Aries; There is a small amount of movement mid year. Within a month after sukkos there are a few, not many who will seek to switch seminaries. They are already there, it’s not working where they are, and don’t want to quit on the experience. Its not many. But the ones who leave to go home aren’t that many either. Those gaps sometimes do get filled. It is not guaranteed to be a writeoff for the seminary.
And even if so, that should be the cost of doing business. You try to fill 100%, but the parents take risks sending kids, and the seminaries should take risks on accepting.
Let’s take a hypothetical seminary that takes in 100 girls at 18K each. That’s 1.8 million to provide 8 months of programimng and meals 5.5 days a week. They shut down during nissan and tishrei. They make the girls schnorr from the not very wealthy Yerushalmi residents for Shabbos. And when they have 1 or 2 backouts in mid year, they can’t survive on 1.79 million instead? (All this while preaching to the girls all year long they they must be mistapek b’muat for the sake of Torah!)
Seminaries aren’t even willing to accept a little marketing expense. The trips to America by those who interview the girls need to be recovered by the nonrefundable application fees. They do not live in the real business world. But they get away with it because the kids have their parent wrapped around their fingers, emotionally.
And yes, I’m a bit stressed over having to write out all those checks for my third daughter very soon. She’s a wonderful bas yisroel, looking forward to a wonderful year. And I hope to be able to provide it for her, with Hashem’s help. But methinks the seminaries are extrorting from us parents.