<p>Many of us know or have been told that applying Early Decision will help your chances by demonstrating that a school is your first choice and, if given admission, you will matriculate to that school. It also, frankly, is nice because you can get the college application process over with, and it's much cheaper because you don't have to spend so much money sending a bunch of applications.
Clearly, ED has it's pros, and that's why lots of students are now choosing to apply Early Decision.</p>
<p>On the other hand, for many middle and lower class families, Early Decision is a slippery slope. You might get into the school of your dreams, but you might not be given enough aid to attend without accumulating a lot of debt.
Personally, I find this to be a concern because many colleges and universities say that they "meet full demonstrated need", but your demonstrated need is calculated by them and will be different for each college you apply to. Applying early decision does not allow you to compare financial aid packages.
Early Decision also does not allow you to demonstrate your academic achievements senior year, which may be a concern for some.
For those of us who cannot afford full tuition, applying Early Decision seems a bit daunting.</p>
<p>Do you think applying early decision is worth it? Are there pros and cons I'm leaving out? What can a student do to reduce the concerns related to applying early decision? </p>
<p>you can get out of ED if you just tell them you can’t afford it with the given aid, from what I’ve seen. it’s in the standard ED agreement as basically the only way out.</p>
I don’t see the point of this thread, as the answer will vary from student to student; there is not a one-size fits all answer. For an applicant that does not need financial aid – and at most colleges that represents 40% or more of students – yes, ED is worth it, as your chances are better applying ED than RD.</p>
By law, colleges now have Net-Price Calculators on their websites which are pretty accurate, so student’s applying ED should be not be surprised about the amount of aid they will receive. Before a student wastes their early slot on a school they can’t afford, they should run the NPC.</p>
<p>In addition, your guidance counselor must also sign the ED agreement. If a student backs out of their ED agreement, it makes the high school and the GC look bad. So, a good GC will sit down with a student and their parents to make sure the family has run the NPC and will accept an offer from a college provided the aid is not far off from the NPC amount.</p>
<p>Admissions Officers hate the word “negotiate” – it makes them feel like a used car salesman – but they would reevaluate an Early Decision (ED) aid package if there were substantial changes to a family’s income or assets that occurred after you’ve applied. For example, if your mom or dad just lost their job, a college would reevaluate your ED aid package and would probably offer to sweeten the pot. But, if your family’s financial situation remains the same, ED schools do not have an incentive to negotiate a better aid package, as they can fill your slot with hundreds of other students who would be eager to attend. It’s basically a one time offer.</p>
<p>For Early Action (EA) students, colleges will also reevaluate your aid package when presented with a better offer from a peer school. For example, Harvard would reevaluate your aid package if presented with a better offer from Stanford, Yale, Princeton, or any of the other Ivies. But, they would not do so for a non-peer school or a school that offers a combination of merit and need aid. But, ED students do not have that option, as part of the ED Agreement stipulates ED students must agree to attend the ED school and immediately withdraw all other applications to all colleges. So, ED students never know where else they would have been accepted or how much aid those schools would have offered.</p>
<p>I certainly don’t think “you can always say no” is accurate. The point of ED is that you cannot say no.
I’ve heard that you have to prove that you cannot afford the school and that it’ difficult to do so, although I may be mistaken. </p>
<p>^^ A student accepted in ED round can always say no, however, that might put future ED admissions from a high school in jeopardy. Why should a college accept additional ED students from a certain high school if the guidance counselor has not done their due diligence of finding out if the applicant is serious about their ED choice or if the applicant’s family can afford the school if the aid is similar to the NPC? That’s why colleges require the guidance counselor to sign the ED agreement as well as the student and parent. It’s not unheard of for a high school to be “black-listed” for a number of years when a student backs out of an ED agreement for no apparent reason. </p>
<p>obviously they would say they don’t treat ED students any differently aid-wise, i was just wondering whether the same held true in practice because my mom’s friend told her that her son got way minimal aid (or less than they wanted/expected) at columbia and she blames this on the fact that they had no bargaining power applying ED. </p>
<p>A few things in the “in sum” mode of closure:</p>
<ul>
<li>Never apply ED to any school unless you are 100% certain that it is your favorite</li>
<li>Never apply ED to any school unless you are sure you can afford the predicted EFC and then some… (because the online model might not match the school’s).</li>
</ul>