<p>I know ED is binding and all but I've seen other schools allow people to back out if their financial aid is not "good enough." Does Williams allow students to back out of ED admission because of financial aid?</p>
<p>Isn't ED always contingent on the student accepting the aid package? There's no binding commitment if the package isn't accepted. How can schools force someone to "come anyway" if the student cannot afford it?</p>
<p>Yes, if the financial aid is unacceptable to your family, the school will not "force" you to attend. However, I recommend not bringing this issue up with any of the admissions staff (or discuss this with an adcom while maintaining your anonymity). Letting adcoms know that you won't honor your ED agreement if the financial aid stinks is not the best plan of action.</p>
<p>Then how?</p>
<p>Well... If I really knew that Williams was my first choice school, and I wanted to apply early decision, I would call an admissions person ( using a pseudonym), and openly express my concerns.</p>
<p>I would want to be given an estimate of my expected contributions well before the January 1 application deadline for regular decision, so that my parents and i could make an informed decision regarding the financial feasibility of a Williams education. I would also ask how many students who are accepted through the ED program fail to matriculate for financial reasons.</p>
<p>Great suggestions, thanks.</p>
<p>
[quote]
if the financial aid is unacceptable to your family, the school will not "force" you to attend.
[/quote]
Be VERY careful. This is not actually true. Schools consider the issue of "need" based on what THEY think you can afford, not on what YOU think you can afford. So if they meet your "need", even if you don't think so, you're bound to them. Also, they might meet your "need" asa they define it solely through loans, not grants, and that would also be considered binding.</p>
<p>Now, can they force you to attend? No, because they can't force you to pay. However, they can notify other schools that you have reneged on your ED commitment, and other schools may refuse to enroll you.</p>
<p>That is why, if financial aid is really an issue for you, you SHOULD NOT apply ED.</p>
<p>"This is not actually true."</p>
<p>This <em>is</em> actually true at Reed. The Reed process for ED aid is that it's the student's decision to accept or reject the offer, and Reed will in no way blackball the student with other schools.</p>
<p>Can others say what their colleges' policy is?</p>
<p>Columbia states, right on their website, that they "release" only 1 or 2 students from their binding ED commitments each year, only for extreme financial reasons (because otherwise they could meet additional need by giving you more loans) and that only to apply/attend schools which are not their competitors (i.e. state schools). They DO share this information with other schools, most notably those within the the Consortium of Financing of Higher Education (COHFE). These are 31 schools, including all the Ivies, Williams, Amherst, Smith, Duke, Stanford, etc. that share this information with each other. </p>
<p>ED is considered binding - you agree to forego comparing financial aid offers, and accept the school's definition of your need and how it is to be met in exchange for an earlier decision. If you can't agree to the terms, you shouldn't be doing it. (The college may not only blackball you, but it will place a stain on your GC and your school, and potentially impact other students.)</p>
<p>mini, good to know, thanks. Need-aid students who want to apply ED should certainly avoid these 31 schools (list at <a href="http://web.mit.edu/cofhe)%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/cofhe)</a>. We (and the OP!) really need a list of schools which <em>don't</em> have this blackball policy.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Need-aid students who want to apply ED should certainly avoid these 31 schools (list at <a href="http://web.mit.edu/cofhe)%5B/url%5D.%5B/quote%5D">http://web.mit.edu/cofhe).
[/quote]
</a> I don't agree with this thought. Kids should be well aware of a school's policies before deciding to apply ED or not. However, for most schools families can get a pretty good estimate of what the financial aid offer will be and then decide if applying ED works for them or not. A family can
* Use EFC estimators and info from the particular school to to get a pretty good guess of the "need" this school will assign to the family.
* Schools also provide info about their typical financial aid package ... we typically meet x% of the need and that is met with y% of loans.
* Assume estimates that are pretty unfavorable ... is this level of financial aid OK? If so, applying ED might work for you.
* Answer the question ... does your family want to compare financial aid offers and merit aid offers and try to negogiate with schools (which will likely yield the most help from schools)? If so, don't apply ED.
* Research if the ED school negogiates financial aid ... if they are not going to negogiate waiting for the RD round doesn't change the financial picture from this school (but does limit alternative possibly better packages).
* Etc</p>
<p>Applying ED can work for those who need financial aid but they need to do homework and they also need to be comfortable accepting a package that might be OK compared to what they might have gotten. (Which implies this ED school better be a GREAT fit to by pass comparing financial aid packages).</p>
<p>"... for most schools families can get a pretty good estimate of what the financial aid offer will be ..."</p>
<p>Ok, but there are plenty of shortfall horror stories on these pages, such that a binding commitment could be tragic. If some of these 31 have a reputation for providing realistic funding, then perhaps it's worth taking a chance, and hope that they will "release" fairly when a true hardship exists.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Ok, but there are plenty of shortfall horror stories on these pages, such that a binding commitment could be tragic.
[/quote]
I've been reading CC for 3 years and my impression is most of the "shortfall horror stories" fall into 3 groups ... 1) the family doesn't agree with the school's definition of their EFC; however if this EFC can be predicted fairly well that this should not be a surprise ... 2) the family is unhappy that schools do not meet 100% of need or include lots of loans; however if a school is fairly consistant about these then it also can be predicted ... 3) the families finances have something unusual that really do make the EFC and FA pacakges estimates diffifulkt to do (job changes, family owned businesses, inherentences). A family with a pretty straight forward financial picture has 1) ands 2) to deal with and with some homework can probably get a pretty good estimate before applying ED. I went to Cornell as an undergrad ... meet 100% of a pretty standard definition of need but with more loans than most of the other IVYies ... anyone considering Cornell ED could probably use this info to decide (and the loan % is readily available).</p>
<p>The plural of anecdote is not evidence, but nonetheless, here's ours. My d. applied and was accepted to about a half dozen "need-blind, meet 100% of need schools", including Williams. We had a very simple FASFA - no outside businesses, steady income, no big houses or investments, no major illnesses, nothing out of the ordinary. The range from lowest to highest in terms of aid offered differed by $47k over four years (or more than a year's costs over four years), with loan amounts in those packages ranging from $0 to $17.9k. Williams was in the middle of the pack - not the highest and not the lowest. My d. chose elsewhere for academic and other reasons, but the point being that had she gone ED, we would never have known the range of offers, nor had any bargaining power in going back to her preferred school should we have chosen to do so.</p>
<p>If you don't mind my asking, what other schools did she apply to that gave he better aid than Williams? Williams is supposed to be amazing with financial aid compared to most other colleges.</p>
<p>Mini,</p>
<p>Be careful not to confuse need based aid with merit based aid disguised as need based aid.</p>
<p>If I recall correctly, your daughter received merit based scholarships to some of her schools. I believe she was a Zollman scholar at Smith??</p>
<p>Mini ... one more question ... had you estimated what you thought the aid packages would be using EFC calculators and looking up colleges typical FinAd? If so, was the school with the worst package that far off your a priori estimate?</p>