<p>This has always been a controversial topic, so I thought I'd start this thread. </p>
<p>Some schools like Penn recommend applying ED if Penn is your first choice even if you need aid. They don't want ED to be for wealthy students only and they seem to back that up. </p>
<p>Many parents here recommend not applying if you need aid so that you can compare packages. </p>
<p>I tend to disagree because of the huge difference in admissions rates between RD and ED - there is no package to compare if you don't get in. </p>
<p>Penn admitted 25% ED. I suspect their RD admit rate will be single digits. </p>
<p>Just curious in general how students admitted ED fared in their FinAid packages.</p>
<p>At my daughter’s first choice school, they have not released merit aid decisions. She got in EA since it doesn’t have ED. One issue though is that housing preference is done by deposit date and for her to get her preferred housing, she must put down her deposit before merit aid decisions are released. I kind of wish they gave aid at the same time as acceptance as many other schools do.</p>
<p>It can so depend upon the school. Cornell, Carnegie Mellon are two schools that openly say that they will reconsider upon seeing other offers. So yes, you do have to get accepted to get any aid, but for those who are in the position where every dollar counts, comparing packages can be important. The fact of the matter, is that when the figures are looking you right in the face and the time comes to commit, Local College or State U at half the cost or less can look awfully good when in fall as the student starts the process, one is more about getting in and figuring out how to make the finances work. CMU, by the way, does guarantee to meet full need (as they define it) only for those who apply ED. Most schools do not stint on fin aid packages for ED as they do not want a lot of kids backing out fo the acceptances. The whole idea of ED is to get a captive group on which to build the class. </p>
<p>Still, yes, I have seen it for many years, many times when a family is all gung ho on the ratings and getting the kid into the top schools. Then when the offers are on the table and the realities of the costs hit, some schools start looking mighty good. I don’t know how many kids end up at Fordham, when they lookat their merit awards that often are close to full tuition for good students with high but not necessarily tip top high test scores, and then calculate what Georgetown, Holy Cross, Villanova, BC would cost them You can do an awful lot with that $100K differential, and that is not hard to get over 4 years. SUNY (or whatever the state schools are) also start looking better too when those numbers become a reality. DH’s colleague grimaced, hemmed and hawed before giving up Brandeis for Binghamton. I see this all of the time. The mind sets often do change over the application year.</p>
<p>There often are no packages to compare when one gets accepted ED, as well, since the choice comes down to take it or leave it.</p>
<p>We are happy with Columbia’s offer. It’s very, very close to the figure generated by their NPC and affordable for us. We will have to draw down our savings and live cheaply, but that’s ok. We should be able to either avoid loans altogether for us and DS or keep them to a minimum.</p>
<p>Actually, it is more nuanced than that. If you need aid, but the first choice school is affordable according to its net price calculator, your financial situation is not unusual or complicated in a way that can make the net price calculator inaccurate, and the first choice school will be your first choice even if some other school gave you a full ride (i.e. no need or desire to compare FA offers), then there is no reason not to apply ED to the first choice school if it offers ED and there is a potential admissions advantage (particularly if it considers “level of applicant’s interest”).</p>
<p>On the other hand, if the amount of financial aid and merit scholarships can swing the first choice one way or another, or the financial situation is unusual or complex enough that net price calculators are unreliable, then it would not be wise to apply ED.</p>
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<p>ED does tend to include special admit categories (recruited athletes, etc.), and the strength of the ED and RD applicant pools may differ. Schools generally are not forthcoming about how much of a difference applying ED makes.</p>
<p>For those who are willing and able to make it work at the ED school, as it so clearly the first choice for all concerned, it’s great. But too many times, that is not the case, from what I have seen. I have seen some families and kids who have not looked at the situation carefully enough, get that ED offer in a vacuum and then belatedly understand that the cost differential was not worth it. There is a momentum to ED, and one has to understand that, if there is a true concern with cost. The problem with college is that it’s a 4 year commitment so any stretch has to be continued for that long, and will likely increase, as college costs do tend to rise. </p>
<p>I’ve just seen it too many times. It’s the most important thing in the world to for kid to get into dream school, and parents will pay whatever. Then when the bill is on the table the reality sets in. To have comparative offers right there, can really shift that tunnel vision. Is it really worth $30K a year to go to FIrst Choice U over Second Choice U. When it’s in front of your face like that, it’s a whole different story.</p>
<p>What are the advantages of applying ED? It makes sense to me to weigh all options, but from what I am reading this is not always the case. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>I have always seen ED for little Andrew that has surgeon mommy and daddy but is a little bad at math…</p>
<p>I really don’t see how it should be for people that are praying that they get the right package even though every calculator is telling them they will have to pawn off their cars. So silly. But that’s just me!</p>
<p>isaelijohjac - schools usually have a higher acceptance rate for their ED applicant pool versus their regular. Like OP’s example, UPenn having a 25% acceptance rate for ED but a single digit regular one. That is the only benefit here. The school knows you are <em>dedicated</em> to getting into their school.</p>
<p>Like I’m sure you know but I’ll go on, there are many disadvantages to this. If you have not done your research into a hypothetical financial aid package you might get - you might get yourself in trouble. If you find yourself unable to pay for school even with the aid you have been given and the school disagrees with you and thinks you can, they can blacklist you. They can alert other schools that you agreed to go to their school but then broke the contact you made with them. (when you apply ED you agree that you will not apply any where else)</p>
<p>My recommendation to my daughter was that she not apply ED to her first-choice college out of concerns (on my part) that they may offer a financial aid package that would make it prohibitively expensive for her to attend, based on the numbers from their net price calculator and reports on CC of some accepted students receiving significantly less aid than expected. She ended up applying EA to a different college. She was accepted, and their financial aid package turned out to be better than the numbers in their net price calculator.</p>
<p>She’s still planning to apply RD to her original first-choice college. Assuming she is accepted, it will be interesting to see how the two packages compare, which may or may not validate the decision not to apply ED.</p>
<p>What happens that makes it tough is that a student may get accepted ED with a package that is barely affordable, not what was expected, but close. So for $5K a year differential, you are going to let go of this bird in hand with no idea what else your kid can get? It may be the best offer. It may be the best school by far. And you have those puppy dog eyes looking at you, begging, please, please, please, and it would mean “game over” for a very stressful “game” indeed. So you say “yes”, even though it’s more than you really should be paying because the figure you gave as your limit was really a stretch anyways.</p>
<p>Then, you get the price increase for the school the next year, and then maybe your year end numbers are a bit higher than the PROFILE estimates, so the gap is more like $7K, rather than $5K. Remember now, this is for 4 years at least, and costs go up each year, and the student is generally supposed to take more of the burden of the cost each year, so that first year aid package is likely to be the best you are going to see.</p>
<p>Then you see your kids’ peers, ones with lower gpas and test scores getting into some other schools that were on the list RD, and getting more money, more awards, and some are NEGOTIATING and getting even more. Then your kid’s best friend gets a full ride to state U to the honors program, and your kid says, “gee, I wouldn’t have minded doing that”, as you are looking at 8% PLUS loans vs HELOCs and borrowing from your 401K. But even then you are lucky if you have those options, as some parents in this predicament truly have some financial issues that preclude all of those options and they really can’t afford to pay even their EFC, much less what the ED school is expecting them. They let the whole thing come to this point and there is going to be trouble.</p>
<p>Yes, that is what I see all of the time. The things that are so important in the fall can change by the time spring arrives.</p>
<p>That was not our experience. At every admissions session, when the question came up, the AdCom generally tried to dance around the answer, but when asked a point blank question – ED for the unhooked? – all were open and honest about the % differential.</p>
<p>Some schools, like Duke and Penn, made it a point in their preso to say clearly state that ED was an advantage over RD.</p>
<p>There was a study ( and a book came out of it ) that pretty much showed that the ED/EA advantage was underplayed by most schools. Cornell, Penn and DUke are forthright about it, IMO. But it’s difficult to separate out the % difference when it comes to those hooked vs unhooked. They may well not even calculate that number. Its’ difficult to pinpoint because there are many who have multiple hooks, not just one.</p>
<p>Oops this was moved to the Financial Aid thread. </p>
<p>I thought this topic was appropriate for the Parents Forum. It’s not about FinAid, it’s about whether applying ED when you need FinAid turned out to be a good decision. I think it will get little relevant traffic in the FinAid forum and I think it’s misplaced. </p>
<p>Is there any way to appeal to move it back to the Parents Forum?</p>
<p>Actually, this is totally about financial aid. The subject asks…are you happy with your financial aid? And there are already a number of threads here in the financial aid forum from kids who are not!</p>
<p>I’m hoping others who ARE happy will post here!!</p>
<p>This is not exactly correct. If you are unable to attend because of financial reasons you can turn down admission. Also, you CAN apply to other schools as long as they are not ED as well. If you apply ED and get in you agree to withdraw any other applications you have out there, or turn down any other acceptances that you already have in hand.</p>