Prospective freshmen who were awarded scholarships from Ohio University now have an extra couple of weeks to confirm their intents to enroll.
OU has extended its enrollment deadline from May 1 to June 1 for first-year students who have received scholarships. The university has also postponed the housing deposit refund deadline for all incoming students.
Scholarship offers for incoming freshmen went out later than expected, prompting the deadline extension.
Although OU wanted to send scholarship letters to admitted students by the end of March or early April, the letters did not go out until April 11, said Craig Cornell, vice provost for enrollment management.
Uncertainty with the federal and state budgets delayed final decisions on scholarship packages. Gov. John Kasich released his budget proposal March 15, but the state’s legislature still must approve a finalized version before July 1.
“There were some indications that we could see changes in the state’s grant program, and at the same time, the federal government is changing budget bills, and inside those bills were changes to the Pell Grant program,” Cornell said.
Although neither the state nor federal budgets have been finalized, Cornell said plans are firm enough for OU to move forward with scholarship offers. OU does not yet have final numbers on how much in scholarship money it awarded to newly admitted students.
“We decided to extend the deadline to June 1 in order to give admitted students more time to decide among total offers of admission, scholarships and financial aid at the various institutions they had applied to,” said Candace Boeninger, interim director of Admissions, in an email. “We have also extended the deadline for requesting a housing deposit refund for the same reason.”
As of May 2, incoming freshmen’s housing deposits has increased by 200 compared to the same time last year. About 3,350 students have put deposits down for next year, compared to 3,150 as of May 3 last year.
OU does not set a hard deadline for when students must submit a housing deposit for the following year.
“This is an important decision for students and their families, one with important personal and financial implications regardless of which institution a student chooses,” Boeninger said. “… The extension is simply an effort to alleviate some of the pressure caused by the atypical and more compressed timeline.”
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