How should I ask/ Can I ask?

[TakeMe]

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I recently was accepted to a DO school which has a $950 non-refundable deposit due in a month 😱. However, I just interviewed yesterday at an awesome MD school (and I am have an interview in a couple weeks and one in Feb). Do you think that I can/should contact the admissions office of that school and ask them if they can make a decision by them/ explain the situation? How should I do this (call or e-mail)? What should I say?

Thanks!

 

[jla314]

i'd wait for a month - if you have not heard from your MD school when the deposit deadline is drawing near, you could call them and politely ask if the admissions committee has reviewed your app.

i hope that $950 is refundable 😱

 

[calimed214]

Not sure how well admissions offices will respond to a request to "hurry it up" in order to save you some money. They might be sympathetic, but I don't think it would do much good honestly. Your best bet is just to wait until before the deposit is due, give the MD school a call to see if a decision has been made yet, and if not, you might just have to pay the deposit. I was in the same situation, so I feel ya, but I just swallowed the cost. My deposit was $1000, non-refundable. But the assurance of having a spot, and the cost in comparison to the amount I've already spent in applying, was worth it to me.

 

[brooklynblunder]

you can make a grand in a month easy

 

[TakeMe]

Non-refundable. 1000 dollars doesn't grow in trees. I don't want to throw it away, that would be ridiculous.

 

[ezsanche]

Unless you really like the school and want to become a DO then I wouldn't do it. If i were you I would withdrawal my application and just wait on the other schools.

 

[dr zaius]

you can make a grand in a month easy

How? Unless the OP is doing a well-paid engineering co-op and has limited other expenses this seems fairly improbable without a substantial fraction of the $950 already saved.

Sell drugs? Prostitution?

 

[ezsanche]

Plus that 950 dollars is BS. I know for a fact that some of the MD schools in Florida have low deposit. FSU is 30 , FIU is 200 and UCF is 0.

 

[brooklynblunder]

you can also make this argument

unless you really don't want to be a doctor, I would not not turn in that deposit. If i were you I would wait out that month, maybe ask for an extension on the deposit, contact the MD school in 3 weeks and ask for an update on your app and make a decision on weather to send that money in.

Expect that you will have to deposit that money and hustle while you do this. It will be fun trying to make that money and you will definitely outearn and outsave that grand.

 

[TakeMe]

It's Nova. It's DO. And it's 950 bucks. Not BS, look it up. Anyways, I do have the money, that is not the issue. The issue is that I work hard, and so does my husband, and I don't want to pay $1000 dollars and not get it back. That would be such a waste. It is my only acceptance so far, so I can't just withdraw it.

No one thinks that an MD school would be understanding of my situation? They seem to, generally, review people's applications when they send "in the area" e-mails. How is this different?

 

[brooklynblunder]

How? Unless the OP is doing a well-paid engineering co-op and has limited other expenses this seems fairly improbable without a substantial fraction of the $950 already saved.

Sell drugs? Prostitution?

OP is a non-trad that completed post-bac, so even if she makes minimum wage, she would break a grand in a month after taxes.

 

[brooklynblunder]

It's Nova. It's DO. And it's 950 bucks. Not BS, look it up. Anyways, I do have the money, that is not the issue. The issue is that I work hard, and so does my husband, and I don't want to pay $1000 dollars and not get it back. That would be such a waste. It is my only acceptance so far, so I can't just withdraw it.

No one thinks that an MD school would be understanding of my situation? They seem to, generally, review people's applications when they send "in the area" e-mails. How is this different?

i think they totally would. just wait a couple of weeks tho, you recently interviewed right?

 

[brooklynblunder]

i would also update other schools you have interviewed at. do you think you can move up your upcoming interviews also?

 

[TakeMe]

Well one of my interviews is December 15th, I don't know how I could move it up. Another isn't until February 3rd, so I am thinking there's no way.

I do think I have a good shot of getting into the school I interviewed at yesterday.

 

[Parts Unknown]

Non-refundable. 1000 dollars doesn't grow in trees. I don't want to throw it away, that would be ridiculous.

Look at it this way. Tuition at NOVA is what, 32K or 33K? Over four years you will easily smoke >200K, probably much closer to 250K. This $950 is just the beginning.

On the other hand, if you shell out the $950 and then get accepted to one of the less expensive MD schools, you'll still come out well ahead in the end. Should you not get in anywhere else, at least your deposit will go towards your education.

It's difficult to part with almost a grand, but life is a series of large and unavoidable expenses.

 

[ShinyDome19]

I am in the same boat as you. I got accepted to LECOM, which is my first choice of the DO schools I applied to, but I was also put on a delayed decision until after January at my state MD school, where if I get accepted, I will attend. I put down my $1500 to hold my seat at LECOM just so I knew I have a place to go come July/August. If I end up getting in to my state school, putting down the 1500 dollars will have been well worth it to keep my sanity until I find out. It sucks to drop a grand for no reason, but in the big picture, you are guaranteed student loans in the next year that will more than cover that down payment, either way you go.

 

[TakeMe]

True, but I am trying to figure out how to AVOID THIS. You think I shouldn't call or e-mail.

 

[ezsanche]

It's Nova. It's DO. And it's 950 bucks. Not BS, look it up. Anyways, I do have the money, that is not the issue. The issue is that I work hard, and so does my husband, and I don't want to pay $1000 dollars and not get it back. That would be such a waste. It is my only acceptance so far, so I can't just withdraw it.

No one thinks that an MD school would be understanding of my situation? They seem to, generally, review people's applications when they send "in the area" e-mails. How is this different?

I am saying that it is BS that they are charging you so much for a deposit when there really is no need for it. But what are your thoughts on the schools. An interviews works both ways. Is this school worth the 950 deposit?

 

[dienekes88]

Look at it this way. Tuition at NOVA is what, 32K or 33K? Over four years you will easily smoke >200K, probably much closer to 250K. This $950 is just the beginning.

On the other hand, if you shell out the $950 and then get accepted to one of the less expensive MD schools, you'll still come out well ahead in the end. Should you not get in anywhere else, at least your deposit will go towards your education.

It's difficult to part with almost a grand, but life is a series of large and unavoidable expenses.

That's the truth. In the grand scheme of things, it's not a huge sum. It just feels huge now, because you work so hard for it.

Think of it as an investment, though.

Not only that, but you're making a $1000 investment that ASSURES that you will one day be a doctor. That's the smartest money EVER... assuming that you want to be a doctor. Not everyone wants to be a doctor, though, and that's fine.

You could save the $1000 and take a gamble on the MD schools. You might have a ~20% chance of getting into one of them after the interview? I don't know the actual figure, but it's definitely less than 100%. That means there's an 80% chance of getting in nowhere. Man, wouldn't it have been nice to have spent the extra $1,000? You would really gamble with your chance to become a doctor for a mere $1,000? Isn't this your dream? Is your dream worth more than $1,000?

Sure, if you end up getting into the school of your dreams, then you might think "dammit, dienekes88, I wasted $1,000, and this is totally your fault." You might think that, but you'd be wrong. Hedging your bets and paying extra to have a contingency is generally a good thing to do. Just 'cause you got in doesn't mean you were "destined" to get in. Remember, there's a chance that you won't get in anywhere if you skip out on the DO school.

Maybe you're a superstar, and you don't need a contingency plan. I'm not. When I got into my state school, I sent in the deposit the very next day. I didn't end up going, but even the relief of knowing I could go somewhere was worth the deposit money.

 

[Parts Unknown]

True, but I am trying to figure out how to AVOID THIS. You think I shouldn't call or e-mail.

If I were you I would call and politely ask when the earliest you could receive a decision would be. They aren't going to fast-track your application, but I think you have a valid concern.

 

[ShinyDome19]

personally, I decided not to bug them about it because I figured it best to not "rock the boat" at my state school and hope for an acceptance down the road that will save me ~8x what I would spend attending LECOM.

I win either way.

 

[JohnnyExtra]

No question, pay the deposit and don't look back. Think of it as an insurance policy. How terrible would it feel to have squandered this opportunity and end up with no MD acceptances. $950 to know that you are going to be a physician in four years isn't bad.

 

[icalz]

Non-refundable. 1000 dollars doesn't grow in trees. I don't want to throw it away, that would be ridiculous.

Throw it away? You should view every dollar spent as an investment in your career to becoming a physician. Go with what is safe and wait until the last possible moment of the deadline. What would be ridiculous is not getting an MD seat and losing a DO seat all because of $1K.

 

[TakeMe]

I just wish my contingency plan was cheaper. lol.

 

[brooklynblunder]

At most you can do is email or call the school and be like, "I recently interviewed at your institution and blah blah blah I was really impressed with you and I love you and I want to spend 4 years there. However, I have been accepted by another school and they have asked for a large deposit within a month. Is there any chance that your school might decide on my application in that range of time blah blah blah I appreciate your efforts"

I personally would just wait it out, maybe send a letter of interest to the MD school. There's a good chance they will not respond at all so have that money saved up.

 

[Parts Unknown]

At most you can do is email or call the school and be like, "I recently interviewed at your institution and blah blah blah I was really impressed with you and I love you and I want to spend 4 years there. However, I have been accepted by another school and they have asked for a large deposit within a month. Is there any chance that your school might decide on my application in that range of time blah blah blah I appreciate your efforts"

Nah, don't do that. It's cheesy and annoying. Just find out when you could hear something. If it's inside the month, great, wait for that day. If not, reluctantly drop the deposit on NOVA and turn your attention to your upcoming interviews.

 

[JAWSCIENCE]

Many DO schools have large non-refundable deposits They do this because many of their applicants are in the same boat as you and they end up loosing a lot of students when they receive M.D. acceptances. This is their way of seeing if you are serious about becoming a D.O. I am not saying it is the right thing to do, I am just explaining some of the reasons why it is done.

While admissions offices are often willing to give you an earlier interview to save you travel expenses etc. they are not going to speed up their process to save you money. Asking them to rush a decision to save yourself (albeit a lot) of money is not going to go over well. In my humble opinion the only decision it will speed up is a rejection as it may make you come off as arrogant no matter how politely you phrase it. This is their process. They are deliberating and building a class.

Plus if they speed up your decision they have to speed up everyones. People could argue they will save on interview flights if they know they are accepted to their top choice school. That school should save them the money and travel of interviewing at other schools by giving them a faster decision.

I am sorry this will cost you a lot of money. It happens every year to many students. However i can assure you if you pay the money you will still be overjoyed if you get the acceptance to this other school you seem to have liked more. Even if it mean that 1,000 is wasted.

 

[red10]

you have a better chance of asking the DO school for an extension on the deposit than you do asking the MD school to hurry up and decide.
Honestly, the 950 is an insurance deposit in my mind. I'd be willing to eat Ramen and hotdogs to save money in exchange for the peace of mind that you will go SOMEWHERE come august

 

[Disinence2]

I faced a similar situation when I applied.

What I did was simply e-mail the school requiring the deposit, letting them know that I was unable to make a financial commitment to their program without hearing back from other schools that I applied too. The said that was fine and gave me another couple months to decide.

Most of these admissions people are reasonable individuals.

I would not rush your programs that you have interviewed with!