<p>Hi! I'm a rising senior hoping to apply ED here during the fall. I know that if I apply ED, that I have to withdraw all other acceptance offers from other schools. A safety that I'm applying to has rolling admission (yay!), so I plan to apply there really early, around October-ish. </p>
<p>Now, if Smith accepts me if I apply ED (wishful thinking), do they automatically withdraw me from other schools? Because I want to review the financial aid that Smith would hopefully give me, and I hope that I can back out if the aid isn't enough.</p>
<p>Does Smith withdraw me from my other schools, or do I have to confirm in some sort of way before I withdraw all my other applications?</p>
<p>Usually with ED, the agreement is that YOU withdraw your applications to other schools upon acceptance. And, IMO only those with no money concerns at all should do the ED process. You owe it to yourself and your future to evaluate all offers once they are in.</p>
<p>Agree, if financial aid is at all a factor for you or your family, you should not apply ED. Just wait a few more months and apply RD, that gives you a chance to properly evaluate your offers when they’re all in.</p>
<p>Financial Aid is a big concern from my family, but I though need-based aid was the same for both ED and RD. It isn’t? My estimated efc was nearly zero…</p>
<p>I probably should wait till RD, but I don’t think I can wait that long. Waiting till April will seem like an eternity.</p>
<p>I am not a FA expert at all. If Smith is one of those schools that meets full need with no loans, then it may be a good option for you. That is something you will want to check. Sometimes a school says that it meets 100 percent of need but the FA package has loans.</p>
<p>Another possibility is to apply to a couple schools with rolling admission and perhpas one early action (non-binding). Then there is the possibility of having a couple of acceptances in before Christmas and it takes a lot of pressure off.</p>
<p>I applied ED even though I had extreme financial needs. I was accepted and because of some mishap, received my financial aid statement later than everyone else (I believe it was in February or March). Smith gave more aid than I could have imagined. That’s just my story though.</p>
<p>Smith does say it meets all your needs but different schools calculate need differently so it isn’t always the same result. Also for instance Smith might include some work study - I think the limit is $1500 per year but my D for instance found that that was more time than she could work with classes. We did ED and did care about FA but had some flexibility.</p>
<p>Read the legal agreement that you are signing in applying ED. The only reason you can say no Smith once you make that commitment is that you cannot afford to attend. Although Smith gives generous financial aid, they have never made a no-loans promise. If you want to compare offers, apply RD.</p>
<p>Need based aid should be the same regardless of when you apply. However, Smith only meets 100% of your need as they calculate it, so what they offer you may not end up being sufficient, as you’ve already probably figured out. Waiting to apply RD gives you a better sense of what you’re “worth” so to speak in FA terms, because you’re looking at more than one offer, so you can evaluate whether one is good or not so good, and you can also ask the individual schools that have accepted you to re-evaluate their offers if they seem really off base. You could still ask Smith to re-evaluate your offer if you apply ED, but you won’t have as good of a reference point to tell whether or not the aid you need is really within reason of what you’d be offered at other similar colleges. </p>
<p>This isn’t to say that you wouldn’t get a generous FA package if you apply ED, many people do, but since financial aid is a major factor for you and you have no other driving reason to apply ED other than personal impatience, it’s probably worth it to try and wait it out.</p>
<p>Thing is you can’t anticipate how different schools will interpret your need. Your EFC is only one factor.</p>
<p>We just finished my fourth child’s college search. The financial aid offerings were quite varied. Many of the schools promised 100% of need - they each had their own way of determining what need was.</p>
<p>So I agree with those who recommend you apply RD, so you can made a completely informed decision.</p>
<p>Also, applying RD gives you a much better chance of qualifying for a merit aid award. Since one of the purposes of merit awards is to give extra incentive for applicants with great stats to pick Smith over other schools they may be accepted to, you’re much less likely to be offered a merit award like STRIDE or similar reward if you apply ED.</p>
<p>The differences among schools claiming meeting 100% of need can be huge! In our case, and this was 7 years ago, from lowest to highest, the difference was $47,000, more than a full year of attendance at the time.</p>
<p>Don’t even think of applying ED - ANYWHERE - unless you are sure it wouldn’t make any difference to you if you compared offers.</p>