Deposit at private school?
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Anonymous
| What is the deposit amount roughly at a Big 3? And do people pay it and then decide not to come and that is how WL moves? If it’s a lot of money it’s hard to believe people do that but I’m naive here hence the post! Tia. |
Anonymous
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I think I recall someone complaining about a $1000 deposit for returning families being implemented at NCS last year, so somewhere around there, maybe?
DC is not at a big 3 but ours is 10% (more than $5k). Big 3 may feel more secure that families won’t jilt them because of ~prestige~ so maybe their deposits are less. Some folks get called off the waitlists late in the decision period as other families decline (although many schools do a good job af knowing their yield and plan for that, so declines do not guarantee waitlist movement — but some schools are more conservative in their initial offers in some years and may go to waitlist sooner). Families holding out to the last minute might hear before they put a deposit down elsewhere. Otherwise yes, waitlist movement after the decision date typically means some students have forfeited their deposits to go elsewhere — either because they were waiting to hear from a preferred school with a later notification date, or for some family situation change like a move. For many families in the area, $1000 or even $5000 isn’t really much of a loss. |
Anonymous
| No - DC friend was deciding between Walls and St Albans year and chose Walls bc their decisions come out a full month after private school I think. Wondering if that is us in a year what the $$$ loss is |
Anonymous
| **sorry not “No” mean to say “Np” for new post!!!! |
Anonymous
Hopefully someone actually at the school will answer you here soon, but if not I’m sure you could call the finance or admissions office and ask. |
Anonymous
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Deposit varies from around $1K to $2500. Very rarely will someone pay and the abandon.
While there are occasional anecdotes of people getting off of waitlists, the reality is that they usually don't move and they set up a lot of people for disappointment who think otherwise. |
Anonymous
| Our consultant told us earlier this week deposits (due two weeks or so after acceptance) range from $1500-$3000. Then a larger payment is due around the end of May. She specifically said to not sign up for the monthly plan if there was chance of pulling out, which came up because we are entering our kid in the Walls lottery. |
Anonymous
I thought if there is a chance of pulling out, signing up for the monthly plan would be better, rather than paying a lot at the beginning of the year? |
Anonymous
| Our deposit is $5000. The withdrawal date last year was June 1. |
Anonymous
If you withdraw before June 1 do you get the deposit back? |
Anonymous
No. The point of the deposit is to discourage withdrawals. After June 1, families were on the hook for the full tuition, but you’d lose the deposit either way. I suppose in the case of something catastrophic (death of the breadwinner, *maybe* being RIF’ed by the Feds) a family could try to plead their case and the school might be willing to return the deposit, but that would be a case-by-case basis. |
Anonymous
| I think our deposit (Big3) was $5000 and we also had the Walls situation. Decided to stick with the private but would have been worth it even if we had pulled out since $5000 is a lot less than the full year of fees! I do know one family who paid deposits for 3 different schools and only decided by the contract deadline. I don’t know why they couldn’t decide earlier but they obviously decided it was worth losing that money to take more time |
Anonymous
I notice this year the independent school admission deadline is Feb 28th. When is the deadline to decide if given a spot? |
Anonymous
AISGW changed its timeline fairly significantly this year. From their website: - Notification Date – Notification of admission decisions shall be the last Friday in February. Electronic notification, which includes email, telephone, online portal, or any other form of instant notification, shall not occur before 4 pm. Letters may be placed in the U.S. mail to be received on the last Friday in February. - Registration/Reply Date – Enrollment contracts for newly admitted students are due back to the school no earlier than the second Friday in March or two weeks from the date of notification. - Tuition Binding Date – Enrollment contracts for newly admitted and re-enrolling students are binding as of 4:00 pm on May 1. This means that schools may not release the tuition obligation of a family that has already enrolled unless the family notifies the school of its decision to enroll elsewhere by 4:00 pm on May 1. If May 1 falls on a weekend, the binding date shall be 4:00 pm on the immediately preceding Friday. Note that these are GUIDELINES, however. AISGW members schools are encouraged to follow them, but aren’t required to. Some schools set different deadlines last year than the AISGW recommended, for example (I believe STA was one of those, but I might be recalling that incorrectly). https://www.aisgw.org/statement-to-applicants |
Anonymous
I imagine there is language in the monthly plan saying you commit to paying the whole tuition over the 12 payments. |