<p>My college counselor never told me about the financial aid risk of applying ED, and I still do not know too much about it...</p>
<p>I was told by multiple Duke people (alum interviewer, admissions officer and FA rep) that I would most likely get full aid because my mother makes $55,000 and that falls under their lowest income bracket. </p>
<p>What exactly is the risk for FA for ED? Am I risking a lot of money? or....?</p>
<p>This is just one of the many topics under the discussion of whether or not these top universities are “Need Blind,” and you can see that term used many times on a college website. It means colleges evaluate your application without glancing at your financial status, but the fact of the matter is that when a college admissions officers first gets your application, they see your name, SSN, and the unchecked or checked box for financial aid (many credible sources have said this to me). Your admissions officer goes through the app with that little reminder in their heads that “Oh, this person is asking for aid.” And when it comes down to it, the chances that they will take a financial aid candidate rather than another candidate who is of equal stats and who is willing to pay full tuition (and maybe even donate) are very slim. </p>
<p>But then again, these sort of deliberation are more frequently made in the Regular decision pools as at the beginning of the process schools have more money to give away and they are lurching to secure the top early candidates who applied.</p>
<p>So don’t fret too much; if you have exceptional stats, I believe you can get in.</p>
<p>Well that sucks. </p>
<p>Oh well, the ED advantage seems to outweigh the FA disadvantage in my opinion…</p>
<p>The die have been tossed.</p>
<p>Toujours - goodtimes is providing information about schools that are not need blind. Such schools have limited FA budgets and when they get to the last 10-20% of students that they accept, need awareness starts to creep in as these schools exhaust their budgets. HOWEVER, Duke is one of about 60 schools that are need blind in admissions AND guarantee to meet 100% of demonstrated need. Here is a list of these schools: ([Which</a> Colleges Claim to Meet Students’ Full Financial Need? - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2011/02/16/which-colleges-claim-to-meet-students-full-financial-need]Which”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2011/02/16/which-colleges-claim-to-meet-students-full-financial-need))</p>
<p>So, worry not about having your admissions chances put in jeopardy in any way by the fact that you are applying for financial aid. I can assure you of that. With that being said, your other concern is probably what “meeting 100% of financial need” means. If you haven’t already, you should run your family’s financial information through Duke’s net price calculator:
<a href=“Net Price Calculator”>Net Price Calculator;
<p>Assuming your family has fairly straightforward income and assets (which is sounds like is the case), the NPC for Duke should give you a very accurate idea of what to expect for financial aid. Like most of its peer institutions, Duke will package financial aid for you first with about $2000 in work study and a $1000-5000 Stafford loan (capped at different income levels). The rest of your demonstrated need will be a Duke scholarship grant. Keep in mind that even if your family EFC is low, or even zero, you will an expected student contribution (EFC) of about $2100, which the school expects students to earn during the summer.</p>
<p>So, by applying ED to Duke, you can rest assured that the FA package that they offer you will be identical to what you would be offered if you applied RD and were accepted. Duke does not “run out” of FA money. The one big downside of ED in terms of FA is that you lose the chance to compare, evaluate, and negotiate a better offer from another school. It’s possibe that another school could determine a different amount of need. That, you will never know by applying ED.</p>
<p>Take a look at this page on the Duke FA site. It actually models an FA situation for a family with income of $55K:
[Duke</a> Financial Aid: Award Statistics](<a href=“http://www.finaid.duke.edu/undergraduate/stats/index.html#FAI]Duke”>http://www.finaid.duke.edu/undergraduate/stats/index.html#FAI)</p>
<p>I hope this helps, and good luck with ED!</p>
<p>Toujours - congrats on your acceptance!! I saw on the other thread that you said that duke put $14K in loans in your FA package. If this is true, there must have been a mistake, so you should defintitely contact the FA office tomorrow. Duke’s stated policy that you can find on their website is that loans are capped at a max of $5000 - and that’s for incomes above 100K…your loans shoul be much less.</p>
<p>no no, I misstated. I would have to take OUT 14k in loans. I have 3k in loans right now under their plan. I will find a way to go, either way…but my mom is calling FA tomorrow because there is a MAJOR discrepancy in what they told us I would have to pay (2k+2k loans) and what I have to pay now (14k+ 3k loans). </p>
<p>Thank you for all the help!!!</p>
<p>What the average aid for my parents income group is 25000 and I only got 10000 (half of which were loans)!? :(</p>