<p>I am assuming that we all know about the apparent benefits of ED. Apparently, the chances of getting in and securing financial aid are higher.</p>
<p>But I have heard some pretty nasty rumors suggesting that the high acceptance rate of ED can be attributed to the higher number of athletes and intelligent people applying. Is that true? If it is, ED offers no advantage to us (assuming we are all average or slightly above that category) over RD other than less turmoil and faster decision, right? And about not getting to compare aids from different schools, that's another problem too.</p>
<p>And what happens if the college accepts you but doesn't offer your required aid? I understand that in the case of college not meeting your "need", the binding contract will be terminated as per the ED agreement. But my problem with this is who defines "need"? Lets look at it with an example; a college has $45000 CoA, and they determine your "need" to be $30000. So you are in trouble! You can neither terminate the contract (since they are meeting your "need"), nor pay $15000 a year.
Can this situation arise realistically?</p>
<p>If this can happen, isn't ED more trouble than it's worth?</p>
<p>Since there is no concrete way for determining our “need”, I’ve always assumed that we (in the case that we get accepted) could “negotiate” our financial aid reward if it doesn’t meet our “need”. But of course, I assume that institutions will do their best to provide a munificent and sufficient financial aid reward. I am no expert on this subject, so correct me if I am wrong.</p>
<p>Lot of people argue about whether they should apply ED or not , and almost always I suggest them to apply EDs. My suggestions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Apply ED to the college that you most desperately want to be in. That way there ain’t any regretting about being accepted to the college .Other acceptances in RD would not matter because you would choose the college you would have ED(ed) to, even though you might get accepted in many colleges including the one you would apply ED to, in RD.
( I made it kind of verbose, but I think you got my point.)</p></li>
<li><p>If colleges allow you- an international student in need of financial aid- in ED(ing), then the colleges should definitely meet your need. It is not only the ISFAA that you send to the college, but also the certificate of finance which explicitly states that you are ready to X amount of dollars to the college. I guess the college does not make you play more than what you have stated in COF given that the amount is reasonable with economic resources you have.</p></li>
<li><p>ED is “experimental laboratory”. You get something wrong in EDI, you can probably figure it out in EDII. If something goes wrong in ED II, you can figure out in RD, but if something goes horrendous in RD, you never know. So, apply ED because it is where you learn about the weight of your application.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I would even suggest you to apply non- restrictive EA - some very good liberal arts colleges have those. This again is a way of valuing of application too early , before it is too late.</p>
<p>@OP
ED is, for the most part, if not always, a good option if you really like a college, the college offers need based aid to international students, and you think you’ve got what it takes to be a student at that college.</p>
<p>While high acceptance rate in ED is mostly for US kids, and there have been cases of international students being admitted without aid being met, ED is definitely a good way to see where you stand. And in terms of aid, even if your stated financial aid in CoF/ISFAA isn’t met, you can always talk to adcom of your ED college about it and see whether they would be willing to meet it, and if not, you can definitely ask them to let you apply to other colleges. Your common app should then be enabled to apply for next round of applications(i.e EDII or RD). And while it might be difficult for prospective international students to get this point, i’m gonna say it anyway, ED is about applying to the college that you really love, have a fairly good shot at and would love to, or at least be pleased to attend if admitted. It’s not just about applying to a college where you just have a good shot at.</p>
<p>One more thing. If the adcom think that you’re not competitive enough for ED pool, they’ll just defer you to RD and if they think you’re not good enough for their college, you’ll be rejected right away. That way, at least you don’t have to wait for several months for one rejection letter from your dream college.</p>
<p>I agree with @Batuli! ED is good for experience as well!!
But, I am kind of confused about the amount we are supposed to write in COF for our ED college! </p>
<p>@trinitain dai
As most of the LAC are need aware for internationals, are we supposed to write some huge amount? For me, Huge means obviously around 8k or something like that ? I have heard from seniors that writing 0k or 2k will definitely slim your chances,so it is better to get admitted wid 8k and earn after you reach there!! </p>
<p>And next thing,
Suppose the college where I am EDying provides loan’s, grants and work study as part of financial aid package, total cost of college is around 58k and my ED college provided aid of 52 (suppose ) assuming I wrote 6k in my COF)!!! Then, does it mean they included loans and work study in that 58k? If yes, how will we be able to pay by earning coz the money we earned will not be part of that 6k that i have to pay!!! May be the money that i earned won’t be sufficient as well coz we are not allowed to work more than 20hrs/week i guess!!
The mistake I did last year was filling up these financial matters, and these stuffs suck most among the other applications! :/</p>
<p>@SADISSAW, trinitian (not trinitain; no harm done though )</p>
<p>CoF is there for you to state how much you can pay. If you can pay 8k annually then definitely write that. If you can’t pay that then don’t. It’s always best to be honest in your application. Yes, having 8k of family support would be better than 0 or ~2k of family support in case of non-need-blind colleges but in case you get admitted and leave for the states and can’t afford to pay 8k then you’re gonna find yourself in quite a situation.</p>
<p>And yes, the financial aid, other than what you said you’d pay, does usually come with loan but you need not worry about that. The college doesn’t expect you to pay the loan while you’re in the college. The loan is expected to be paid after you graduate and start earning for yourself. Often, the loan is disbursed to your account without any interest and the interest rate applies only after you leave college and it ranges from 5-9%.</p>
<p>I am not quite sure what you mean by this, "…If yes, how will we be able to pay by earning coz the money we earned will not be part of that 6k that i have to pay!!! May be the money that i earned won’t be sufficient as well coz we are not allowed to work more than 20hrs/week i guess!! " but I’ll try to answer my best.
If you state that you would pay $6k annually and get accepted, the college doesn’t expect you to pay that $6k by working there in the states. They expect you to pool that amount from other sources like family earning. Often, your financial aid package will contain workstudy and your legal working hours (less than 20 hrs) are exhausted by workstudy hours. The financial aid people know what the average pay on on-campus jobs look like, so, they only give you enough workstudy money that can be earned in a semester/year without going over the legal limit of 20hrs a week. For example, say your workstudy amount is $2000 ($1000 a semester) then you may work about 8-12 hours a week for $8-10.00 to exhaust your workstudy amount over the course of the semester/year (~14 weeks a semester).</p>
<p>And just a heads up, what college calculates as your financial might not always be the same as what you state. If a college determines that you can pay more than what you stated in your financial aid forms, they will provide you with their calculated financial need. So, financial aid is subject to change, before or even after you get to the US.</p>
<p>haha… @Trinitian dai spelling error in rush!!!
I meant to say that : “If college provides work study as part of aid then, I won’t be able to earn money to cover my EFC?” But, you made it clear! Should be alert while filling the forms now!!</p>
<p>@trinitian: How do you pay the loans though?
you said, interests are effective after graduation, but even if we land a decent job, are we allowed to work more than 20 hrw (the alleged cut-off)? Also, not sure how much training time are international students usually given. </p>
<p>fellow trinitian ? you’re a good man; putting in time to help juniors.</p>
<p>you get a job in nepal after you complete your education and pay off the loans on a monthly-basis. the number of hours you are allowed to work (20) is only applicable when you are an undergraduate.</p>
? I have heard from seniors that writing 0k or 2k will definitely slim your chances,so it is better to get admitted wid 8k and earn after you reach there!! </p>
) assuming I wrote 6k in my COF)!!! Then, does it mean they included loans and work study in that 58k? If yes, how will we be able to pay by earning coz the money we earned will not be part of that 6k that i have to pay!!! 
May be the money that i earned won’t be sufficient as well coz we are not allowed to work more than 20hrs/week i guess!!