Does ED help or hurt merit aid?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Champlain College
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<p>After visiting Champlain for its special “Game On” open house last month, my son fell in love and declared that this was THE school he wanted to attend. Given this strong reaction, he is planning to apply in the ED2 pool even though we had previously discussed only applying to schools via early action or regular decision. His application–especially his SAT scores–should be appealing to Champlain, but since the game design program is the school’s most competitive and it’s my son’s definite first choice, early decision seems like an appropriate move. </p>

<p>I’m just wondering whether applying ED will hurt his prospects for merit aid (and other financial aid). It doesn’t do him any good to improve his chances of acceptance if he’s hurting his chances for scholarship (and, therefore, ability to actually attend). </p>

<p>FWIW, he was accepted at three of the four schools he applied to EA/rolling (and was deferred to regular decision pool at the fourth). Of those three, two offered decent merit aid (Becker and Bradley) and the third (UMBC) is a state school, so not flush with scholarship money.</p>

<p>Thanks for any feedback!</p>

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<p>Forgot to mention that I asked this question of a friend who’s a college counselor, and she thought it was really school-specific. Hence, my reason for posting this here on the Champlain forum.</p>

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<p>I asked the same question recently in a different thread. Here you go:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/champlain-college/1257783-ask-admission-counselor-8.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/champlain-college/1257783-ask-admission-counselor-8.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>My son did receive some merit aid with with his acceptance.</p>

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<p>Jenifish, Can I ask how much merit aid and your son’s SAT or ACT scores? (One of the admissions reps we spoke with when we visited campus told us merit aid was tied to standardized test scores.)</p>

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<p>@earthtones Just keep in mind that the merit aid can also be slightly different depending on your student’s major. I would recommend chatting with our Financial Aid Office if you’d like more details about the process of how they package for financial aid!</p>