Any financial benefit to being ED?

<p>Somebody told me something recently that didn't make much sense. They said there is a financial benefit to being accepted to CMU early decision as opposed to regular decision, that tuition and/or fees may be cheaper. Does that sound right to anybody?</p>

<p>No, the financial benefit is that if you are accepted ED, CMU will meet your full demonstrated need. They do not do that in Regualr round. Tuition and fees are all the same.</p>

<p>If you are a full pay kid - doesn’t matter for you.</p>

<p>who is your source?</p>

<p>Longprime -not sure who you’re talking to but here ya go:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/admission/forms/2012/apply_finaid12.pdf[/url]”>http://www.cmu.edu/admission/forms/2012/apply_finaid12.pdf&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>For all students admitted under Early Decision, Carnegie Mellon will meet the full demonstrated need with a combination of grants, loans and work-study as calculated by the university. However, we do not guarantee to meet full need for students
who are deferred or denied admission under Early Decision and later admitted under Regular Decision.</p>

<p>so do you know what this means?
“demonstrated need”
“combination of grants, loans, and work-study”
"as calculated by the university "</p>

<p>Understand the entire cite:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/admission/forms/2012/apply_finaid12.pdf[/url]”>http://www.cmu.edu/admission/forms/2012/apply_finaid12.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Apply this to your decision making: (from above document)
“• Carnegie Mellon’s financial assistance program
is designed to meet our two-part goal of helping
students with demonstrated financial need
afford the cost of education and rewarding those
students who have outstanding talents and
abilities. Need-based financial assistance is used
to enroll high-quality students”</p>

<p>“Demonstrated need” = cost of attendance - expected family contribution (as determined from the FAFSA)</p>

<p>“Combination of grants, loans, and work-study” = grants (free money) + loans (money you have to pay back) + work-study (money earned from a paid, on-campus, part-time job provided by CMU)</p>

<p>If I’m not mistaken EFC would be FAFSA + CSS Profile</p>

<p>Longprime - I am very aware of what it means. The OP was asking if there was a difference financially if you apply ED and RD. An accepted needy study would most likely receive more aid during ED than RD.</p>

<p>In our case it was about $14,000 a year difference - to me that’s a HUGE difference- and it made Carnegie Mellon affordable for us.</p>

<p>Thank you, Kelibo. That helps clear up the issue for me.</p>