<p>I am trying to understand how binding early decision is in the face of Financial Aid at Vanderbilt. On the Admissions Blog, it says "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."</p>
<p>Does this mean, if my child applies to Vandy ED, gets accepted, I apply for Financial Aid but am not happy with the package I am offered, my child can decline admission and apply elsewhere? This seems to take away the risk of being bound to a college I cannot afford, right?</p>
<p>Unless things have changed, you submit your financial aid application at the same time as the application for admission so as to have the financial aid offer upon decision (if it’s an accept). I believe there is a financial aid calculator for you to use prior to application so that you can decide if that figure is reasonable. After all, it would be devastating for most students to be accepted and then have parents tell them they can’t go. Much better to make those financial decisions ahead of time and, perhaps, put the student in the RD pool.</p>
<p>It gives you no ability to compare FA offers across schools, which can vary widely. Last year my D’s cost of attendance at top colleges varied by about $10,000 for the first year. We were able to ask for a FA review from one school due to the lower COA at another comparable school, and the school doing the review increased aid to match the other school. Not saying Vanderbilt would do that, but it is a possibility. </p>
<p>“Not happy” with the FA package means you really, really can’t afford it. And you can’t wait for other offers to decide. The net price calculator for Vanderbilt should give you a pretty good idea of the FA you can anticipate. If you think you can afford it and don’t want to compare FA offers, then go for ED. Otherwise, RD is a better choice.</p>
<p>We have found that the net price calculators aren’t an indicator of what schools will give you. For my older son, we got $10,000/year in financial aid from 4 schools over and above what the calculator said. The unexpected money redirected my son’s decision. I think the schools have funds for you if they want you yet you don’t qualify for a scholarship or financial aid.</p>
<p>We found them to be quite accurate last year. Not sure when your older son applied; the first year or two they were out I think the accuracy wasn’t as good, but many schools have improved them. I would not assume Vanderbilt will give you $10,000 more per year than the calculator states and use that as a reason to apply ED…</p>
<p>Plus, our experience is that most schools did not include merit aid in the calculators (a few did, but most did not). Now… many schools also don’t give as much merit aid in their ED pool, they are using it to draw students they really want in the RD pool who are not bound to attend. So you can’t really tell how that will play out, but applying ED sure doesn’t improve your kid’s chances for merit aid.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt’s net price calculator is very accurate. You can call the FA department as I did to verify and they will tell you that they stand by the calculation. My son’s final FA package was within a couple of hundreds of the calculators estimate. The total EFC you get from the calculator is basically what you will pay. </p>
<p>Merit aid is not part of the calculation and you have to apply separately for merit aid at Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is a NO LOAN school. Other schools may offer you FA packages that will be the same but will include 7500/yr in loans. You child will graduate from Vandy with No debt.</p>
<p>Yes, but NO LOAN means your EFC is just higher and you are expected to pay it. Is it true that ED applicants are less likely to get a scholarship offer?</p>
<p>That’s not true…No loan policy just means that student loans are not part of your financial aid package. There is a small group of colleges and universities (like Vanderbilt) that have pledged to meet full demonstrated need with no loans as part of the financial aid package. Their aid is 100% gift/grant aid. Some other schools offer student loans as part of the financial aid package–it’s NOT part of the EFC but part of your “aid.” EFC is calculated first and it will vary for each school–use the online Net Price Calculators and you will see large variations. The FA package then covers some/all of the difference, the “need.” </p>
<p>I’m not sure about ED/scholarship offer. Do you mean a merit scholarship? At Vandy, I think the ED students have equal (small) chance since relatively few merit scholarships are available. I think they say top 1% are awarded the special merit scholarships and that their main commitment is to meet demonstrated financial need. I can tell you that when you have a scholarship outside of their financial aid grant, the first thing they do is reduce the student contribution in your financial aid package. My daughter got a National Merit Finalist award and it eliminated the student contribution from her package rather than first reducing the amount of grant aid that Vanderbilt offered–that was a nice surprise.</p>
<p>All of this info is on the Vanderbilt Financial Aid page. They are very transparent with the process and I really appreciated it. It helped inform our college search and made us able to compare schools even without the benefit of a formal financial aid offer. We could figure out that some will only meet 80% or 50% of your “need” and some will include student loans as part of your aid (some will limit loans which is nice but not as nice as no loans!). Some schools will leave a gap between your EFC and their aid package which would leave you with even more to pay. If money matters to you, READ and do the research. My daughter went ED1 and will be attending in the fall. We couldn’t be happier with VU’s financial aid award (ok, maybe if it was free but that doesn’t seem realistic!).</p>