3 Reasons Colleges Wait to Send Final Awards

It’s right around New Year’s, so you’ve probably heard back from most of the colleges you applied to early, whether that was Early Decision, Early Action, or just rolling admissions. And if you were accepted to those colleges, congratulations! That’s so exciting. And you may have even seen in that acceptance letter an offer of a scholarship based on how badly the college wants to compete for you to get you to choose them over other colleges that may have also accepted you at this time.

But when you apply to college there are actually two different departments you’re applying to. You’re applying to the admissions office, and they’re making choices about whether or not you’re accepted, deferred, waitlisted, or rejected. They’re also making choices about your merit scholarships. Then there’s the financial aid office, and they make choices about your need-based grants, work study, and loans, both subsidized and unsubsidized. The admissions office gets your application. The financial aid office gets your FAFSA, your CSS profile, and any other school specific financial documents they may request.

And until you get a letter from both of these (your acceptance letter and your award letter), you don’t have the final word from a college and you should not make a decision. Don’t commit. Don’t send a deposit. And it may take them weeks or even months after sending you the acceptance letter to send you the award letter. And there are three reasons why colleges drag their feet about this.

One, they know the sooner they accept you, the more likely you are to go there. You have more time to consider yourself as a future student there. Or, maybe you were holding off on submitting applications to other colleges until you got the good news from this one, and now that you have, who needs to write extra essays and get those applications submitted because you know where you’re going.

Second, colleges know that when they accept you early it gives them more time to poke you. “Poke, poke, hey, you coming? Hey, send a deposit. Hey, good housings going to run out. Come to an Accepted Students Day.” And the more often they poke you, the more likely you are to choose that college.

And the third reason is a college knows once you’ve made a deposit and confirmed, they don’t need to give you as much money in that award letter. So they’re waiting to see if you blink first. When my son was accepted to his top choice college he got, in his acceptance letter, a $19,000 merit scholarship. His mother and I were elated, but we held, and you should hold too, because two months later when we got that award letter that summarized everything, wouldn’t you know it? They bumped his $19,000 award up to $21,000. You will never convince me they would’ve done that even if we’d already sent in a deposit.

So, there’s lots of reasons why you should keep doing the research. Look into these colleges carefully. Go for an Accepted Students Day before committing. But don’t send a deposit until you’re absolutely certain you’ve gotten every last dollar out of this college that they’re willing to part with.

If you have questions, give us a call at 732-556-8220. We are here to help.