<p>If I apply to a low match school ED/EA, will they give more financial aid?</p>
<p>That’s really unlikely–at least for Early Decision. Think about this in economic terms.</p>
<p>A college has a pile of aid money that it might (or might not) divide into two piles–one for need-based aid and one for merit-based aid.</p>
<p>Merit aid, when colleges offer it, is used to entice students to attend that college instead of going elsewhere. It’s often offered to students who are academically qualified to go someplace “better” (whatever “better” means), in order to give them an incentive not to do that. But if you apply ED, you don’t need to be given any incentive to go to your ED college or university instead of some other school, because you’ve already promised you’ll go there if it’s affordable. So colleges have little reason to offer big piles of merit money to ED students.</p>
<p>Need-based aid, obviously, is used to meet students’ financial need, or at least a part of it, but different colleges’ assessment of an applicant’s need can vary a lot. It happens that a student will be admitted to multiple colleges, but College A will go a lot further toward meeting the student’s need than College B will. Or College A may meet it, but College B may meet it with a more favorable aid package, that includes more grants, and less work-study and loans. But if you’ve applied ED, your ED college doesn’t have a huge incentive to give you the most attractive aid package possible. If anything, they have an incentive to give you the smallest adequate aid package they can–since you’ve agreed to go if the aid is adequate–and keep as much of their aid money as possible for RD applicants whom they’d really like to get.</p>
<p>Sometimes (though not always), Early Decision offers a noticeable advantage for admissions. I’ve never heard of it offering any advantage for financial aid, nor can I see any reason for a college to operate that way.</p>
<p>ohh, I get it! Thank you! :)</p>
<p>Note, though, that the same incentive-based argument doesn’t really apply to EA. If you apply EA, you’re not making any promise to attend, so the college or university may still have a reason to woo you if they want you.</p>