<p>Recently at a conference a college spokesperson advised applicants to apply early action. It seems like a great option in that the kid would have his/her acceptance in hand early in your senior year, assuming of course they are accepted. There is no commitment as with early decision either. BUT... I've heard the downside is that merit offers may not be overly generous in these cases because the vast amount of applicants have not yet applied. Is it true a college may want to hedge it's bets as regards merit aid feeling that since the student applied early, the impetuous is already there to attend and thus no incentive in the way of merit aid need be offered. Is it ill-advised to apply early action if you absolutely need some form of merit aid to attend a particular college?</p>
<p>It is totally college-specific. Some colleges (Scripps immediately comes to mind) provide their major merit scholarships ONLY to students who apply EA. At other colleges, you won't hear about merit awards until April anyway. </p>
<p>ED is a different kettle of fish all together.</p>
<p>Agree with mini. S applied to USC before their merit deadline,which was 1 month before reg.deadline, and because of his stats, etc, was accepted and invited to interview for 1/2 tuition scholarship- ended up receiving full tuition scholarship.</p>
<p>Tulane and Emory also have early deadlines for thier merit money.</p>
<p>If you are a very strong candidate for merit aid I would not apply EA. Merit money is used as a tool to attract a student who would typically go elsewhere (e.g. attract HYP caliber students to Emory, Vandy, etc.). Applying EA sends a message to college that they are student's first (or second) choice thus merit aid would be less likely.</p>
<p>DTan, you are totally off base in saying that EA sends a message that a college is a student's first or second chance. Huge numbers of students, my S and many cc posters and kids of cc posters included, use EA in the polar opposite way: to have a safety or two in hand, while they wait to see if they will be accepted by their top choices.</p>
<p>Totally disagree (respectfully) re EA reduces chances of merit $$. ED many believe reduces the quantity of merit money, or the favorable packaging of need-based money because "they know they've got you." Still, I don't know if that is anything but speculation.</p>
<p>The anecdotal evidence on EA seems to run totally contrary to what DTan says. My S was a case in point, receiving merit offers from the two schools where he applied EA. Neither required a special application and both courted him from the moment he applied through the time he was accepted right up until he made his final decision. One gave him the merit $$ within 10 days of the acceptance; one told him of the merit award at the same time they told RD applicants. </p>
<p>Many other parents have posted of experiences leading them to believe merit $$ tends to go to the early birds.</p>
<p>I say, if you want merit $$, get your apps in as early as possible. Worked for us (and was a total surprise, btw; we were naive about the process and didn't really expect merit $$ at all).</p>
<p>My D was offered $8K a year along with her early acceptance to Lewis and Clark. They stated specifically that it was merit aid available only to those who applied EA.</p>
<p>Jmmom, I agree with you. I think it actually helps to apply early if you want merit $$. My S got $20,000 from UNC-CH after applying EA.</p>
<p>I agree with mini on this one. Our son was accepted EA at Case and was notified his $17k President's scholarship in the acceptance letter. I also recall that some RD applicants with better SAT's did not get a similar merit scholarship offer, though it could have been due to other things in the application.</p>
<p>Have to agree with the other posters. Son's EA apps did much better merit offer-wise than his RD apps. Most of his EA acceptances to schools that offer merit aid came back with merit offers in the acceptances, a few came a short time later, Univ. of Chicago, WPI, Boston College, Fordham, Emory, UNC-CH.</p>
<p>Same was true for his 2 older sisters and older brother for the preceeding 3 years. Interestingly since he completed all the apps he could using the Common App he did send in some other apps earlier than the ED deadlines but applied RD. He did hear back from some schools earlier than expected however I would not think this was the norm at all.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>PS it was later in the year that his actual financial aid packages showed up which included the merit offers and in some cases "preferential packaging" that mentioned his early apps.</p>
<p>DTan, I think any advice you have heard concerning merit aid is based on confusion of EA with ED. With ED the student is locked in, so there is no incentive for an offer of merit aid. EA is just the opposite -- the college has a powerful incentive to offer a level of aid that is strong incentive for the student to choose that college. The EA school knows that the student will apply elsewhere, but the future acceptances will be weighed in light of the initial merit offer. That is, if EA school offers a $15K scholarship, an offer of $7500 from another school will seem puny by comparison. It also will have a huge impact on the student's parents: once there is a generous offer from College A in hand, the student may have a tough time persuading mom & dad that they should pay more money for the kid to attend College B. Give that merit aid early in the process, and it may well turn into the parents' bottom line. </p>
<p>On the other hand, a lowball offer will be easy to beat, and will encourage the student to keep shopping for better aid --and with EA, there is plenty of time to do that.</p>
<p>As usual, calmom has gone to the crux of the matter :).</p>