Texas a&m is free for in state families under $60k.
If Texas is looking for revenue, they wouldnt be as generous with financial aid compared to a&m.
Texas is way more generous than a&m and whatever they make in housing deposit, it cost them much more in financial aid. $100/applicant is a drop in the bucket compared to what they could make if they raised tuition for in and OOS students.
Im not sure why people go on the Texas forum to complain about Texas.
Ha! You havenât lived until youâve been through housing fun at UC Berkeley. I admit that collecting a non-refundable upfront fee before admission is annoying but itâs $100. Who cares. By the time youâre done paying for the kid to go to college that will seem like a very small detail. They often make mistakes (parking tickets, car accidents, late payments, fines, buying unnecessary things, etc.) as they are growing and learning that will routinely cost you more than $100. I once had to pay almost $500 in back parking tickets to get a boot off my kidâs car. She thought since she was moving out of her college town that she could just stuff the tickets in her glove box. Sheâs a good kid and doing well but that sort of thing happens to many of us. Having someone financially reliant on you living outside your house generates many expenses that are frustrating, often unnecessary and often unforeseeable. Itâs an expensive undertaking.
WowâŠ.sounds crazy. We didnât look at any universities in California. Since I havenât dealt with public schools before, other than the academies, I first thought when I asked the question here the responses would be equal dismay and outrage but now I know why schools do this to their customers.
As I said previously, I have only really had dealings with ND and Academies so this is a new experience. First kid that doesnât quite have the stats to go wherever they want so we shotgun scatter shot the applications.
For reference, UWV asks for a deposit after acceptance and its refundable if the student decides to go elsewhere. UF asks for non-refundable $25 before acceptance too. Maryland guaranteed housing no upfront money. Penn State guaranteed housing no up front money. Auburn same. It is a mixed bag. Iâm not surprised some are run well and some arenât but the ones who have people lined to to plunk money down like a line outside an Apple Store should be expected to run like a Swiss watch. I guess demanding value for a dollar is a misplace concept today.
Itâs clear emotions have taken over applicants and their parents at many institutions. Oh well, itâs an interesting study in psychology of the consumer. Hopefully, the kid gets into her first choice or two and we donât have to deal with this kind of nonsense.
No one is complaining about TX. TX is great in fact I would say UT isnât quite what I think Texas is but I have been warned Austin isnât Texas. UT is a great school.
This is a discussion about what is right and wrong or what is a fair business practice and what isnât. Clearly UT prospects, and students, donât care and, in fact, defend the business practice. Which is why they continue to do what they do to maximize profit.
All schools are a money grab. If you think they arenât a typical business completely abusing the Federal Govt. system you havenât lived very long. No school is worth what they are charging students.
Are you referencing the same football team that has beaten A&M by double digits the last 2 years, holds a 78-37 record against A&M and has many more national titles than A&MâŠ.that football team?
Iâd expect that thereâs likely a decent correlation between type of location (urban vs. sub-urban vs. sub-sub-urban) and housing hassle. Thereâs no question what drives the problems in Berkeley; you just have to visit and then nothing will surprise you. Penn State shouldnât have housing problems, nor should WVU. Iâm less familiar with College Park.
Iâm guessing housing is a challenge at UT because Austin is urban and expensive.
If they returned the housing deposit when applicant doesnât get admission and counted adding that deposit as Demonstrated Interest, I doubt we will have this long a thread on this topic.
2 cents from OOS parent of S26, niece was class of 2023.
I threw this together in case people here are from out of state or unfamiliar with Austin, UT or what we call West Campus. These drone flyovers are dated as recent (I have no affiliation with whoever took them, they were just in a google search). Sometimes it helps to see a place for scale and density because what one person pictures in their mind as off-campus housing is very different than someone else. Hope it helps!
Youtube flyover of UT (date says 4 months old) - the shots looks west then pans south down IH35 towards downtown and then pan west again. The high rises in the distance beyond the UT Tower are what we call âWest Campusâ, not offically part of UT (UT does own 1 of those off-campus high rise apartments over there though where the UT Global office and West Campus UTPD satellite offices are also situated on its 1st floor). This shot doesnt show the baseball/softball/graduate apartment complex behind the opening sequence on the other side of IH35 (east side) or the myriad of small houses and condos in what they call North Campus where older students and grad students tend to rent.
This is a drone flyover from the West Campus perspective - mostly looking east towards the UT campus or south towards downtown. Many of the high rises you see here are student housing (anyone can live in most of these but the majority of occupants are students). There are also several private dorms here which are students only and lots of greek houses and smaller old apartments/condos that will eventually become more âluxuryâ high rises with the rate of growth in Austin.
They do return the $300 housing prepayment if the student goes elsewhere after signing a contract. But $100 nonrefundable housing application fee does not get refunded.
Probably is a correlation. These schools refuse to stop their growth because growth is profit. The only way they will stop these kinds of crazy practices is a student revolt which is exactly what happened at Purdue about 5 years ago. They built more student housing and lowered the admission rates. Novel concept that schools refuse to do despite stating they are a ânon-profit.â As long as the demand and acceptance of draconian practices is there they can pretty much treat the students however they want until the next student revolt happens.
Itâs not about the $100. Itâs the principal. It could be $1. Doesnât matter. They are charging kids for housing when they havenât been admitted.
You are okay with the practice and that is fine. To each is own but know that consumer conditioning and acceptance is why they do it. My example of Purdue is consumer conditioned acceptance taken too far.
Iâm happy to send ND whatever money. Is a well run school and I donât have to worry about anything.
