<p>Is it possible to get an early aid estimate if one is thinking about applying ED? Swarthmore doesn't appear to have a FA calculator on their website.</p>
<p>Keilexandra, I see that you applied (and were accepted) ED II last year. I hope your first year is going well.</p>
<p>My daughter just visited Swarthmore this week and had a great visit. She really saw herself fitting in at the school, its values and priorities resonated with her and she really clicked with the students she met. </p>
<p>She may be considering EDII as well, but we had previously agreed she would skip the ED rounds so we could evaluate different FA packages. Swarthmore has her thinking about whether that would be the best decision.</p>
<p>Can anyone advise whether you can get a pre-read on FA to determine whether to apply ED?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Swarthmore does not do FA pre-reads. However, I chose to go ahead with EDII anyway and received a satisfactory financial aid package. It was a bit lower than the estimates we had gotten from Williams’s and Amherst’s online calculators.</p>
<p>If Swat is definitely your D’s first choice, then you as a family need to decide how much attending that first-choice college is “worth.” Hypothetical: if in the RD round, Swarthmore gave the lowest but still “doable” FA package, would you choose it?</p>
<p>You can still ethically back out of the ED commitment for financial reasons, but you should then be emotionally prepared to receive equally poor FA packages from peer LACs (not always true, but a greater possibility).</p>
<p>If moderate merit aid would make a difference in your family’s financial situation (i.e. you would receive <15-20k need-based aid), that also complicates things.</p>
<p>All the above advice applies only to “normal” income/asset situations. The folks in the FA forum can give you a better call on what constitutes “normal”–warning signs are single/remarried parent, self-employment, or unusual (especially unaccessible) assets.</p>
<p>I will give the Amherst and Williams online calculators a whirl to get at least a rough order of justice for financial aid.</p>
<p>We have been considering your suggested points and she is not yet ready to pull the trigger on ED as she really likes several LACs with Carleton and Grinnell at the top with Swarthmore. Given the merit possibilities at Grinnell and the calculator and my daughter’s experiences at Carleton, she is likely to let the chips fall where they may to give her more time to make the best academic, social and financial decision she can. Her worldview has been growing and changing dramatically this whole year, so that is probably right right.</p>
<p>All that said, she loved her trip to Swarthmore and we both hope it will be an option come April. She spent a better part of the day yesterday working on her “Why Swarthmore?” essay. It would be a great fit for her and certainly has captured her imagination.</p>