<p>“Because some students who do this change their mind and decide to go to the RD accept school.”</p>
<p>Students don’t have the option to change their mind unless they can prove a FA problem, which is not easy. </p>
<p>Address this scenario for me:</p>
<p>Let’s assume I applied to Dartmouth ED and don’t need financial aid. I also applied EA to Georgetown, Cal Tech, and MIT. Before my ED decison was made, I also appled RD to Harvard and Yale. If Dartmouth accepts me, I have no choice but to attend. Why can’t I wait to hear from these other schools? I can’t change my mind. I put a lot of effort in those applications, paid a lot of money to apply and to send my scores to the schools. What’s the harm in letting me know if I would have been accepted? What does Dartmouth gain by forcing me to withdraw my applications?</p>
<p>The fact that ED applicants could ALWAYs decline if FA packages weren’t good enough is not the point. For many years, families didn’t know that AND FA packages weren’t always the best from ED schools (some have become 100% need - loan free and have raised income limits). </p>
<p>So, for a long time, many of those who needed FA feared applying ED, because they wanted to compare FA packages to see which would provide the most “no-loan” or “low loan” aid.</p>
<p>Lately, there seems to be this “re-education” going on to stress that students can decline ED if they think the FA package isn’t enough for them. That kind of message would certainly lend itself to increasing numbers of students declining.</p>
<p>cyankee… how do you do quotes that include the poster’s names. I’m doing something wrong. I’ve tried “checking the box” Quote message in reply, but that isn’t working for me. I’m doing something wrong.</p>
<p>What does Dartmouth gain? Easy. What comes around goes around and all ED schools play nice in the sandbox with other schools - the net benefit/impact I cover in post #12. </p>
<p>The rest of your scenario is basically … ‘if a student uses his time/money poorly’ what will happen’ the point then is not to dwell on a scenario that doesn’t make sense but to suggest **don’t use your time/money poorly. ** For example, no school’s first ED period conflicts with another school’s RD deadline so he/she can just work on their applications and pay the application fee AFTER hearing things didn’t go well from the ED school. As for EA, most any student would be far better off working their a$$es off on their first semester senior year grades, SAT/SAT II testing, ECs, sports, scholarly efforts, scholarships etc. then spending time on preparing FIVE applications for schools they really don’t want to go to. This is very basic stuff dude.</p>
[quote]
what you want to quote followed by [//quote] minus one of the forward slashes I included so that you can see it … otherwise it would just be a quote. ;)</p>
<p>ctyankee put the meds down. You’re making zero sense.</p>
<p>“no school’s first ED period conflicts with another school’s RD deadline so he/she can just work on their applications and pay the application fee AFTER hearing things didn’t go well from the ED school.” </p>
<p>Are you serious? ED decisions come out between December 15th and 24th. The UC applications were due on November 30th. Ever heard of Berkeley or UCLA? Ever hear of Harvard, Duke, USC, and Princeton? Harvard wants applications by December 1st and they warn you that they will begin reviewing them at the time so you’d better get them in. Princeton says the same thing and they want the apps by December 15th. Duke outright tells you that if you don’t submit by December 10th, you’re not getting an alumni interview. USC tells you that if you don’t submit by December 1st, you can’t qualify for scholarships. The list goes on. </p>
<p>If I am accepted ED, I am not withdrawming my other apps. I paid to apply and I want to know if I would have been accepted. As long as I go to my ED school, no one is hurt. I encourage everyone in my situation to do the same thing. You paid. You deserve to know.</p>
<p>*For example, no school’s first ED period conflicts with another school’s RD deadline *</p>
<p>Yes they do - you must not be familiar with Calif schools. And, many ED periods do conflict with some schools’ scholarship deadlines. Students don’t find out if they’re accepted to ED until mid December. However, some merit schools’ scholarship deadlines come before that. (I think USC is one of them).</p>
<p>I think that Single-Choice Early Action is a cure for most of these ills. </p>
<p>*If I am accepted ED, I am not withdrawming my other apps. I paid to apply and I want to know if I would have been accepted. As long as I go to my ED school, no one is hurt. I encourage everyone in my situation to do the same thing. You paid. You deserve to know. *</p>
<p>Didn’t you sign something agreeing to withdraw those other apps if you’re accepted?</p>
<p>Again, I think that Single-Choice Early Action is a cure for most of these ills. Thoughts?</p>
<p>“if you don’t demonstrate that you cannot reasonably afford it, you’re stuck with what the college wants to give you.”</p>
<p>Try thinking of it this way: When a school makes an ED offer with FA, the school really wants the student to attend, knowing they’ll take a financial “loss” so they really want to find a way to make it work, and is why appeals are often successful (we hear about them here on CC).</p>
<p>“Students don’t have the option to change their mind unless they can prove a FA problem, which is not easy.”</p>
<p>No proof is necessary. Imagine if proof were required, and couldn’t be provided to the school’s satisfaction; the student would just be expelled when the bill couldn’t be paid. Rather silly, and terrible PR for the school; that’s why we’ve never heard of this happening.
<p>vossron, if a kid applies ED and doesn’t seek FA, is there any way to get out of an ED commitment, assuming no change of circumstances? They are stuck, right?</p>
<p>I’ll answer my own question. I think colleges insist that you withdraw all applications because they don’t want you to be tempted to weasle out of the ED acceptance. It has nothing to do with wasting money or time or any of that bs. If a student withdrawals all apps, they obviously will go to the ED school, but if they wait to hear from their RD apps, they may be tempted to go elsewhere. I think that’s all there is to it.</p>
<p>Yes, I did forget about the California schools. Point taken. Showing my East Coast bias I guess. </p>
<p>All schools would like applications as early as possible but they have January deadlines for a reason. Harvard specifically states on their web site that applications completed later than December 1st are not penalized or evaluated differently than any other application received by their deadline. The Duke alumni interview thing? An applicant can merely start an application to get that scheduled.</p>
<p>So, then, are the ED schools afraid of going to Single-Choice Early Action because they’re afraid that their FA offers will pale in comparison to the RD offers elsewhere? I don’t think so, unless the family’s EFC is too high and unaffordable and the other schools offer huge merit.</p>
<p>No, ED schools are afraid of going to single-choice early action because that would reduce their yield rate. If, say, Brown changed to SCEA, maybe they’d get a few more applications from people who didn’t want to absolutely commit. But then they would lose all the students who manage to get into HYPS, and they obviously don’t want that.</p>
<p>I guess ED means different things to different people. To me, you apply ED only to your dream school – the school your heart aches to attend. If I were accepted into my ED school, I would gladly do whatever the school asked me to do.<br>
'If a school wasn’t your dream school, why did you apply ED? I don’t think it’s immoral but it is confusing, at least to me.</p>
<p>I do think the process is confusing. ED, EA. SCEA, rolling admissions, , some EA schools are non-restrictive EA, but you can’t apply ED to any other school, so they are kind of restrictive, etc. I suppose the system invites gamesmanship. </p>
<p>The ones I feel for are those like me who apply ED out of a dream and then get rejected because the school accepted someone much less interested in the school.</p>
<p>Can you imagine being rejected by your ED dream school and then someone else gets accepted ED and tries to “weasel” his way out of the commitment? How maddening would that be?</p>
<p>*To me, you apply ED only to your dream school – the school your heart aches to attend. If I were accepted into my ED school, I would gladly do whatever the school asked me to do.
*</p>
<p>Sometimes it’s not up to the young student. If the family ends up with a high EFC that it can’t pay, and the parents can’t/won’t take out a loan to cover the EFC, there’s nothing you can do as a student. The amount of loans a student can sign for alone are small.</p>
<p>Non-Restrictive Application Plans: All of these plans allow students to wait until May 1 to confirm enrollment.</p>
<p>• Regular Decision is the application process in which a student submits an application to an institution by a specified date and receives a decision within a reasonable and clearly stated period of time. A student may apply to other institutions without restriction. </p>
<p>• Rolling Admission is the application process in which an institution reviews applications as they are completed and renders admission decisions to students throughout the admission cycle. A student may apply to other institutions without restriction. </p>
<p>• Early Action (EA) is the application process in which students apply to an institution of preference and receive a decision well in advance of the institution’s regular response date. Students who are admitted under Early Action are not obligated to accept the institution’s offer of admission or to submit a deposit prior to May 1. Under non-restrictive Early Action, a student may apply to other colleges. Restrictive Application Plans: These are plans that allow institutions to limit students from applying to other early plans. </p>
<p>• Early Decision (ED) is the application process in which students make a commitment to a first-choice institution where, if admitted, they definitely will enroll. While pursuing admission under an Early Decision plan, students may apply to other institutions, but may have only one Early Decision application pending at any time. Should a student who applies for financial aid not be offered an award that makes attendance possible, the student may decline the offer of admission and be released from the Early Decision commitment. The institution must notify the applicant of the decision within a reasonable and clearly stated period of time after the Early Decision deadline. Usually, a nonrefundable deposit must be made well in advance of May 1. The institution will respond to an application for financial aid at or near the time of an offer of admission. </p>
<p>Institutions with Early Decision plans may restrict students from applying to other early plans. Institutions will clearly articulate their specific policies in their Early Decision agreement. </p>
<p>• Restrictive Early Action (REA) is the application process in which students make application to an institution of preference and receive a decision well in advance of the institution’s regular response date. Institutions with Restrictive Early Action plans place restrictions on student applications to other early plans. Institutions will clearly articulate these restrictions in their Early Action policies and agreements with students. Students who are admitted under Restrictive Early Action are not obligated to accept the institution’s offer of admission or to submit a deposit prior to May 1.</p>