<p>DS has 5 reach schools, 4 match schools, and a safety. I have beaten on the Net Price calculator for the 5 reach schools, varying incomes, home equity, etc. Since none of the reach schools offers merit aid, and all offer to meet full need, it is all about financial aid policies at the school. For the four match schools, all offer merit aid and financial aid,but none is a full ride or anything that amazing for DS stats. I have been in contact with all the financial aid offices trying to understand how they combine merit and financial aid to get a feel for their total cost. The safety is a decent in-state school and I pretty much know how much it will cost and what merit aid we will get. It will cost only a little less than the best reach schools, and will not offer nearly the positive experience. DS likes it OK, and the 11 APs and 15-20 CC credits will mean he won't be there all that long anyways.</p>
<p>My question -- is it reasonable to apply ED to one of the two best FA reach schools based on their calculator and FA policies? Our EFC is really quite predictable with a single income from a company of long-time employment and no income anomalies (no rentals, no home business, no big bonuses, etc.) I am truly undecided, so would like to hear both sides.</p>
<p>I’m not reading ANYTHING here that says that any ONE of these schools is far and away a first choice. That being the case, I would suggest applying regular decision to the list. That way he will hopefully have many choices from which to select…and you will actually be able to compare financial aid offers from all.</p>
<p>First off, DS likes all three of the reach schools with the best Net Price Calculator results. Also, I have reason to believe he absolutely won’t get into at least one of them RD. This may apply to more than one. On the other hand, he pretty likely could get into any of the three ED.</p>
<p>In the vast majority of cases, a student applies ED because that ONE school is far and away their top choice college. If your son has THREE top choice colleges, you should just apply regular decision.</p>
<p>Are you thinking his need based aid will be better at a full ride school if he applies ED? That is NOT the case. </p>
<p>And in the vast majority of cases, if the student is a good candidate ED, he will be a good candidate RD.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why your SON would want to apply ED when NONE of these schools is the clear front runner.</p>
<p>There is an ED edge at some schools. A student who is on the bubble can become more attractive because they’re locked in; they’re a known quantity, someone who really likes this school and will almost certainly come if admitted. I’ve heard some admissions folks state clearly that a slightly weaker candidate (not a poor candidate) is well advised to apply ED, as long as the finances are likely to work out for them.</p>
<p>You know the temperament of your kid best, but if they’re the kind of kid who could be happy at many places, then I think ED can be a good option if there are no compelling reasons not to do it. That’s how it worked for my D; she liked her ED school very much, but she also liked all the others too. She really liked the idea of being done in December. She chose well and was happy with the outcome, but she knew she’d be fine no matter what.</p>
<p>About your financial question - some schools will offer an early read on finances if you’re applying ED, and some won’t. It’s worth asking.</p>
<p>@Dodgersmom, that is absolutely not a true statement. If a school knows their yield will be 100% for you if they offer you admission as is the case with ED, they are more likely to offer you admission. Consider this … DS’s school has a reputation for <em>really</em> high-end students applying to lots of very competitive schools RD, only to turn most of those schools down. I have come to believe that this will impact his likelihood of admission if he applies RD to at least one of his reach schools, because that school is tired of taking yield hits from students from the same HS year after year. ED gets around this perception. My only other thought is for DS to include that fact in his “Why ________?” essay. If you have other ideas on how to make it clear in an application that this is one of your two favorite schools, please let me know.</p>
<p>@Calreader – this is my point. I am pretty convinced I have analyzed and questioned the financial aid calculators and offices enough to know which of DS’s reach schools will have the best aid. He can pick one of the three best and apply ED. If we really don’t like the financial aid offer, which given the simplicity of our Profile and the results from the calculators seems unlikely, he can attend our state school which he is OK with.</p>
<p>Whether you get a bump for ED is not predictable, across a range of schools. It really depends on that college’s needs, how good they perceive the match to be, in the first place.</p>
<p>This especially applies to the elites, in two ways, at least. First, they KNOW they will get a strong RD pool, enough to work with, many times over. This isn’t desperation. Second, what I call the Harvard factor. The kids they seek to lock in during ED are those they are certain they want, but could lose to another, better school, in RD.</p>
<p>Truly marginal kids tend to be, at best, deferred to RD- or outright rejected. I think the confusion, when people say ED is a better chance, is that they don’t have a real understanding of holistic.</p>
<p>Okay, I’ll repeat: There is nothing about the ED process that makes a marginal candidate an admissible candidate.**</p>
<p>Your earlier post (#3) strongly suggested that your son was a marginal candidate who, for that reason, would not be able to gain admission through the RD process.</p>
<p>If, in fact, he is an exceptional candidate who may be denied RD admission merely because of doubts about his interest in the school, then, yes, in that limited scenario, applying ED might well be quite beneficial to him.</p>
<p>Remember, when you look ate the somewhat higher admit rates for ED applicants at some places…this includes recruited athletes, legacies, and developmental admits. This %ages are somewhat skewed.</p>
<p>But if your son will be happy at one of those ED schools (this should be HIS choice, IMO), then apply ED and see what happens. Check for the priority filing deadline for the Profile on their finaid website…could be November.</p>
<p>Have you considered that ~60% of the ED pool consists of hooked candidates; Legacies, recruited athletes, developmental admits, Facbrats, NMS who may be listing committing to the school for scholarship advantage, POSSE candidates, Questbridge Match candidates, URMs? If you have a BWRK, applying ED is not going to give your kid an advantage at a school where he may not make the cut as an RD candidate.</p>
<p>However, at your house you need to weight the advantages and disadvantages of applying ED especially since cost is a factor and you will lose the ability to compare packages. Schools that give considerable merit have deadlines for scholarship consideration, which you may miss out on depending on how the ED plays out.</p>
<p>@Dodgersmom, I wouldn’t say he is a “marginal candidate”, with stats in the middle of his reach schools’ ranges, but he isn’t “an exceptional candidate who may be denied RD admission merely because of doubts about his interest in the school.” </p>
<p>What I am saying is, he attends a school that is known for top students collecting admissions into elite schools like they are trophies. A kid gets admission into one of his top schools EA so he narrows his list of 20 applications down to 12. Perhaps you are correct that the school will consider that he is a bit of a reach so probably doesn’t have an amazing EA admission already in hand. But it is also possible that students at his HS as a whole could be perceived an unlikely RD admission and the burden of proof of interest lies with the applicant. The latter is what I am proposing. I understand your point against ED – my wife holds the same view and I do as well in a fair world.</p>
<p>@Sybbie, none of his reach schools has EA – if they did, this whole thread would not exist You talk about comparing financial aid, but remember my financial aid is extremely straight-forward. All the schools DS is looking at appear to have just about the same aid amount as each other on their calculators, with the exception of their loan policies.</p>
<p>You bring up another point I have been concerned with, though – DS is a legacy, but not in one of his top 3 choice reach schools. Since the common app ask where his parents attended school, I also have a concern that the other reach schools will assume the legacy is his preference.</p>
<p>Let’s say for a moment that we don’t apply ED. Do you think the college-specific essay is a place where DS might include a statement regarding how strongly he might want to attend that school. I know all those essays explain why he is a good fit and can help the school or whatever. But what if it said, “and this is why _____ is one of my top choice schools to attend if possible.” Or is there some other way to make it clear that if DS is admitted, there really is a good chance he will attend?</p>
<p>How strongly he wants to attend doesn’t matter, if he can’t show the match in the full aspects of the CA. Some will say, look at the CDS to see if the college prioritizes “interest.” But in a fiercely competitive pool, this is mostly “show, not tell.” </p>
<p>I think the best idea with supp questions is to neither assume they are just plain old questions (what do you like to do in your spare time? Well, I like to play video games) nor something to be approached so analytically that you lose the life in the kid. Again, show, not tell. </p>
<p>Legacy somewhere else doesn’t necessarily hurt. What sometimes happens is that the kid is so familiar with that other school, what it offers and how, its culture and more, that it sometimes bleeds through in his app.</p>
<p>I think one of the things you need to do is to check the CDS or college data to see how they gauge demonstrated interest. If demonstrated interest is important, than going to open houses, events given by the school in your are, local alumni events, overnights will all help demonstrate interest. </p>
<p>He should send targeted recommendation letters (especially if he can get a good rec from a teacher who is also an alum) as to why he is a good fit on his fist choice school. HS GC could also target their letter to the first choice school in addition to the regional admissions rep (if they have a relationship) letting them know that it is his first choice and if admitted, he is committed to attending.</p>
<p>@sybbie – DS has a good relationship with his guidance counselor, so having her help might be the best idea yet! Also, he will have visited all his 3 top schools (though they are not close by) and met with someone in the department for his major, so he has lots to talk about in his college-specific apps that will show interest.</p>
<p>This is really simple. Apply Early Action or Regular Decision for every school because you will get totally different financial aid offers and then compare the net costs and go from there. Even the costs for tuition, room and board are so drastically different between schools so the net price will vary greatly among the schools. </p>
<p>You are very lucky your child doesn’t have a favorite school (love love love school). I’ve heard people get grants of 50,000 that wasn’t even on the net price calculator. Basically the schools may dole out whatever they’d like. My son got a $60K merit when he didn’t even meet the minimums shown on the merit GRID! You may get one offer in form of merit, another in grants, another in financial aid, etc. They will all differ. In fact, other factors that will impact the aid amounts are things like how much do the schools meet the need (100%, 80% etc.)? In addition, find out if they meet the same need the following years. Some don’t and others do. Also, some schools require a high GPA to keep the merit offer year after year. There are so many factors so it makes sense to get all the offers and then decide later which is best. </p>
<p>However, you will be in a HUGE disadvantage if you apply ED because they don’t have to dole out much, if any. It is a waste of time to apply ED especially if you are placing costs as a HUGE factor. You should definitely be in a position of strength and let them offer you the best price. It is a definite game, and to win you have to learn how to play the game. Just remember these schools are a business and they need to make money to stay in the game. Its like a buying a car so it is time to shop and get the best offer. The only disadvantage is you won’t know which school to pick until May 1st but why is it a rush. Your daughter may change her major so waiting until May is okay. (My son changed his major in April so half of his schools fell off the list - so here is another reason to avoid ED!). Good luck!!!</p>
<p>Txqueso - This is true for families seeking merit aid, but it does not apply to families seeking need-based aid, at least not at schools that meet 100% of need. The need-based financial aid offer would be the same in December as it would be the following April. It can still vary dramatically from one school to another, but it’s not going to change from one month to the next.</p>
<p>There is some flexibility in need based aid as well, and some need-only schools will “review” their determinations and increase grant levels to match competitor schools. Even without that, the person who has multiple financial aid awards in hand is more savvy when it comes to discussing aid. For example, when my d. was admitted as an undergrad, one need based school offered an award that was substantially better than another – probably worth about $9000 more. The school with the best award had determined my d. to be Pell-eligible – which surprised me – it turned out that they had found something in our tax returns to justify the exercise of “professional judgment” and reduce our EFC. </p>
<p>My d. ended up attending that school, so I never followed up with school no. 2 – but if I had, I certainly would have found it beneficial to be able to refer to specific factor that allowed school #1 to reduce our EFC – and I never would have even known the possibility existed but for the award.</p>
<p>I’d note that if my daughter had applied to school #1 ED, then the preliminary financial aid award would probably not have been nearly as good. That’s because the factor that reduced our EFC was only found in the tax return I filed in February or March, well past the deadline fo EFC acceptance. Since I didn’t know it would impact financial aid, I could not have anticipated that the award would approve. I wouldn’t have allowed my d. to apply ED in any case, but hypothetically if she had, we would have received an award estimate in December that would have substantially overstated our costs – likely would have found it unaffordable and turned down the spot – and my d. would have probably ended up attending our state U. </p>
<p>I suppose the same problem can happen the other way – a person accepts an ED slot based on a favorable award determination, then based on review of their later-filed tax return, their EFC goes up and the financial aid is cut back – and the family has nothing to fall back on by the time they receive notice of the final aid determination. </p>
<p>So the real deficit is a lack of information. I knew zilch about financial aid when kid #1 applied, and had only a moderate level of understanding when it was kid #2’s turn. So ED always puts the student at a comparative disadvantage, simply because they are being asked to commit and refrain from other applications based on an award that has not been finalized. At least merit aid awards represent a commitment by the school to a particular dollar amount.</p>
You talk about comparing financial aid, but remember my financial aid is extremely straight-forward. All the schools DS is looking at appear to have just about the same aid amount as each other on their calculators, with the exception of their loan policies.</p>