Seniors! Most universities require an enrollment commitment fee, payable sometime in the spring. Usually hovering around $250, the fee secures a spot in the freshmen class and tells the university you are coming to their school.

You can sometimes pay two or three fees to buy some time if you have not decided which university offers the best fit and match. Realize fees are usually not refundable. Only the indecisive should venture into this territory because you will rue the day you sent $250 +/- to School B and you are not getting back that dough.

A plethora of overtures of commitment are about to take place: securing the best on-campus housing, signing up for orientation, registering or pre-registering for fall classes, shopping the optimum meal plan and buying the proper books. All of these begin with the epiphany of waking up one Saturday morning and having that loving feeling envelop you and you saying to yourself, "I can't wait to become a Billiken! (or Wildcat, or Lumberjack or Yellowjacket...)

Get ready, seniors and parents, because the next steps to cultivating a great beginning are very important and timeliness is critical. Lateness in this process will ensure a screwed up situation and your child may get a less-than-desirable class schedule, sub-optimum housing, no parking or some other bureaucratic mess that you can avoid.

Over the next three months, stuff is coming your way and you will need to take action according to deadlines. Universities have overly punitive responses when students blow through deadlines. They will fee you so badly that Bank of America and Wells Fargo become envious.

Also, you may have multiple deadlines and fees. Honors Colleges frequently require an initial fee to participate. Don't blow through their deadlines either. Special education services such as the UofA's SALT may have fees with itinerant deadlines. Sometimes your child's financial aid package may automatically cover the fees but you need to be vigilant.

For instance, Campus Recreation charges sometimes are included and automatically paid but other times it's left up to your child to pay that fee independently via check or credit card. At the UofA, Campus Rec. is included and you can't wiggle out of it even if your child chooses to not use their services.

Meal plans are another tricky area to navigate. Most colleges require your child to purchase a meal plan. Out of the realm of politically correct thinking, one of these plans at ASU is called the "All You Care to Eat" plan. Back in the day, before Bloomberg, it was called "All You Can Eat." Nomenclature aside, food (board) is expensive and you usually have to pay for some kind of plan, even if it's minimalist. Sometimes dollars placed on meal plans don't carry over semester-to-semester. Your child can actually forfeit dollars if he or she neglects to eat their total number of meals. Political correctness aside, that's called a rip off.