When do you actually have to pick your senior school?

[PetronellaBridgerton]

So many people seem to have multiple deposits down for senior school places. When do you actually have to commit to one if you have a DC currently in Y8? Are people waiting for scholarship results, bursaries or what is the idea of keeping so many unconditional, confirmed places? Spoke to someone who said they have a place at Harrow, Eton, Radley and Winchester. They said they’d like to ‘keep their options open’.
It must be a nightmare for the schools as well, I take it they can’t compare notes due to GDPR either?

Check the conditions for your schools, but from experience the schools we looked at required a term's notice to leave. If you tell them before the Easter break in Y8 that you are not going then you only lose your deposit. After Easter you are liabile for the first term's fees.

However, personally I think it is irresponsible to wait that long if offers are unconditional. It is different if offers are conditional on CE results in Y8.

The schools you mention typically make (I thought) conditional offers in Year 6, which means three of those four places have been held for two years that could have gone to someone else, but it would be hard to give up conditional offers, unless they are all have the same requirements.

This is why we only apply to schools that make unconditional offers and use CE for setting only.

I think those schools also actually mostly make unconditional offers (I don’t think you pay a deposit for a conditional offer?) and then use CE for setting- which means parents are holding multiple spaces and then pour away three of four deposits, just in case they change their mind with one term to go? Maybe I just don’t get it!

Pretty sure that Eton, Harrow and Winchester make mostly conditional offers, with Radley the exception.

But holding four offers open does seem a lot.

I had three offers for DD (so paid 3 deposits) but gave two of the places up just before beginning of Year 8. One of the issues is that Year 6 is SO early to make a decision on what will suit them almost three years later. Also one of the schools we applied to moved the goalposts in terms of their boarding offering which meant it wouldn't have worked for us, so I'm glad I didn't bank on that, even though it started off as our front runner. While I did waste two deposits, it's better than wasting 40-50k a year on the wrong school, which is what it kind of comes down to.

I do wonder if the more popular schools effectively "over book", knowing that they will lose, say, 5% of prospective students to other offers.

That all makes sense. It is a big decision and a couple of deposits is very little in comparison. Like you say @LaPalmaLlama schools change over a couple of years and I suppose you are vulnerable leaving yourself with one option only.

@tachetastic That would explain it as you don’t want to let go of offers before you know the outcome. It also explains why you might have to wait quite late to get your house confirmed.

Schools must over subscribe knowing people will drop out. I cant see any other way?

@PetronellaBridgerton Schools must over subscribe knowing people will drop out. I cant see any other way?

I think that must be right. Eton and Harrow probably know that only a handful that get offers will drop out (plus those that don't make the grade at CE, though that will not be many as they only make offers to the best), whereas other schools probably will over-subscribe, the extent of this based on where they know they are in the pecking order of schools.

Kids that get "conditional" offers from schools like Harrow, Eton, Radley and Winchester are really being made unconditional offers. The condition is passing Common Entrance, which if you've made it through the ISEBs + schools own tests + interviews successfully you are not going to fail. They say "conditional" to keep students on the boil in the long wait between being made an offer and actually getting to the new school (2+ years). Holding a couple of places, two years in advance, can make sense. It probably complicates things for the schools but the whole system is complicated; taking decisions for thirteen-year-olds when they're ten isn't easy. Holding onto four places is a bit much.