I think it's cruel for colleges to accept students with letters

[pnwmom]

that contain no mention of financial aid awards.

This is for the young woman who has been living with us for the last three years, and is about to get her AA from the local community college. She has gotten acceptances from two schools, one private and one public, and neither mentioned the amount of aid but both want a deposit. She is still waiting to hear back from her first choice public university.

She's called and there wasn't a mistake. Neither of the schools process the aid requests till they've decided who to accept. This makes sense, sort of -- but how can they expect her to send a deposit when she doesn't know how much she'll be expected to pay?

P.S.

On her FAFSA forms for the community college aid she got a "dependency override" because of evil parents (word used deliberately), but this decision has to be repeated at any other school she goes to. So that's probably slowing everything down.

[FSogol]

1. The deposit is usually just a token and not based on the actual total cost.

For my Freshman son last year at a state school, they wanted $100.

There is a lot of cruelty built into the whole college acceptances/financing system. Schools pretend there are a lot of good scholarships available, but there are not. The system is setup to cause students and parents to go into debt.

Your young woman has done good by going to community college. Good luck to her on the rest of the process.

[pnwmom]

2. The amounts might seem low to most people, but not to her. And she takes the

enrollment contracts seriously.

I want her to send in yes's to both schools, since we don't know what either will award her. And we're still hoping for the third . . .

[FSogol]

4. How long until the deadline? Also, has she filled out FASA?

Before sending anything, contact the financial aid offices at both schools. They might be able to give her a rough idea.

[pnwmom]

6. She met the FAFSA deadline, which was in March, I believe. But she couldn't

supply parental info, which is why she had to apply for the "dependency override" -- a rare exception made for documented cases like hers with truly worthless or despicable parents who are completely out of the students' lives. She got that exception for the community college but each school makes that decision all over again, for each year.

She has been in contact with the financial aid offices, both by email and telephone. They just say they haven't gotten to her file yet.

[yeoman6987]

3. I think dealing with 20K applicants would be a nightmare

These are two separate departments.

[pnwmom]

7. The students in my extended family have all gotten acceptance letters with financial information.

So this is new to me.

[FSogol]

8. My son got the acceptance letter and a whole packet including financial aid info showed up

3-5 days later, so he was able to make his decision before the deposit was due.

[pnwmom]

9. That would be better. It's been a couple weeks though,

for one of the universities . . . and they say it might be June or July before she has the information. In the meantime, the deposit is due in a week.

[bravenak]

5. I just had to pay 50 bucks for mine.

My financial aid award came the next day. It will work out. I got a credit card just for school fees. The fees suck but it's damn worth it.

[xmas74]

10. I would think that she could call someone in financial aid

and ask them for an estimate of what she would receive, taking her FAFSA into consideration. I know our local university does that and it only takes a few minutes to give an estimate. The estimate isn't a guarantee of what she would receive but it would give her a good idea of what to expect.

[pnwmom]

11. No, they won't provide any information.

There is a calculator online for one of the schools, but everything hinges on the "dependency override" and whether it is granted.