Deposit For Holding Spot in class

[gldvue]

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[Attention Admissions committees also...] It seems to me that a line needs to be drawn somewhere. What are you going to do when they ask for $5k, or $10k? Say, "It's their school, and they make the rules?"

I think this whole early offer, early deposit thing is unfair to the candidates.

I have an alternate suggestion. If you agree, I'd encourage you to mention this to your adcoms wherever/whenever you encounter them.

Like admission to undergrad, or even HS student athletes committing to a college, there should be a day before which no commitment from the student is asked for or expected. Offers are good from whenever they are made through that day plus a week or two. All schools recognize the day and get their offers in by that day. Upon arrival of that day, students need to make their commitments or lose their spot. This would offer the opportunity to the student to assess their offers and commit where they seriously intend to go, once and for all. Then the schools could do more rounds of acceptances based on the "hit rate" within that 2 weeks.

This acceptance game should not be viewed as a revenue opportunity by the schools. That's just not right. It looks like financial "chicken" at students/candidates expense.


I would invite adcoms to comment. Thanks.

I couldn't have said it better myself. It is outrageous to demand 2K, even 1K, as a deposit even if the intention is good and is solely for security purposes. The schools should recognize that the majority of applicants are students fresh out of undergrad- we have no money! Seriuosly, the apllication process itself is costly enough! If a student changes their mind, keep $500 of the 2K then. Schools shouldn't have a problem with this unless it really is about the money or their purpose is to send that kind of message to applicants.

 

[mrblah]

IMHO, 2k is outrageous, but 1k is reasonable in my book. I think its all relative.

thank god for my tax return refund.

 

[PGrepper]

eelo you are my hero. I'd type a response but, instead.... +1 on all your posts, haha.

In a perfect world, we'd all respond and not pay deposits, and give courtesy when we decline a school; the reality is, we're all crazy selfish bastards who don't give a crap when there are >2 acceptances. The end 😀

the money I have wasted is ridiculous. Paying these deposits is annoying but I am still trying to get over the fact that I pay pharmcas all that money only to pay certain schools $100 buck in additional supplemental fees and to answer the same damn questions from my pers statement.



Eelo made some good points. College athletics are a tremendous boost for the economy in terms of the revenue generated. I agree it is a shame that the people curing cancer and teaching kids aren't making squat while people that can shoot a ball, play the guitar/sing/rap or say "HASTA LA VISTA BABBYY" are getting 20 mill a year, but they ain't printing their own money. It's coming from somewhere.

Honestly college athletics has probably done more for your school than you believe (Purdue for example) When I think of Purdue I think of boilermakers, and Glenn Robinson dominating bball in the 90's. I subconsiously have a weird respect as a University because they field good athletics team lol. I know it ain't right but I think alot of folk do that.

 

[ciencia nerd]

getting back to the deposit topic .. I have a question has anyone ever heard of anybody disputing a deposit with the bank / credit card company? i.e. say i'm waiting for my #1 school and in the mean time the deposit date for my #2 choice comes due. i put the $1000 (or whateever the amount) on my credit card via the school's online response system, then a week later I am accepted to my #1 . So if I were to argue that i accidently ( I know pretty obvious I did not) clicked the wrong button and I thought I had not gone through with the payment and now when I realize a week or so later that I was indeed charged on my card I am disputing it. The school now knows ( albeit a week or so later ) that i will not be attending so they can offer others my spot, they just don't get an extra $1000 out of me. I know this whole thing is in poor taste but just wondering if anyone has heard of someone trying this?

 

[mrblah]

Good luck disputing it though, most CC companies won't give you your money back because you "hit the wrong button" or because you had buyer's remorse. They will only give you your money back if someone used your CC fraudulently (i.e without you knowing).

What you are trying to do, even if the CC company won't take you seriously, has a name. Its called "credit card fraud".

 

[ciencia nerd]

I don't know if I would go so far as to call it cc fraud but I guess it's a moot point since I really would'nt have the guts to try it.... plus might bring some bad karma down on me

 

[eelo]

I don't know if I would go so far as to call it cc fraud but I guess it's a moot point since I really would'nt have the guts to try it.... plus might bring some bad karma down on me

I would.

 

[futurepharmer12]

All of these deposits sound really large to me. I only paid $200 and it wasn't due until the the week before they do the last interviews. So, I had like 2 months to pay it. Of course, it was my first choice, so I paid it the day I got the letter.

I think the schools that require the large deposits just really want to know who wants to go there. From what my friends have told me the higher the applicant to spot ratio the higher the deposit. Anyway, you gotta do what you gotta do...

 

[Knickerbocker]

I would.

I would also consider it fraud.

 

[fenixtnlfan]

getting back to the deposit topic .. I have a question has anyone ever heard of anybody disputing a deposit with the bank / credit card company? i.e. say i'm waiting for my #1 school and in the mean time the deposit date for my #2 choice comes due. i put the $1000 (or whateever the amount) on my credit card via the school's online response system, then a week later I am accepted to my #1 . So if I were to argue that i accidently ( I know pretty obvious I did not) clicked the wrong button and I thought I had not gone through with the payment and now when I realize a week or so later that I was indeed charged on my card I am disputing it. The school now knows ( albeit a week or so later ) that i will not be attending so they can offer others my spot, they just don't get an extra $1000 out of me. I know this whole thing is in poor taste but just wondering if anyone has heard of someone trying this?

Obviously you wouldn't put your credit card number in if you were denying the school so you couldn't claim you just hit the wrong button.

The schools I have interviewed at said they can be slightly flexible with the deposit deadline.

 

[ciencia nerd]

Yea I agree it's pretty obvious that it was not a mistake thats why I said "(I know pretty obvious I did not)" thanks for the info on the flex deposit dates (rather than just a another post about it being cc fraud) I'll look into that, the flex i mean not the fraud part. Also found out one school mails you a matric. agrement/contract and you have 3 working days to change your mind after u receive it so that extends the time a bit

 

[kismet]

This is my first year applying but I've heard you can always ask for an extension on the deposit deadline. Make sure your reasons are reasonable (i.e., not "I can't have that much money in two weeks!") but communicate that you need some extra time to make a better informed decision for yourself. Maybe mention you really enjoyed your interview and love the program but have some personal things to consider. I don't know if it would be good/bad to mention you're waiting on other schools.

If you just can't get the money together in that amount of time, they might (might might might) be willing to work out a payment schedule for you.. but you better be totally committed to that school because backing out of that would be ugly.

My boyfriend applied to MBA schools and was accepted to two with deposit deadlines before his third interview. He e-mailed and asked for an extension and both schools said "no problem" and gave him an extra month. Now, pharmacy school is definitely way more competitive (it has sucked to watch him be courted by more than one school!) but it doesn't seem unreasonable to ask, especially if you had an early interview.

The worst they can do is say no, right?

--Re: check/cc fraud - I was under the impression that most schools ask you to sign a contract when you send in that deposit too? So if you sign and send that and then stop payment on a check... that's definitely fraud. And the school can sue you and it will be far more expensive. I don't know that they would spend their time doing that, but it's reasonable to think that the schools with more expensive deposits (the ones that hurt you the most!) will find it more worth it to go after you (in CA if you write a check in bad faith I think they can ask for 2-3 times the amount).

Re: the "3 day grace period," check your state laws - there is NO grace period in California.

 

[ciencia nerd]

I just tried the extension thing yesterday with Midwestern CCP, I laid it on thick on the phone too 🙂 .. but no go.. they said they were sorry but the date is not flexible in any way. So now i have $1000 riding on the hope that I get that other acceptance letter in the mail before the 3 working days expire .. I don't think I'll be quite that lucky .. oh well at least I can still get back $100 if I back out prior to 30 days of their orientation wow a whole 10% back .. 😴

 

[Alby]

I just tried the extension thing yesterday with Midwestern CCP, I laid it on thick on the phone too 🙂 .. but no go.. they said they were sorry but the date is not flexible in any way. So now i have $1000 riding on the hope that I get that other acceptance letter in the mail before the 3 working days expire .. I don't think I'll be quite that lucky .. oh well at least I can still get back $100 if I back out prior to 30 days of their orientation wow a whole 10% back .. 😴

Have you tried calling the other school and explaining to them that you need to pay your deposit at another pharmacy school to hold your spot, however you would rather attend their school because (insert complimentary comments about this schools program). Therefore, is it possible for them to let you know where you stand in the admissions process? They may already know, and you haven't received the letter yet!

Its worth a shot!

 

[Zoomie1]

Here's an interesting thought - If I apply to Home State U., get accepted, give them my $X deposit, then either decline the seat or simply don't show up for class - why not give the poor student who had to scramble some of that deposit, to help "alleviate" some of his/her stress? 🙂

As it stands now, the school just keeps the deposit -and rakes in all that $$ from the new student. They don't seem to be losing money on this deal (though, as mentioned, it can be stressful for the waitlisted student).

Zoomie