Depositing at a civilian university when you have an academy acceptance

CkzErz

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Hi Everyone, whether to deposit at a civilian university, even though our son has an academy acceptance has been something we thought long and hard about. There are several past threads on the forum on this topic. We spoke to the Army ROTC ROO at the college and that solidified our choice of depositing. My son later accepted his academy offer. At that time, we did not notify or reflect any status changes with the civilian university.

Fast forward to now when we have to sign up for housing at the civilian university and a number of additional concerns came up. We decided to have our son contact the university with the below note. I’m sharing it in case it is helpful to anyone in a similar situation. I know we struggled to come up with the language so I figured sharing this now might save someone else some drafting time. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Dear admissions and housing,

I have received an offer of appointment to a federal service academy. My offer is contingent on my remaining medically qualified through the end of July. Because there is a chance of an injury changing my medical status, I do NOT want to rescind my acceptance to your university at this time. I would like to make that decision at the end of July and I understand that I will forfeit my $500 deposit with you if I am able to attend the service academy.

What I am uncertain of is how to handle your housing registration. I would like to understand the financial implication of signing up for housing now and potentially withdrawing at the end of July, assuming I am medically qualified to attend the service academy at that time. Please explain what additional amount I may be responsible for if I were to withdraw from housing at the end of July related to federal service academy attendance.

Thank you in advance for your guidance.
 
Oh yes.. this could not have come at a better time for our family. Thank you so much. We are also in the same dilemma and were wondering how to put that across.
Glad it helped. We went to register for housing this weekend and there was some language online that made it sound like we could be liable for full room costs if our son withdrew from housing late.

The school may reply to what we wrote and say sorry, you have to withdraw now and you lost your $500 - but I felt like we had to be fully transparent about the situation before moving forward with the housing contract. Good luck to you!
 
There is no blanket, universal or general policy that applies here. Colleges all handle it a bit differently. Your best source of information is the primary source of information — ask the college directly.

A couple of typical approaches:

Write an email explaining the situation and asking if a deposit would be refunded if notification is given by a certain date, i.e. the first day of plebe summer.

Bite the bullet and lose the deposit. Some (I included) see that deposit as an insurance policy. Since, if all goes well, the next four years would entail minimal expense, it’s seen as a fair trade-off.

The final approach is to hold off on any housing commitments until the first day of plebe summer. If something goes wrong, then apply. Yes, it could be late, but you’re playing the odds. You wouldn’t be the first or last to apply or commit late to housing.
 
There is no blanket, universal or general policy that applies here. Colleges all handle it a bit differently. Your best source of information is the primary source of information — ask the college directly.

A couple of typical approaches:

Write an email explaining the situation and asking if a deposit would be refunded if notification is given by a certain date, i.e. the first day of plebe summer.

Bite the bullet and lose the deposit. Some (I included) see that deposit as an insurance policy. Since, if all goes well, the next four years would entail minimal expense, it’s seen as a fair trade-off.

The final approach is to hold off on any housing commitments until the first day of plebe summer. If something goes wrong, then apply. Yes, it could be late, but you’re playing the odds. You wouldn’t be the first or last to apply or commit late to housing.
Thank you, yes, I’m aware of all that. My post was meant to share some possible language for communicating with the school since we hadn’t seen that on here and struggled with what to say. I shared our family’s email in case it helps someone else who does want to communicate with the school. Of course, the note would have to be tailored to the person’s specific situation.
 
FYI to all, the reason our sample note focused on end of July is because our son is attending USMMA. By end of July, he will have reported to campus and completed indoc. Their first semester classes actually begin at the end of July as they are on a trimester schedule. Those of you attending other academies may need until mid August if you are trying to wait until after your indoc. Just keep that difference in mind. Best of luck.
 
Our son sent a very similar message to three of his other schools before making a deposit. He spelled it out much like you did. Northwestern and Rice said no. MSOE said “sure, we’d love to have you if things don’t work out”. Communication is key.

Stealth_81
 
Related question - if we have a USAFA Appointee, to what date are we looking for the contingency plan to be in effect? We just assumed I Day, but should it be extended until A Day? Given the risks associates with Basic? Appreciate any guidance on this.
 
Related question - if we have a USAFA Appointee, to what date are we looking for the contingency plan to be in effect? We just assumed I Day, but should it be extended until A Day? Given the risks associates with Basic? Appreciate any guidance on this.
Risks being injury or illness (tends to have to be severe). Something that wouldn't allow one to finish basic training. Normally happens before I-day
 
Happy to say that the school replied and said in a situation like this DS can withdraw late from housing, as long as it is done 30 days prior to the published start of classes. He will be charged a $500 late cancellation fee.

I’m going to weigh that against the cost associated with a late housing request/application and see which is better. DS doesn’t have a strong preference on particular housing so I’m not concerned about waiting. Just need to see what their final deadline is and if the cost associated with late submissions is $500 or less.
 
Happy to say that the school replied and said in a situation like this DS can withdraw late from housing, as long as it is done 30 days prior to the published start of classes. He will be charged a $500 late cancellation fee.

I’m going to weigh that against the cost associated with a late housing request/application and see which is better. DS doesn’t have a strong preference on particular housing so I’m not concerned about waiting. Just need to see what their final deadline is and if the cost associated with late submissions is $500 or less.
If they are going to charge you $500 late cancellation fees, that just means forfeiting the deposit. Is that right?
 
If they are going to charge you $500 late cancellation fees, that just means forfeiting the deposit. Is that right?
I don’t believe so. I think this will be an additional $500 charge from housing. I’m assuming this would put me at a total loss of $1,000. In my head I figured $700 or $800 total so this is a bit more than I thought. But like someone said earlier, it’s an insurance policy.
 
Risks being injury or illness (tends to have to be severe). Something that wouldn't allow one to finish basic training. Normally happens before I-day
Thank you for this I just want to make sure I understand. If we’re holding onto a civilian offer then, we should hold onto it until he is done with basic. Once basic is complete odds are that we will not need the civilian insurance. Is that correct?
 
Thank you for this I just want to make sure I understand. If we’re holding onto a civilian offer then, we should hold onto it until he is done with basic. Once basic is complete odds are that we will not need the civilian insurance. Is that correct?
From what I've heard before that is the best plan. However more experienced members might have better answer.
 
RE: insurance...Mids are covered minute one. Not after completing summer trainings. Some families choose to keep their people covered u til they sign their commitment papers after their first 2 years (in case they decide not to affirm). Some choose to carry them through commissioning (in case they don’t commission).

It’s a personal choice....in our case, we still have one child on our insurance, as one child covered is the same price as all children covered on our family plan. So our Mids are still on our plan until we loose our family plan.

Other families pay additional for their person at the SA, and since they are 100pct covered dental and medical, they drop them.

My advice is to check your plan options, and then decide. There is no right or wrong way to do it. But when they report in the summer, they are covered day one.

Another thing to ponder is your auto insurance. Our state/insurance company allows for puting them in a different category. Since we have boys, it’s a HUGE savings...for 3 years with my upcoming Firstie.
 
Think of it as 2 parts: I-Day and A-Day

To I-Day: Each college is different so you do have to be very careful and ask - holding a spot, scholarships, and housing. Even if you are going to the same college as someone else, don't assume the rule for them with be the rule for you. Make sure you know the details.

To A-Day: The most likely other bad news would be a medical turnback. I highly recommend going on a fact finding mission among your parents group to find out who's been in that situation, and see what they did. My parent friend said her DD took classes at the local community college, periodic check ins with USAFA, and a local internship. They worried most whether she would go back, having been away for a year and disconnected from USAFA. The good news is she went back, a year older and academically strong, and with the internship it was a direct link to a leadership role, so she not only survived the medical mishap, but thrived because of the opportunities she made for herself. The only other thing I would have asked DD to do is make a plan to reach out to local AOG on a regular basis, make connections, ask advice, see if there were shadowing/internship opportunities. I'm sure they would be happy to mentor a turnback.

We kept DD on our health insurance until mid 2nd semester. My general advice is about one year.

Ok, for all you closet parent portal/powerschool junkies out there, here's your chance! Regarding car insurance, we were going to ask DD to get her own through USAA, but checked with ours as well, who said with the military discount and good student status, it was only $33 extra. They just needed to see her report card...heehee!
 
Regarding car insurance, we were going to ask DD to get her own through USAA, but checked with ours as well, who said with the military discount and good student status, it was only $33 extra. They just needed to see her report card...heehee!
If you're talking about a car that you own, I agree with keeping her on your plan.
If its a car in her name though it is a different story. USAA gives certain benefits based on member longevity with the company.
To me, the most important is the Subscriber Savings Account. Every year, a portion of what you pay to USAA for insurance goes into
a long term holding account to cover losses that are often not settled for some time (can be years). This is allocated to the MEMBERS
of the company which your daughter will become once she is eligible. Once the Subscriber Savings Account reaches a certain level,
USAA begins providing a payment from it (in December). This is not a big secret and I'd heard about it long before I started to get it.
What I did NOT know was that there is an additional "Senior Bonus" that gets given after 40 yrs as a member and was a very welcome
surprise.
By the way, USAA gives good student, drivers ed and other discounts as well.
 
As an update to this, we decided not to deposit for housing. The repercussions of doing so were less clear and we may have become liable for much more than a few hundred dollars . Freshman housing is guaranteed at this school so it was a safer option for us just to wait on housing and do nothing. Res Life confirmed this. Should my son need to attend this school, he most certainly won’t have prime choices but he won’t be left homeless.
 
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