Private school applications- please advise (Atlanta, Buckhead: live, zoned, vs.)

[CMMom]

Yes, so if tuition is $20K, approx. $3K is paid in March to secure the spot and then the rest in however many installments they require at staggered times (ours is in May and July).

[AtlJan]

Our school allows you to pay in installments but it is more expensive that way. We have already paid next year's tuition in full.

Our previous school did refund our deposit when we were accepted at our current school, but I had kept the previous school aware of our plans to switch and the potential timing of things. They were very gracious to give us the refund. We certainly weren't expecting it.

[LovelySummer]

Hi AtlJan,

Do you have a sense of why your friend is happier over at MIS relative to AIS?

[LovelySummer]

Bringing back to the top for parents who are not aware of the deposit due in April.

[AtlJan]

I can't imagine not thinking there would be a deposit. It's like the earnest money on a house or the deposit on a vacation rental. You are signing a contract--a big one--and both parties need to know the agreement has weight. I want to feel secure in that fact that the school is saving my kid's spot, and the school wants to know we're seriously coming. The deposit is a win-win.

[chabang]

I agree and, as mentioned, the deposit is really the small part. Every school I've applied to requries a signed contract for the entire tuition (so you are committing to ~20K) WITH the deposit. Basically this forces everyone to make a decison on a school by the April deadline and not jump ship if your kid gets taken off a waitlist from a higher choice.

[LovelySummer]

AtlJan,

There are just some parents who apparently were under the impression that they simply sign the contract and make monthly payments (or the whole payment) towards tuition starting in the summer or before school starts in the fall. Not everyone knows the ropes of how these situations work. And then you have some people who just never thought about it that much and are spending all of their time trying to get their child admitted.

The schools should really be express about the financial obligations that go along with the entire process so there is not a situation in which a student has been admitted but then the parents do not have several thousand dollars in April.

Also, there are some kids that get financial aid. What I understand is that the deposit for these parents is much less. Still, the parents have to have the money and if they did not know there was a deposit, they have just a few weeks to pull it all together.

More information is better in these cases. It would not hurt to indicate that on the application packet. And then not only is there no information that a deposit is due, I am told that there is no information as to how much the deposit is but that it can be say 2-3 thousand dollars. I passed on this information to a couple that I know who are applying with twins and they were shocked. Do you know they are now scrambling to try to make sure they have about 7K in the bank by next month?

Yes, not everyone knows the ropes or has friends who have been to the private schools who can go over all the unwritten details with them so that is why I brought this thread back up to the top because not everyone knows.

Originally Posted by AtlJan

I can't imagine not thinking there would be a deposit. It's like the earnest money on a house or the deposit on a vacation rental. You are signing a contract--a big one--and both parties need to know the agreement has weight. I want to feel secure in that fact that the school is saving my kid's spot, and the school wants to know we're seriously coming. The deposit is a win-win.

[LovelySummer]

My post is about the schools providing information about the deposit, not about whether the deposit makes sense overall. We all agree it makes sense.

Originally Posted by chabang

I agree and, as mentioned, the deposit is really the small part. Every school I've applied to requries a signed contract for the entire tuition (so you are committing to ~20K) WITH the deposit. Basically this forces everyone to make a decison on a school by the April deadline and not jump ship if your kid gets taken off a waitlist from a higher choice.

[AtlJan]

I don't know where you are applying, but I just checked Pace's website and under tuition and financial aid, first sentence of second paragraph states that upon notification of acceptance a deposit of 15% of total tuition is due within two weeks to hold your spot. No one should be shocked.

[LovelySummer]

AtlJan,

The parents that I know who are applying are not applying to Pace. They did not even consider the school is my understanding so they would not have seen that. The schools to which they are applying include no information regarding a deposit being due nor the amount of the deposit. I went on and checked myself when they indicated that they did not know. That is the whole point of my post. If the information was there in black and white it would just be a matter of the parents overlooking the information. I do not want to say what schools they are applying to but none of them say anything about a deposit.

I am glad that Pace includes this information.

Originally Posted by AtlJan

I don't know where you are applying, but I just checked Pace's website and under tuition and financial aid, first sentence of second paragraph states that upon notification of acceptance a deposit of 15% of total tuition is due within two weeks to hold your spot. No one should be shocked.