<p>No Vonlost-- it doesn’t mean a student who needs FA should <em>never</em> apply ED. Some schools (Muhlenberg comes to mind) are pretty good about giving good aid to EDers, and, as with your quote above, you can withdraw from an ED school if you can’t afford the aid offer. But you should look into it carefully, talk to your GC, and the FA office at the school you’re applying to. It feels pretty awful to apply ED to your first choice, get in, and have to turn that down. And in some cases schools will offer more FA to RD applicants because they know those people have offers to compare. Most important is to know your finances going in, so you don’t have discouraging surprises along the way.</p>
<p>Thanks; I’m not familiar with these programs.</p>
<p>I don’t know it if applies here, but there’s another way of thinking about ED financial aid: A school that makes an ED financial aid offer really, really wants the applicant to attend, since there’s more of a financial “loss” for the school, so they’re not going to scrimp on aid. Just a theory. :eek:</p>
<p>Agree with Gwen – not a NEVER… but, because of timing ED may not be the best option for a student who needs to be able compare financial aid packages in the end.</p>
<p>If you are admitted ED to a school you can choose not to attend if the FA package is not sufficient, but at that point you will not know whether or not that package could be the best you would get. Applying RD (or non-binding EA) allows a family to compare aid packages once all acceptances are in.</p>
<p>It’s a tough decision when you have that by-far number one choice, especially if you believe applying ED increases your chance of acceptance, and having the whole process finished in December.</p>
<p>It’s a very tough decision, vonlost. Add to that the fact that students are growing and changing during the process itself, and may find that the ‘by-far number one’ isn’t so far ahead anymore after they’ve auditioned at other schools. </p>
<p>There are so many ways to look at this-- people are so different and want such different things. A ‘dream school’ is a concept that makes me nervous–you have to wake up sometime. But a school that seems to be a great fit, after lots of research, visit, etc… then you need to go further and study the school’s FA policies, run a FAFSA calculation to see what your need is estimated to be, and then…maybe take a deep breath and jump.</p>
<p>My S was able to get several offers before December of his senior year, and a few firm side offers coming out of the summer before that even. While some of the schools where still on the table at the end, the decision didn’t get made until the afternoon of May 1st anyway. </p>
<p>I know it’s different for boys than it is for girls, the whole supply and demand thing goes haywire. Anyway, we waited until the last minute because we had several schools in varied geographic regions vying for my son. In the end, he recieved full scholarships from 3 of the 8 schools and accepted one of them based on where it was located. </p>
<p>I thought there where at least 3 better offers and 2 better locations to go to school, but he made a great fit choice and waited them out for the best deal.</p>
<p>It was nice to have choices early, but in the end it played out to the last minute anyway.</p>
<p>BIG SHOES - OMG!!! Your S must be amazingly talented. I can only hope and pray my S gets that kind of response!</p>
<p>Is your son a junior or senior MTMommaJAA?</p>
<p>Big Shoes - he is a Senior and going through the application/audition process. It’s been quite an educational experience!</p>
<p>I bet it has, did you do any auditioning already, or is he doing it all as a senior?</p>
<p>Big Shoes - he will be doing it all as a Senior. We have 14 audition schools on the list and hoping to actually audition for all of them (assuming he gets through pre-screens)! Does your S have any videos on YouTube? I would love to see him perform. We both have our moments of insecurity as to where his talent level lies as we have not had any live auditions.</p>