Backup college deposits?

pv123

pv123

10-Year Member
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Dec 20, 2011
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For a student who has an appointment, Is it advisable to pay a non-refundable college deposit for the possibility of an injury occurring between May 1st and BCT? For example, God forbid...a bad sports injury which requires surgery...
 
Not a bad idea. I had a student last year who broke his wrist in late May, which prevented him from heading to summer training at one of the SAs. Good news is that he had a civilian school lined up as a back-up. He will attend the SA starting this summer as the wrist is fully healed.
 
pv123 said:
For a student who has an appointment, Is it advisable to pay a non-refundable college deposit for the possibility of an injury occurring between May 1st and BCT?
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That’s what we did for DD. We saw it as a low-cost insurance policy. We swallowed the cost in the end, but had peace of mind.

Contrary to what some people think, doing so does not take a spot from anyone else. Colleges are very good at managing their yield, e.g. offering more acceptances than spots available. In fact, they fully expect a significant number to put down deposits and not show up in the fall. The term for it is “summer melt.” Again, they anticipate it and plan for it, so no one “loses a spot” because of it.
 
We did for our DS based on advice. Discussed with the school his situation and they said we could request a refund later on. That's what we did. Took a little bit of emailing but got the deposit back. I actually did most of the conversing with the school on the refund because he was busy surviving year 1 at USAFA. We were very transparent with the school and honest that they were his first choice should the appointment not work out for whatever reason. Handled his ROTC Program and Scholarship in a similar fashion. I think they all appreciate the honesty and the thoughtful planning.
 
We paid the deposit on the backup school and my son got a gap year at that school, explaining honestly that he was using the gap year in case of injury or other reason that it did not work out at the academy. At the end of that year, he just informed them that he would not be enrolling and thanked them for the opportunity. We did not request a refund...insurance money well spent.
 
pv123 said:
For a student who has an appointment, Is it advisable to pay a non-refundable college deposit for the possibility of an injury occurring between May 1st and BCT? For example, God forbid...a bad sports injury which requires surgery...
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We did. It also was for if something happened during BCT which required them to drop out. It was a Good plan B if something went wrong. There were a very very few edge case medical problems that we heard about, where the basic cadet ended up being sent home after reporting.
 
Georgia Tech was great at letting my oldest kid enroll and after BCT we just pulled out. Just call and be straight up with them, most understand.
 
If you are injured and cannot attend BCT but it's an injury that will heal eventually can your appointment be pushed to the next year or do you start from scratch with the application process? Just curious, not planning to have this problem- lol.
 
Reach out to that school now and honestly explain the situation, we did that last year and they were fine with enrolling our DS and ended up refunding the non-refundable deposit. You never know if you don't ask.
 
Samanthar said:
If you are injured and cannot attend BCT but it's an injury that will heal eventually can your appointment be pushed to the next year or do you start from scratch with the application process? Just curious, not planning to have this problem- lol.
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If you are injured before starting BCT you will have to reapply the following year, provided the injury is healed adequately to pass DoDMERB. If you get injured after starting BCT, the Academy can give a medical setback and reserve a spot in the following year’s class for you.
 
Samanthar said:
If you are injured and cannot attend BCT but it's an injury that will heal eventually can your appointment be pushed to the next year or do you start from scratch with the application process? Just curious, not planning to have this problem- lol.
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Always a reapplication with all the steps including reapplying for a nomination. Nobody expects for the worst but it never hurts to plan for it.
 
pv123 said:
For a student who has an appointment, Is it advisable to pay a non-refundable college deposit for the possibility of an injury occurring between May 1st and BCT? For example, God forbid...a bad sports injury which requires surgery...
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As some others have said, the "non refundable" element is quite often reversed when the institution finds out that the student accepted a position at a Service Academy. Not alway,s but it never hurts to ask, and if you are up front with the admissions people at the back up school that is often something they will understand.
 
We also did the same. And also contracted for dorm housing (that runs out at our local college). The housing contract is null if a student doesn’t attend so there wasn’t any chance of loosing that (it was a significant fee) at our college. *ALWAYS CHECK CONTRATCS*

Both of my guys ultimately got their deposit back. They just had to ask. All they lost was 30$ application fee!

Having a backup, is a good life skill.
 
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