@txstella I definitely would not switch to EDII knowing what I know now. I think you’re being realistic, not cynical.
I can’t answer for anyone else, but we saw the two top levels of merit awards and felt like my daughter’s stats fell in line with receiving at least the second to highest level. We thought applying ED would show committed interest in the school. My guess is that those who apply ED and aren’t eligible for need-based aid often go into debt to attend the school. May be one of the reasons student loan debt is so insane right now.
At the beginning of this process, we told my daughter how much we would pay per year. Then she set a number in her mind of the maximum amount she was willing to go into debt. We looked at schools based on that knowledge. If a school offered no merit aid, she didn’t look twice at it. Some students probably love their first choice so much that they are willing to take on massive debt to go there.
So your original question was, simply, “How does one contact an admissions office to notify them that an ED acceptance is being rejected due to inadequate merit aid.” I would have said phone or e-mail and maybe back up phone with e-mail or hard copy so there is something in writing. Problem is already solved but just to summarize. Good luck to your daughter!
Editing to add that when I posted this I missed the third page so my post doesn’t really fit. Someone else in the meantime suggested certified letter and that sounds the best.
But let’s hope that admissions dean calls and gives her a better offer. I just want to reiterate what was said before --when discussing “financial aid,” universities include both need-based and merit; there is absolutely nothing improper about conditioning your ED on sufficient merit aid. Folks – please don’t give the OP a hard time, particularly when she was so explicit with the admissions folks.
That would be amazing if they did contact her, but it doesn’t sound like that is going to happen now. The email I finally received from her admissions rep late this morning was very much a “we are disappointed she will not be joining our community and wish her the best” email.
Disappointed, but I am just going to be thankful she does have other options.
Of course a school can’t hold you to the ED agreement, but in the spirit of ED, if you really need to shop around for financial aid or merit, then ED is not for your child. Even though you did your research, you made the assumption that based on your D’s strong scores, she would get the highest award. That was a leap on your part, and if that was the only way your D could have attended the school, then you should not have applied ED. There are other factors besides scores that go into awarding merit. I’m not going to call you unethical, but in a way you did try to game the system for your benefit by applying early when the acceptance odds are better. In the end, the school will easily fill your D’s slot, and assuming you don’t have another child who will apply to this school, then you come away unscathed. But will there be repercussions for your hs or guidance counselor?
I wish your D the best of luck.
Sorry, @wisteria100 , but there is absolutely nothing unethical about applying ED if you need financial aid of any sort. That would be like saying only the very wealthy should be allowed to apply ED. I made NO SUCH assumption that my daughter would get the highest award (she could have attended with the second highest award as well but still made no assumption…we just hoped) and have repeatedly said my daughter was not ENTITLED to anything. You are making assumptions and stating your opinion on who should be allowed to apply ED.
We knew there was a chance, based on previous year’s data, that she would qualify and that she loved the school very much and wanted to show her commitment. It wasn’t about increasing her admissions chances. Her admissions counselors were told she via a letter that she would need merit-based financial aid. They emphasized that ED was the best choice if a school is a student’s first choice which it was.
There are no repercussions for her hs or guidance counselor as the agreement states that acceptance of the offer is dependent on FINANCIAL AID…not need-based financial aid…financial aid of any sort. We are breaking no agreement. Even the school stated in their reply to my email that they release students from ED agreements if students cannot financially afford the institution after the offer is made.
Yes, advise your high school that there is a chance that the college will be vindictive and put the high school on an auto-reject list, so that the counselors can warn future applicants that it may not be worth applying there (especially if an auto-reject pattern is noticed next year).
@ucbalumnus That is just not true. The college is in no way angry or vindictive. I have spoken to them verbally and by email. If a student cannot afford a college after the financial aid offer is made, they are released from the ED agreement. This is true for all ED agreements.
Financial aid, as defined by the Financial Aid Administrators Association, includes scholarships. It’s not limited to just only need-based awards.
I disagree with this conclusion … in the grand scheme of college applications to the top 100 colleges in the US (which I think from OP’s other posts, her D did apply to), it’s the colleges that are setting the rules. I don’t see how one individual applicant could be said to be gaming the system, especially when the family was so upfront in writing, and in asking questions, about how the scenario might play out.
There’s a parallel thread going on in which an applicant was admitted ED to Rice but wants the admissions dean to extend the ED reply-by date til April to compare financial aid packages before accepting … THAT is what I think of when I think of gaming the system:
Your post is completely out of line. The OP did everything right here. The OP was honest with the university during the application process, expressly asked about declining an acceptance based on insufficient merit aid and was expressly told by the university that this was a valid and legitimate reason to decline acceptance. If the university has no problem with the OP’s D declining acceptance under these circumstances, what right do you have to scold the OP and express your “concern” that “there will be repercussions for your HS or guidance counselor.” Shame on you!
@txserenity First off, I very clearly did not call you unethical. Sorry if you got that impression. ED is tougher for kids who need aid but I also wasn’t suggesting it is only for full pay applicants. But in a lot of cases awards are made at ED, the family wishes they were offered more, but they ultimately end up taking the offer as they signed the agreement and made that commitment. I also do think there is a difference between can’t possibly pay the difference and don’t want to pay the difference.
They found a great fit, they used ED to show how interested their daughter is. Nothing unethical in that. The “CC Rules” are don’t apply if you aren’t certain you can afford it, as is. But CC isn’t an adcom forum, it’s mostly parents and kids going on their own ideas and experiences.
Is this tongue in cheek? “Yes, advise your high school that there is a chance that the college will be vindictive and put the high school on an auto-reject list, so that the counselors can warn future applicants that it may not be worth applying there (especially if an auto-reject pattern is noticed next year).”
I have no idea where this comes from. There will be no repercussion against the hs or GC for this case. This is no bait-and-switch. Uncertainty about a high school comes when its admitted kids routinely decline. Not one family that needed more aid than was offered.
Unfortunately, the way the colleges rig the ED game, it is likely that full pay applicants are the ones most confident in being able to attend without financial qualms. It may be a backdoor way of increasing the number of full pay students (i.e. reducing the amount spent on financial aid) while still being need-blind in admissions.
@txserenity I did state that and I heard that sentiment at almost every college info session I went to a as well as from the hs counselor. So it is not my ‘opinion’, it is what I have heard going through the process from many sources. Some families who apply for aid, will take the ED offer even if it is lower than what they hoped for. @AlexanderIII I most certainly did not say there would be repercussions for the hs. I posed that as a question
The Common App wording includes this: Should a student who applies for financial aid not be offered an award that makes attendance possible, the student may decline the offer of admission and be released from the Early Decision commitment.
Further, CB explains FA without limiting it to need-based only (or so-called ability to pay, as defined by the Fafsa or CSS Profile.)
The colleges do not “rig” the game. Many offer FA with the ED admit that is in line with the NPC.
What do you call rigged? I have a close friend- very cost conscience, lots of need, fully prepared to walk away, who was assured by Princeton of two things:
1- They make the same decision in the early round as they do in the regular round, i.e. no advantage admissions-wise in applying early AND
2- The offer of need based aid (since P doesn’t do merit) would be identical early vs. regular.
Kid applied, was admitted, offer was within $5 of what the NPC had predicted.
So I don’t believe that Princeton (and the three handfuls of generous schools like it) rig the game.
Do I think the game gets rigged further down the food chain? Possibly. For schools that do not guarantee to meet full need, I think it is foolish for kids who are banking on a lot of need to apply early. For schools that are generous with merit but whose need based aid stinks, families should be very, very confident that the kid is in the top 10? 15? percent of applicants before applying early.
But I don’t use the word “rigged” to mean duplicitous or dishonest. You’ve got two similar applicants. One is from Atherton California and the other from Bridgeport CT and both are attending their local public HS. Who will have greater need? You are looking at another pair- one from South side of Chicago, the other from Winnetka, a few miles but a world away. It is not rocket science to figure out who will need aid in order to walk through the door, even when your financial aid and admissions departments are two miles apart in different buildings, no shared databases, etc.
Princeton is different in that (a) its early admission program is (SC)EA, not ED, so there is no binding aspect if the applicant is admitted, (b) its need-based financial aid offers are likely to be better than almost any other school’s need-based financial aid anyway, and (c) there are no merit scholarships and the uncertainty that that comes with.
But obviously, that is different from the situation of this thread, where the OP and OP’s kid were enticed into applying ED by the college’s claims that sufficient merit scholarships were likely, but eventually were not offered.
ED is different, and often much more problematic for applicants, than EA.
