It's a competitive world out there, especially when it comes to getting admission into one's desired college. After pre-university, most students are exposed to a plethora of options. While most science students end up doing either BSc, engineering or medical, students of arts venture out to degree colleges and even law schools.
There are some who even apply abroad and they wait with baited breath for the results. With nearly everyone keeping a back-up option, most students, especially those waiting for their CET results or a response from colleges abroad, end up paying double fees - first where they get admission and then for the admission in the college of their choice.
Once the students get admission in the desired college, they tend to forego the fees submitted in the first institution. Parents who want nothing but the best for their children have no problem in paying the fees of both institutions.
"We are left with no choice," says Kalpana, a parent, who had to let go of a seat in City College, when her child got admission in Christ University. "Most colleges release their list on different dates. Keeping a back-up is extremely important and in that case you end up paying the college fees twice."
The fees in some of the colleges is as high as Rs 30, 000 to 40,000 and this is quite taxing for most parents. Some of the colleges do return at least 50 to 60 per cent of the money back, in cases where the students leave within a month of college reopening.
A source in a private college says, "There have been times when students have left after a month of college reopening and at that time many parents come to us requesting a refund. But they don't understand that when they withdraw admission, we too end up having empty seats. The refund depends on the time a student withdraws the admission.
If it's within a month, chances of refund are more. However, post that it is very less because the name of the student would have already been registered with the university; hence, giving that seat to another student would be impossible."
Vedika, who recently joined St Joseph's College of Arts and Science, is still waiting for a response from the foreign college she has applied to. In the meantime, she has already started attending the college. "The list of that college will be out only in July, so when I got admission in St Joseph's I didn't want to give this up as well. The wait really puts the students in dilemma," she states.
Suraj, an engineering student, too faced this situation when he passed out of PUC. "Though my main priority was engineering, as a back-up, I wanted to take up BBM. But the fee was as high as Rs one lakh. I didn't want to simply pay the fee, and then also try to get admission in an engineering college. I took a risk and didn't take admission in BBM at all. I'm glad I did that because I got an engineering seat," he adds.
Gayathri, a student counsellor, says that when it comes to deciding about the college, things can get very tricky but the decision should be of the family.
"Children at that age can get confused on what they want to do. It's the parents who need to really discuss and take a call collectively, if or not they want to let go of huge sums of money," she says.