I’m a high school senior who grew up in a suburb of Chicago. The area I’m from is pretty affluent and most of the kids around me have very high academic expectations when it comes to college. It’s either some prestigious college or just don’t go to school at all. So, I decided to have my heart set out on Northwestern and ED there. It’s not far from home, it has the name recognition, and I like it better than University of Chicago. I applied to a few safety schools in Chicago as well, one of them being Loyola University at Chicago. This is not as nationally recognized as Northwestern and doesn’t have that prestigious reputation. However, I got a full ride scholarship to Loyola and I haven’t received my Northwestern decision yet, but I’m not expecting much aid. I feel like Loyola comes with a lot of benefits, as it’s free, it’s not far from home, it’s in the city, etc. Then again, there’s the issue that it doesn’t have the same reputation as Northwestern nor the same recognition, so I don’t really know what to do. I feel like I have a good chance in getting into Northwestern (fingers crossed), so I’m torn between the two and what I should do. Is it better to go to the prestigious college than the local one?
If you applied ED to NW you must attend if accepted. So that’s the end of that.
@snarlatron that’s not true.
The ONE reason to decline an ED acceptance is if the financial aid is not sufficient for the family.
Just wait until you get your admissions decision and aid from NU. Then decide.
BTW…Loyola is a great school!!
If you applied ED to NU, you are bound to attend unless your expected aid doesn’t come through.
Congrats on the Loyola admit! Super to have that safety in place and don’t worry about what other people think, Loyola is great.
Doesn’t this assume the OP has a financial need for aid? Coming from a “pretty affluent” part of Chicago, OP may not be eligible for aid - technically. And I say technically, as NPCs tell me I’d be full pay at most schools, but there’s no way we can actually afford to be full pay.
If a student knows they can’t afford a school and won’t qualify for aid, then they shouldn’t have applied ED.
@snarlatron @momofsenior1 You are NOT officially required (at least by law) to attend a school that admitted you via Early Decision. You can cite your financial aid package, among other reasons, as a reason for declining an offer of admission from your ED school.
I would personally choose to take out loans and pay full tuition for Northwestern over a full ride from Loyola, but it all depends on what your career goals are and your family’s financial situation. Wait to see what aid package Northwestern offers you (if you get in) before making your decision.
You could also withdraw your ED app to Northwestern right now before any decisions have been made and just go to Loyola for free. God luck.
From NU’s website: If you are certain that Northwestern is where you want to enroll, we encourage you to apply under our Early Decision plan. As with all traditional Early Decision plans, you agree to withdraw all applications at other colleges and enroll at Northwestern if admitted. Students interested in the Honors Program in Medical Education (HPME) must apply under the Regular Decision plan.
Applicants who choose Early Decision send a strong, positive message to Northwestern. Given their high level of interest and overall academic and personal strength, Early Decision applicants enjoy a higher rate of admission.
If you are admitted under Early Decision and apply for financial aid, you will be notified of your aid decision around the time of your acceptance, provided your family has filed the College Scholarship Service Financial Aid Profile (CSS Profile) by December 1. Students admitted under Early Decision may be released from the commitment to enroll at Northwestern ONLY FOR DEMONSTRATED FINANCIAL HARDSHIP.
The capitalization is mine. You also potentially penalize your high school going forward to renege on an ED acceptance.
I agree wtih @RightCoaster - if you are having second thoughts OP, pull your ED application to NU and move it to RD.
Funny, because we all know that the college and the high school does not take it at all lightly if a student backs out of an ED acceptance. Financial hardship must be documented and blacklists can result.
Blacklists of what? The student? How in the world would that work?
@RightCoaster is right: the easiest way out of any ED problem is to accept Loyola’s offer and let NU know that you are not interested in being considered for ED.
ED is a serious consideration, and, yes, it can have some very bad consequences for those who do not understand what ED means. Do not apply ED if the school is not your absolute number-one choice. This is why one applies ED: to get the edge in admissions by promising to attend if admitted. At the same time, ED is not as absolutely binding as many on this site make it seem. For instance, St. Olaf’s enrollment statistics for ED are 90%. I highly doubt that the remaining 10% are all students who violated the agreement and got punished, unable to attend St. Olaf or anywhere else for the following school year. Things happen.
Every school’s ED statement is purposely vague. This is because there are dozens of situations that could make the ED situation complicated. As far as I can tell, the OP has not broken any rules. Applying ED does not mean that one cannot have other applications out there; however, if the ED acceptance comes through, one must withdraw all pending applications and not initiate any new ones. The OP is in a unique situation: he/she has already been accepted and, surprisingly, has already received a financial aid package (full ride) from Loyola. Despite the “Only for demonstrated financial hardship” line written in all caps in an earlier post, it might (I say might) be possible to argue that a full ride offer to Loyola versus 70K per year to attend NU is a financial hardship, even for a full-pay/high-EFC family. This is the sort of situation that ED is not designed to take into account: that one must attend at full pay even if another school has offered a significantly better offer (and the offer did not come after the ED acceptance).
That said, I’m not sure why this is a debate for the OP. If her/his family can afford NU, and if she/he loved it enough to apply ED, then why isn’t she/he Wildcat or bust? Again, take the full ride if it’s too good to turn down and let NU know that you’re no longer interested. Why risk taking the chance on whether or not NU would truly insist that a family turn down an already-offered full ride and pay 70K, especially when there’s an easier out?
Truth is, these potential problems could be eliminated if all ED schools would make it a rule that applicants cannot apply anywhere else ED or EA. Students will get accepted EA elsewhere (not a violation of many schools’ ED rules), and sometimes those EA acceptances could come with generous financial aid, something that the applicant and her/his family did not anticipate.
NU is NOT going to insist that the kid enroll at NU. Sorry…that’s just not going to happen.
I will add, however, the parents had to know the cost of NU when the kid applied ED. Were they on board with paying…because if not, the kid probably should not have applied ED. But what’s done is done.
At this point, if the NU offer isn’t sufficient financially, you decline the admissions offer. NU isn’t going to run down the road to Loyola and prevent you from enrolling there.
Better would be for the school to require ED applicants to do the following:
- Send in the enrollment deposit with the ED application. School refunds if the applicant is rejected or deferred to RD.
- Run the NPC and explicitly approve the result, where the school records the NPC parameters entered and the result. If the applicant is admitted ED, and the actual FA application matches the NPC parameters, but the FA is worse than the NPC result, the school releases the admitted applicant from the ED obligation and refunds the enrollment deposit (basically converting it to a non-binding EA admission and FA offer).
However, the law, for what I’d concur are valid reasons, tends to abhor forfeiture.
Candidly, the best solution would be to eliminate ED all together. It’s a one-way street only benefiting the institution. Turn ED into EA with a 12/15 universal notification date, including FA/Merit. Make the RD universal notification date 2/1 including FA/Merit. By going Prior/Prior, schools have the info to make the financial decisions more quickly. I know this is pipe dream, but it would solve many issues, including the major issue of forcing child/family to make a life changing decision (financially and otherwise) in sometimes as little as 30 days. It’s the real dirty little secret of this process that doesn’t get nearly the outrage that it deserves.
@CroissantMiser That’s not going tp happen, and a applicant has to make a CHOICE at some point, is 6 more months of fretting about it really going to make a difference, not in most cases. There is a balance of power here between the applicants, schools and process (EA/ED/RD), and nobody is ever forced to apply ED. Everyone who complains here about ED are the ones who want it all in their corner, that is not the way the real world works either so maybe its an early lesson on choices. Bottom line on this is…grow where planted…and don’t worry about which school you did or didn’t get into.
@CU123 --I’m smart enough to understand it’s a pipe dream and that’s why i wrote it in my comment. What i don’t agree with is your underlying assumption there’s an even playing field of information/understanding at the student/parent level. Most students don’t fully understand ED and neither do most parents. Counselors are usually working with 100+ kids in most public HS so they don’t have the bandwith to explain it either. ED is completely stacked for the affluent, well informed family and the institution itself. This site is for the well informed and skewed heavily against the real world. On top of that, i would argue vehemently that most 18yr olds are not equipped to make a $300,000+ decision that will impact the rest of his/her life, especially in the brutally short time frame given by most colleges to do so. Every person should have an equal opportunity to participate in the future, in theory. I know that’s not reality; however, our educational system could provide a beacon of light in that direction if it so chooses–which it doesn’t. Eliminating ED and moving up notification deadlines (and making them universal) would provide more time for families to more fully assess their options without feeling pressured to make a life altering decision within 30 days. That’s just my opinion as someone who’s gone through this process with my children and who also works in the Education sector.
@CroissantMiser is correct. ED is a problem. It benefits schools immensely; it barely benefits students at all, except to give an admissions boost to students from wealthy families (ED applicants are overwhelmingly from wealthy families who do not qualify for aid or who do not care about comparing FA packages). I don’t see ED disappearing though.
ED is not suppose to benefit the applicant, other than to give them a boost in admission rate. ED is a trade off and IMO a trade off that is fair. Yes ED is mainly for the wealthy and those with income < $60K but to say a whole lot of those in the middle income brackets don’t apply ED is nonsense. ED is not a problem its just another avenue for applicants to apply. Everyone here looks at ED through the lens of the applicant, and doesn’t bother to look at the whole picture.