Deposit at private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

I notice this year the independent school admission deadline is Feb 28th. When is the deadline to decide if given a spot?

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

Very helpful, thanks. But what about the June 1st tuition binding deadline

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

I notice this year the independent school admission deadline is Feb 28th. When is the deadline to decide if given a spot?

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

Very helpful, thanks. But what about the June 1st tuition binding deadline

That’s the third bullet, Tuition Binding Date. This year AISGW is recommending May 1.

[Anonymous]

It is not at all uncommon for a family to pay the deposit and then make a different choice, usually because of getting off a waitlist, and lose the deposit. June 1 (or whatever the date is for a particular school) the tuition is binding entirely no matter how much of it you have actually paid. It is a good idea to get the tuition insurance which will cover some withdraw scenarios.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not at all uncommon for a family to pay the deposit and then make a different choice, usually because of getting off a waitlist, and lose the deposit. June 1 (or whatever the date is for a particular school) the tuition is binding entirely no matter how much of it you have actually paid. It is a good idea to get the tuition insurance which will cover some withdraw scenarios.

Do the families also ditch the whole tuition, say, if they got into Sidwell on August 1st? Then, if they don't ditch the tuition and reject Sidwell, will Sidwell blacklist them for good?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not at all uncommon for a family to pay the deposit and then make a different choice, usually because of getting off a waitlist, and lose the deposit. June 1 (or whatever the date is for a particular school) the tuition is binding entirely no matter how much of it you have actually paid. It is a good idea to get the tuition insurance which will cover some withdraw scenarios.

Tuition insurance typically requires the student to have attended at least two weeks of school, which makes it not useful for a situation where the family changes schools before classes start.