I am VERY interested in Kenyon. It is by far my top choice. However, I feel it would be extremely necessary to apply ED1 to assure admittance. However, my family will need a fantastic financial aid package. Is it worth it to apply ED and count on Kenyon to give me a good package? EFC is like $8,000. Are they need-blind in ED rounds?
This has nothing to do with trust. Kenyon meets a lot of need but still it is need aware. FAFSA EFC isn’t used by colleges to award their own aid. They use CSS Profile mainly. FAFSA EFC is the least you will likely pay. So in your phrasing, no you can’t ‘trust’.
You can run the NPC for Kenyon, but those aren’t always accurate. ED does not ‘assure admission’ maybe it can give a better chance at some colleges, often it only looks that way. More importantly, if you need to compare aid packages between colleges you are in a tough a position to apply ED. You will have to accept or reject the package and admission before you will have offers from other colleges. Those offers might be better, might be worse. If you have a good affordable safety that is your rock hard fallback you could do it. Decide ahead if the NPC works out the same as the financial offer you will accept. Otherwise you will ask why it is different and probably need to ultimately reject the offer and await RD colleges.