<p>When and how do you for EA or ED? What are the benefits, and cons?
????</p>
<p>Early Decision if that is your absolute first choice, and if you don't need any financial aid.</p>
<p>If you need financial aid, and you are admitted Early Decision, and they give you what they consider to be enough aid, but you don't think it is enough aid, you are out of luck. You will have no negotiating room whatsoever.</p>
<p>Early Action is better if you will need to be able to compare financial aid packages before making your final decision.</p>
<p>^^Actually, if you come to the conclusion that your ED school does not give out enough aid for your needs, you do have some level of negotiating; it just depends on the college. Call the financial aid office and see if there is something that can be done. If not, most colleges that I've looked into actually allow students to apply elsewhere...just do your research first!</p>
<p>That's actually not entirely true about the Early Decision financial aid. If the college doesn't meet your financial need, you are allowed to back out. Also, you can appeal the award and often times they will give you a bit more, for fear of losing a student they already had.
That said, EA is much better if you need to compare packages. A lot of times schools will offer more to the same EA applicant compared to an ED applicant because they're still competing with other schools for that student.</p>
<p>The bigger issue is not whether the ED school meets your need, but how they meet your need, and how they calculate your need. ED School may determine that your need is, say, $30,000, and give you a package consisting of $10,000 grant and the rest loans/work-study. That technically meets your need. And you may be able to deal with that.</p>
<p>If you had applied RD, you would likely get the same package. But, RD School 1 has calculated that your need is $40,000, and gives you $25,000 grant and only $15,000 in loans/work-study. And RD School 2 calculates your need as $30,000, but gives it to you totally in grants.</p>
<p>Applying ED eliminates your ability to compare these types of packages, some of which may be much more attractive than others.</p>
<p>when do you apply for all this?</p>
<p>Depends on the school. Usually early November.</p>