have heard from their other schools, many of which do not send out decisions until April 1 (a common admissions decision date!). While the deposit may be refundable, imagine if every school that accepted you, required a deposit to hold your spot PRIOR to you ever hearing from the majority of your colleges on April 1? Further, PPU is asking you to reserve a spot by deposit before you even learn if you got into their BFA program (just academic acceptance). Trust me, most colleges do NOT do this. None of my D's 8 BFA schools required deposits before May 1 and even if a college pressured for one, they can't take your spot away from you before the National Reply Date of May 1. I understand parents are apt to want to hold with a deposit at PPU given the talk that they received. Luckily, most schools don't do this or one could have to tie up an awful lot of money holding their acceptances until they had all their decisions in hand in spring! Unless one applies ED (which DOES involve a commitment), no student should have to commit to attend a university until May 1 because the whole idea behind RD (vs. ED) is to be able to weigh all of one's options/acceptances and financial aid offers. If one was ready to commit to ONE school, then that's what ED is for.

Also, since a student can't truly commit to a college before hearing from all their schools, this methodology that PPU is using encourages an unethical practice on the part of families to put deposits down on MORE THAN ONE school as they wait to hear decisions from other schools, when a student is only supposed to enroll and put in for a deposit and commitment at ONE school. By encouraging students to hold a spot via deposit and thus likely to do so at more than one school, PRIOR to May1, this unfairly holds spots that could be given to students who could attend because those commited slots are not 100% commited and students may back out before May 1. It is falsely filling up the class and keeping others out who WOULD matriculate if the slots were not temporarily filled by those who were "maybe" going to attend. This just is not good practice.

BiGismama

Reading this discourse (again this year) on PPU demanding deposits before the national reply date; in essence, threatening prospective students, or at least the BFA hopefuls (please remember the students are accepted as BA students and then start auditioning for the BFA program sophomore year, I believe) with losing their conservatory spot, is IMO, unconscionable pressure.

I find it extremely distasteful that a university, supposedly an institution of higher learning, hawks its' product as if it were a used car whose price was going to go up if you didn't buy it on the spot!

Perhaps PPU is not a member of NACAC, and therefore doesn't have to follow the rules. I have no idea, but frankly the whole situation makes me wonder about the motivation behind the practice and consequently, if it's ALL about the money? I suppose if a lot of parents send in deposits out of fear, PPU stands to earn interest on all this deposit money, even if they have to return some of it in May! Certainly not illegal, but sure seems unethical!

Just my 2 cents, and probably worth no more!