Applying early decision (ED)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rice University
1

<p>So today my father called the Rice admissions office. According to him, I am advised to submit all the applications together with my Rice ED application. Should I be accepted by Rice, all my other applications are rescinded. This seems a little suspicious to me since that could potentially be a waste of a lot of money compared to waiting for my ED decision and then applying to my RD colleges. Plus, this means that my ED and RD applications would look exactly the same--I thought you're supposed to make your RD application look better than the ED app. Consequently, I'm a bit wary of what my father said since he might have misunderstood the lady over the phone. </p>

<p>Am I correct in saying that ED decisions come out Dec. 15? This makes the situation even more complicated since I'm leaving the country on Dec. 18, which means I have 3 days to apply to my RD colleges in case I'm rejected.</p>

<p>Could somebody please verify this? Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Okay, this is how ED works.</p>

<p>This is a hypothetical situation, mind you:</p>

<p>You apply to Rice ED, which means you turn in all your materials and application by November 1 or 15, then find out if you're accepted/denied/deferred on December 15.</p>

<p>If you're accepted to Rice ED, you can throw out all of your other applications. You're in college!</p>

<p>If you're deferred or denied when December 15 rolls around, then you must work on all of your other RD applications that are due January 1, January 2, or January 10 or January 15 (it really depends on the particular college, but usually it's January 1st).</p>

<p>Keep in touch with Rice for updated materials (transcript, awards, etc) if you've been deferred in December from ED.</p>

<p>Then you wait until April to find out if you're finally accepted or not.</p>

<hr>

<p>You should spend the most time on your ED application. Why? Because you should ED to your FIRST CHOICE school, and you know what first choice means? It means you love that school so much and you are just dying to go there and because you love that school so much you're applying ED and swear that you will attend if Rice wants you as well. (Actually, you sign an ED contract selling your soul. Haha, just kidding. But not about the ED contract ;))</p>

<p>Because ideally, you will just have to fill out one ED application to Rice, and if you're accepted, then you don't need to spend another minute worrying about RD applications when all of your friends are. This is, of course, granted that you're admitted to Rice come December.</p>

<p>As for your particular situation of going out of the country, then I guess you'll have to work doubly hard to get all your applications in before you leave?</p>

<p>If you DO have to submit all your applications (ED and RD), then as soon as you hear from Rice that you've been accepted (if this happens) then by contract you must withdraw all your other applications to other schools. Otherwise, you will risk Rice rescinding your offer and perhaps other schools' as well because of the binding character of an ED decision.</p>

3

<p>I agree with the above post except for the part that you only have to fill the other apps out if you get rejected. You will find out if you got into Rice on December 15th (maybe a day earlier, like me), and keep in mind you will have to mail forms, ask for recommendation letters (many teachers mail them themselves), write essays, find out information for your application, etc... even the Common App doesn't get rid of all this because you have to print, fill out, and mail all the forms to each school (as well as applying online, there are forms to fill out and mail). In most cases, your counselor has to fill them out, and they have to be in their desk a few weeks in advance (counselors have a couple hundred students to do this for). </p>

<p>Now let's do the math... with most applications due somewhere around January 1st (or even early December, which is when you have to turn them in if you want to be considered for scholarships by many schools, including state schools like UT or Texas A&M and others out of Texas as well) that doesn't leave much time for you to do all the required stuff. </p>

<p>Sure, you will be in Christmas break for part of that time, but will your counselor really get the forms in for you by Jan 1st if you turn them in on December 16th? Besides, students are now applying to several colleges (10+), you do NOT want to fill out 10 college applications in the span of 2 weeks. Especially if you are on break. TRUST ME. </p>

<p>I got in ED and I'm glad I did, just make sure you're smart about it, though.</p>

<p>The one piece of advice I have for you is:</p>

<p>DO THIS S.H.I.T. RIGHT AND DO IT EARLY...
This is the next 4 years of your life you're talking about.</p>

4

<p>I wouldn't wait until after hearing from Rice to fill out your RD apps. My children's schools (yes, two different high schools) had RD deadlines for transcripts, evaluations, etc., well before winter break. Those counselors and teachers are on break, too. My daughter had to have her RD requests before she heard from her ED school. Yes, I wrote several apllication fee checks and later she wrote application withdrawal letters. Accepted it as the cost of doing business in our case.</p>

5

<p>just have all your other apps done and ready in hand to send in via online/snail mail. that way if you are deferred/rejected you can just mail all the other apps in without having to scramble to fill them out.</p>

6

<p>My idea for applying ED (if my father will allow me to) is to send in my ED application, but still work on my RD application before I hear from my ED school.</p>

<p>For me, I'd much rather have all the applications ready to be sent in case I get deffered as opposed to rushing to finish all of the applications before the end of the month. In order to not waste money on the application fees, don't send the RD applications in until you find out if you were accepted or deffered from Rice.</p>

<p>That's my plan, at least. I haven't found a problem with it yet, it still fits in with all of the deadlines and makes it less stressful, IMO.</p>

7

<p>That's a good plan, it's basically what I did, except I had to turn in my Texas A&M, UT, and USC applications in because of scholarship consideration deadlines.</p>

8

<p>Isn't it still considered best not to apply ED if your final choice is going to be somewhat dependant on financial aid / scholarships. I have read that applying ED often will result in less FA since the schools don't feel like they have to be as competitive in their offers.</p>

9

<p>Isn't it still considered best not to apply ED if your final choice is going to be somewhat dependant on financial aid / scholarships . . . .</p>

<p>100% correct. Even schools of similar reputation can vary immensely in both need-based and pure merit awards. In the past two admission cycles, S1 and S2 have variations of up to 15K in what they were expected to pay at "comparable" schools, and far more when comparing solid schools that might be considered on different reputation levels. For example, S2 found that Wash U was much more generous than Rice, while others had the opposite experience. So too, MIT was much more generous with S1's need-based aid than Cornell. Then when you throw in the scholarship monies available from such strong schools as Case Western and RPI, you have a lot of variables to consider--variables that are unavailable to ED applicants.</p>

10

<p>This is not true about less FA if you apply ED. I heard the same rumors, and called an admissions officer I know at Rice to confirm.</p>

<p>I did not get any merit scholarships when I found out I got in ED, but I got a call in late April from Rice FA Office telling me I got the Trustee Diversity Scholarship. I guess they save most of the scholarships for later, and distribute them among the accepted students in a fair way. </p>

<p>Also, Rice will meet 100% of your demonstrated need (meaning whatever is left from the EFC, Rice will pay for. If Rice costs $45,000 to attend and your EFC is $20,000, Rice will give you $25,000 in grant/scholarship/loans/workstudy).</p>

<p>You should never count on merit aid to cover your EFC when applying. What if you apply ED and Rice covers only your demonstrated need? If financial aid ABOVE the EFC is a big concern for you, you should consider applying RD and compare scholarship and FA offers with other schools. Chances are, if you're competitive enough to go to Rice, some schools might offer you some nice financial aid.</p>

<p>Also, apply to LOCAL scholarships. Those are the best. I didn't think I'd get any outside scholarships, but turns out since I applied to some big nationwide scholarship they sent my application to my local branch, and I got an extra $5,000/year.</p>

11

<p>Beef,</p>

<p>You and the Rice FA office may well be correct that applying ED will have no impact on your Financial Aid award from Rice. BUT, an applicant has no way of knowing how Rice (or any other college/university) will differ from other, generally/arguably comparable schools in calculating "100% of demonstrated need." </p>

<p>If a student sees financial aid as a critical factor, our family's experience over the past two years indicates that, at least in this case, common wisdom is accurate--s/he should be very careful about applying ED. Note that we experienced huge differences in expected contributions at comparable schools that all promised to meet 100% of "demonstrated need."</p>

12

<p>From what I have noticed about FA, countless schools claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need, but what differs among the school is the actual amount that is the demonstrated need.</p>

<p>Some schools will claim that you are able to pay more, some schools may be more generous and decide that you have a greater need. </p>

<p>It's because of this that applying ED can become tricky with FA. You don't know how the need at ED school will compare to the need at other RD schools you may have applied to.</p>

13

<p>stevedad,</p>

<p>You're right, each school does have its own way of calculating the EFC, I should have clarified that. You can get a general idea from online calculators and the FAFSA, but even so what the school calculates may be different. If you absolutely cannot pay to attend the school because of a high EFC, however, you can get out of the ED contract. Don't take this lightly, though, as the ED contract is serious business and you shouldn't try to get out of it if you simply don't like how much aid you were offered.</p>