The term financial aid includes scholarships. I worked in the financial aid office of my college. There is need-based financial aid and merit-based financial aid.
Financial aid is a term for an award that assists a student for costs of college. It does not specify WHY the money was awarded.
“Financial Aid is any grant or scholarship, loan, or paid employment offered to help a student meet his/her college expenses. Such aid is usually provided by various sources such as federal and state agencies, colleges, high schools, foundations, and corporations.” -definition from New York State Financial Aid Administrators website
Scholarships, grants, loans, etc. are all considered financial aid.
The truth is that colleges with ED don’t really enforce the agreement, even if a student withdraws for a reason that isn’t covered in the agreement. That doesn’t mean that it’s right to withdraw for a bad reason. In this case, I think the OP’s family is ethically OK, because they told the school when they applied that the student wouldn’t be able to attend without merit aid. The school apparently didn’t tell them that this wasn’t the deal.
I have yet to hear of an ED agreement being enforced if the student withdraws for any reason, but I suspect there may be significant backlash towards future applicants from that school. If the guidance/college counseling office isn’t monitoring how students use ED applications, the colleges might penalize the school for a season, rejecting competitive applicants just to make a point. Otherwise, it’s a toothless contract and is just inviting future abuse.
ETA: @txserenity, I just saw your DD’s stats. I’m shocked she wasn’t offered a generous merit award, regardless of which school it was! It confirms my suspicions that some of these schools dangling big merit awards actually penalize students who demonstrate too much interest, figuring mom and dad will cough up the money to send the kid there if it really is a first choice. Hmmph!
Hopefully, you may get a call that will offer some merit.
But this ED with needing merit is confusing. My son, like others, did not ED at first choice school because he needed merit money (which was available) but that no merit was not a valid reason to decline the ED award. Not to pick on the OP, but it seems to defeat the purpose of ED (kids will definitely go if admitted) if students can compare merit awards and decide to go elsewhere. While that doesn’t appear to be the case here, that certainly seems likely if a kid EDs to one school and chooses EA at several others. Will a college really hold it against OTHER kids if a kid withdraws from ED? Certainly not the next kid’s fault and most often not even the GC’s.
Thanks, @LucieTheLakie . I am trying hard to not to be cynical about the process, but I have a feeling you may be right. I never was very good at playing poker and maybe those skills are required to play this game!
We thought being from a different geographic area might help her strength as a candidate as well as we are in the south and the school is in the northeast. Alas, it did not work out.
The school that has offered her the most aid is here in our home state, so the bright side is that she’ll be closer to home. They also included a lovely handwritten note that specifically referenced things from my daughter’s application. Things like that really show that a school has a strong interest in the student and go a long way.
At this point, they don’t have time or inclination to “enforce” ED. They’re now staring down RD and will try to fill the slot. And I don’t there’s a certain damaging backlash in admits, if they have a solid relationship with the school. It’s more risky when it’s a pattern (in ED or RD.) If needed a good GC can handle this.
“What if the applicant’s family can afford full pay, but would rather not and was hoping for substantial merit aid to make the school more affordable…” In this case, even though some computer program says the family can afford the college, the personal details can make it otherwise. That’s really all that has to be claimed.
No, we don’t want students to game or apply early just to rack up a win, when they really want some other school. But as Hunt said, this family seems to have been ethical. Best wishes.
Such a penalty would still be toothless, since it penalizes innocent students from following classes at the high school for a student backing out of ED.
But since some colleges apparently do this, you should advise your high school’s counselors that they should warn following classes of students that someone backed out of an ED admission at that college. If an apparent auto-reject pattern shows up next year, the counselors should discourage all students from applying to that college in the future.
Merit scholarships are used as attractors to entice students who may otherwise choose other colleges. It does not make too much sense from the college’s point of view to offer non-automatic merit scholarships to an ED applicant, who presumably does not need such enticement.
Perhaps it is different at each school, but we openly asked if merit was awarded before applying ED and verified we would be able to decline if it wasn’t enough to make it within our family’s reach. Some schools offer no merit aid during ED (I heard that is the case with Smith), so that would solve that problem. I would say it has to be an individual choice based on a conversation with admission offices.
In hindsight, I wish we HAD gone RD as I think that may have affected the size of the award my daughter received.
However, I do not think it defeats the purpose of ED. I believe a school should offer what they think is fair based on how much they believe the student will add to the school. Otherwise ED (which supposedly has higher admit rates) is reserved only for those students whose parents are able/willing to pay sticker price. ED is a way for students to say they that school is their number one choice and show a strong commitment. In this case, my daughter’s interest in the school was stronger than the school’s interest in her. We part ways and no one is hurt. The school certainly didn’t seem to think it was a very big issue to release her l once I was able to reach them.
You’ll see advice on CC that I agree with regarding the statement above: don’t become enamored with a college because of the admissions office personnel or communications. Their job is to get you to sign up. Once signed, you are out of their hands, and the actual college experience for the next 4+ years will have nothing to do with the admissions office.
Is there a correlation between the admissions office demeanor and that of the remainder of the college? Perhaps in select circumstances, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
I’m not an atty, but I’ll give an opinion just the same.
The Op says he/she has the money for full pay(zero FA) and is aware of the legal obligations of ED. And is also aware of the moral obligations of the promise to attend if accepted ED.
In keeping with Op’s request I’ll not comment on either.
But, on how to decline-
If I knew I was going to decline, and was not going to try to negotiate, I’d send a certified letter so I could easily document that I had notified them. If I did that, I would feel I had met my minimum burden of the legal obligation.
Yes, good point, @dadof1 But it is a nice “add-on” on top of the things one loves about a school. Subjectively, it can make the admissions process, which is quite stressful, more pleasant.
More importantly, I would agree, is the information I’ve gathered from other parents who have sent students there and the words of former students themselves. All have been extremely pleased with their experiences.
Merit aid is an enrollment tool. Period. It often has other, ancillary uses… but it is primarily an enrollment tool. You are an institution with a limited FA budget? It is a strategic decision whether to use those funds to enroll a handful of needy, full-need, often First Gen students-- or to use the same amount of money to enroll a large number of affluent, high stats kids who each get a small award but mom and dad get to announce to their friends, “Little Johnny got a merit award”. Or something in between.
It saddens me when people personalize the amount or timing of the award as if it means that their kid is not “meritorious”. It is a tool which is used based on a whole bunch of algorithms which predict who enrolls where and when and what type of incentives need to be deployed to craft the class the university wants. Once- of course- the kid in question has cleared the bar for admission, which clearly the OP’s kid did.
OP- glad it has worked out for your D. Everyone else- don’t personalize it. It’s like getting mad that you get a lot of junk mail for an Audi dealership, but your sister gets a lot of junk mail for Subarus. It’s based on zip codes, demographic analysis, purchasing habits of your neighbors, and a rough estimate of your psychographics. Do you get upset when Netflix tells you that you’d like a movie which you’ve already seen and actually didn’t enjoy? It’s an algorithm, folks.
Your neighbor may not be getting 20K of his Audi, but your siblings may well be paying much less in auto insurance just based on where they park their car at night. Your college roommate may pay half for the airline ticket from his/her home to Orlando, vs. you, even though he/she is traveling twice the distance.
There are many forms of price discrimination. We’re just immune to them because we face them every day.
But there’s the rub, @ucbalumnus. These same schools supposedly look at things like “demonstrated interest” and swear up and down that they make no distinctions between RD and ED applicants when considering merit awards, even though a student frequently chooses ED to increase their overall odds of admission. They often punish the kid who truly wants to go to their school (but needs financial assistance) for demonstrating too much interest and award the kid who’s likely using their school as Plan B with the merit money. That’s their prerogative, of course, but it can feel manipulative when you end up with the short end of the stick.
We learned our lesson, believe me. I now look to schools that are clear and transparent about the process and recommend others do likewise.
My DS has received multiple emails from one school about moving his app from RD to EDII. Am I being cynical in thinking they are trying to reel him in with the lowest EDII merit award possible?
I have been surprised by all the applicants I have read about on CC who apply ED. I understand the logic behind low income students who apply to top schools that meet need. The very wealthy have the luxury to apply ED. But many of the students who post on CC and apply ED seems to have financial need, and so many schools gap or award at most $29,000. How do they pay the tuition?
OP, it sounds like your daughter has a very good option. You alerted the school that a merit award was necessary for her to attend in advance of her ED app. The COA has just gone crazy IMO especially if you have some assets but are not wealthy.
They also included a lovely handwritten note that specifically referenced things from my daughter’s application. Things like that really show that a school has a strong interest in the student and go a long way.