<p>I love Dartmouth, but I know that I'll need a lot of financial aid to go there if I somehow get accepted. Is applying ED too risky, or should I take a chance?</p>
<p>Do you know of anyone who needed a lot of money, got in ED, and received a large enough package?</p>
<p>From what I hear, Dartmouth is good with financial aid, but not great. Out of all of the Ivy Leagues, it is near the bottom in terms of finaid packages.</p>
<p>And also, if you get into another school with better financial aid, I think that you can break the ED for the other school.</p>
<p>Beat out Columbia for me as far as FA.</p>
<p>Terrible financial aid, in my opinion; smaller liberal arts colleges offered me better aid packages.</p>
<p>But I guess it doesn’t really matter if you think Dartmouth is your TOP CHOICE. Because if you don’t get enough aid,
<p>Don’t ED students receive their financial aid package at the same time as RD students? Wouldn’t it be too late to apply to other schools by then? Or do they give ED students some sort of estimate if they are accepted?</p>
<p>By using the calculator on their web site and asking the aid office any questions you have, you should get a very clear idea what they will offer you. There are no major mysteries here, how they calculate your need is spelled out. </p>
<p>The biggest problems is typically that families can not afford their EFC. EFC is a financial stretch for all but the wealthy. </p>
<p>So sit down with your parent’s and the calculator and you should quickly know what will be expected of you.</p>
<p>There are not many small LACs that have better aid than Dartmouth unless the above poster means merit aid. As far as need based aid, only HYPS offer more generous packages.</p>
<p>I’ve already used the calculator, and the EFC it projects is an amount that my parents said they would be willing to pay. It’s probably a stretch for them, but they said that it’s doable. Is it possible for there to be a huge discrepancy between what the calculator says and what the college eventually offers? I’m positive that I filled the form out correctly. </p>
<p>And thanks for the help, everyone! =)</p>
<p>ivory: accepted ED students receive a preliminary finaid award with their acceptance in Dec. Of course, final numbers won’t be available until the tax returns are filed in January.</p>
<p>Dartmouth has great need-based finaid, since it is no-loan. Dartmouth does not offer merit scholarships, so packages at those colleges may beat it. Of course, HYP has better need-based packages (and larger endowments), but Cornell is worse.</p>
<p>I applied ED and received plenty of aid. They calculate it the same way, no matter when you apply. You get your FA award if/when you’re accepted, and they edit it as the required forms come in (you can always check it online) Your finalized award (before scholarships) is mailed to you when the RD students find out their decisions, as most paperwork is processed and done by then. </p>
<p>The only thing I can say that’s negative towards Dartmouth’s FA is that their summer earnings expectation is really high ($2700) compared with similar schools, but it’s still not that bad. The no-loans policy and policy to apply scholarships to W-S and student contribution overcome that and then some.</p>
<p>As long as your finances are straight forward, it should be accurate. There was a poster whose family owned a business who did not get the aid she anticipated because they did not understand how businesses were treated.</p>
<p>If your parents have jobs and assets with clear values, it should be very close.</p>
<p>Isn’t Dartmouth ED only helpful for legacies?
And yes, you should apply, because even if you got in and you can prove you can’t pay for it, then you can legally get out of the binding contract.</p>
<p>heck no, ED is a boost for everyone. But the legacy boost only occurs during the ED round.</p>
<p>I actually got better aid at Williams than I did at Dartmouth. That’s not including a scholarship I received there that eliminated work study. </p>
<p>Putting that aside, you really don’t know where you’ll be four or five months from now. I was dead set on applying ED to dartmouth. But the day after I sent in my ED agreement, something came up and I had to withdraw it. I instead applied to Yale SCEA (accepted), got a likely to Dartmouth, but am ending up at UNC.</p>
<p>Go figure. A year ago I never would have believed I’d end up at Carolina. This thread reminds me how much I (and my aspirations) have changed over the past year. Wow. Good luck on ED, if that’s the route you find yourself taking in five months :)</p>
<p>I can say personally Dartmouth’s FA was really good, and beat out Cornell slightly, and Brown by a long shot. So I wouldn’t be too worried about it.</p>