<p>So I talked to one of the counselors and he told me that I should apply to reach or meet universities with FINANCIAL AID for Early Decision or Action.</p>
<p>However, yesterday, one of universities students told me that applying to reach and meet universities with financial aid will definitely lower my chances of getting in.</p>
<p>Now I'm really confused.
So.. should I apply to reach and meet schools with financial aid or nah?
Or should I apply to reach without financial aid and meet schools with financial aid?</p>
<p>Only at “need-blind” universities will asking for FA not hurt you. The need-blind schools tend to be the far-reach schools with huge endowments. “Meet” schools generally have smaller endowments and therefore tend not to be able to afford to be need-blind. </p>
<p>@GMTplus7 so that means if I’m not applying to IVY league or Top liberal arts colleges, I should not apply for financial aid but just merit based scholarship</p>
<p>I recall a post from a student from india who was awarded generous aid from WPI. I am also aware that Univ of Alabama gives automatic full-tuition Presidential scholarships to all applicants, domestic and int’l, who meet a certain GPA & SAT threshold.</p>
<p>Many schools that are need blind and meet full need for American students do NOT for international students. You have to check with each school to find out the policies for international students. They differ from school to school. If you need financial aid, merit money, make sure the school even gives it to international students. Otherwise you can be fishing in a pond with no fish.</p>
<p>Whether you get accepted on your need aware status and whether a school will meet your need is up to chance. You do have those additional risk factors. But when you are looking at highly selective schools, it’s very difficult to get accepted anyways, You should also see what the schools think you should be paying by running the NPCs. If it turns out that most schools don’t think you have need by their formulas or their definition does jive with yours, again you could be wasting your time. Even if you get accepted, you won’t get the money. </p>
<p>If you need financial aid, why would you apply to schools without applying for it? You wouldn’t be able to go if you got accepted. The schools aren’t going to turn around and give you the money afterwards. You either can come up with the money somehow or you cannot. In the case of international students, you will have to show US immigration that you can pay for the year at a college when applying for a student visa and they will want verification of where you are getting those funds as well as having to pay the school. So I’m curious why you would even consider applying to a school you know you can’t afford without some financial or merit money, and not applying for aid. Yes, it would up your chances of getting accepted when you don’t need money from the school, but then you won’t get the money from the school and you can’t go. If you are thinking of trying to get around the system by browbeating the school, or begging for the money after getting accepted, just be aware, the schools are aware of international students doing this. Happens all of the time.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse Thank you so much for such a detailed answer. But I’m not sure what you mean by “You should also see what the schools think you should be paying by running the NPCs.” </p>
<p>Each college website has a net price calculator on it. Do a search on your ED college website for that. Then fill in the blanks as accurately as you can. This will give you an ESTIMATE on,y of your net cost to attend.</p>
<p>Please keep in mind…the net price calculators are NOT particularly accurate for international students. They are also not accurate if the parents are divorced, self employed, remarried, or own their own business. But it would give you a ballpark…an estimate only.</p>
<p>Honestly, if finances are a huge issue, apply regular decision so you can compare offers amongst schools.</p>
<p>@thumper1 So you are saying I can’t afford the tuition, I should apply regular decision with financial aid rather than ED or EA with financial aid.</p>
<p>EA is fine…when you all,y EA, you can apply to many schools and the acceptance is NOT a bonding one. You don’t have to make your matriculation decision until May 1. NOTE…some schools have SCEA or REA which means you cannot apply early to other schools…so check that…but regardless…decisions are not binding.</p>
<p>ED is binding. You can only apply to ONE ED school. When you get that ONE ED acceptance and financial aid, you will have nothing to compare it to. It might be your best net cost…but it might not be. No way to know because you will have only that one offer to look at. </p>
<p>@thumper1 Right, but should i just apply to one reach school with financial aid and wish for the best? I mean if i get accepted, it will be my best net cost and i would get to go to my dream school. </p>
<p>It depends on the school. They usually specifically say if they do not change FA for ED vs. RD students. However, we’ve found that is rare - most say “for ED, if you are accepted, the FA package is non-negotiable”.</p>
<p>@rhandco would you elaborate that please? the quote.
What do they mean by non-negotiable… ? does it mean they are not willing to give out to ED students? </p>
<p>Non-negotiable means that usually, if you apply RD to a school, you can negotiate, that is, question the FA package that you are given and perhaps get a better FA package. But if you apply ED to many schools, if they offer you acceptance, you have to go there and take the FA package offered, and you have no way to ask for more or a review.</p>
<p>If you listed a few universities, or if you yourself went to the universities FA pages, you might find out what each universities policy is.</p>
<p>I think international students have to be very careful, because some schools do indeed consider FA for international students, ED or RD. You must look this up yourself or let us know where you are looking, so others can help you.</p>
<p>There is no one answer for all colleges regarding FA for international students and whether asking for FA will hurt you. It varies by college.</p>
<p>There is nothing to negotiate WITH when you recieve an ED offer. You will have ONE offer, and a very short time to accept or decline it. You won’t have any other offers in hand. It’s not like you can go to the financial aid office at Yale and say “Yale is my first choice, but Harvard gave me this offer…which is higher…any chance my offer can be reviewed by Yale?”</p>
<p>That’s my point. If the student applies RD to a bunch of places, there may be (depending on the school) room to negotiate and of course turn down “bad” offers.</p>
<p>My son is on a college tour at a university that says point blank: you cannot negotiate ED FA packages and we may negotiate RD FA packages, especially if you have a better FA package from another selective college. Very interesting in our opinion. But even so, look up the international students office as well as the FA page.</p>
<p>As a general rule I do not think families who are trying to get the lowest cost for the best college should apply ED. You don’t really know what you will get in terms of merit and financial aid from other schools Most applicants and their parents are not only amateurs at this college app process, but are often newbies. IT’s very easy to get caught up in the momentum and end up with a kid at a school that is really unaffordable because of the fear of missing out.</p>
<p>If there is truly a school a student wants, and the parents have decided to make that school work if at all possible, and set out a financial plan and limits as to what to pay, going ED is fine. In such a case, it’s irrelevant whether the student could get a full tuition award at another school or get better financial aid at yet another. They goal was to get into the ED school and to make it work if at all possible. </p>
<p>That’s not the way it usually works Most families are “loosey, goosey” about what they can afford. The choices could be very different if they had an array of college choices and prices. Each year, I see families upset because classmates and peers got great deals at schools their kid considered but got locked in at ED because before thinking things out more clearly Would you REALLY have picked Wake Forest over Tulane had you gotten a full tution award from the latter vs a small package from the former? Maybe State U isn’t so bad with all of your classmates heading out there to the Honors College, and it means no debt and it looks like you would have gotten some money there as well. You don’t get to think these things over with the real offers on the table when you pick schools ED. Plus there is some wiggle room to negotiate packages RD by showing a peer school award. </p>
<p>But ED could work well in terms of getting a bit of an admissions break and if your family knows what the limit is in what they can pay and not worried about missing out on a better deal. With NPCs, these days, you can often can get a good idea what packages you might get. If you apply to a top school that tends to give good aid, and the offer comes up way short, it hurts to let it go, but it is also a reality check as to what you are likely to get in other aid packages and to revamp that college list for RD. </p>
<p>In older days before there were NPCs, some people were in shock that they got zero in aid when they applied ED. The screaming ads and assurances that no student need hesitate to appy due to finances really hit their marks. The reality of the financial aid packages or lack thereof were quite eye opening. But then the parents had to deal with the shrieks of joy for their kids, the congrats, the smiles of the GCs and teachers, and somehow address the financial concerns. Could they really afford the quarter million price? Now you can run NPCs and most of the time, you have an idea what the schools are going to expect you to pay… </p>
<p>@cptofthehouse @rhandco @thumper1
So lets say I applied to Claremont Mckenna College for ED with financial aid and got accepted. They decide to give me only small portion of financial aid and I have to afford the remaining tuitions. Since I applied as ED, I have to attend this university with little aid no matter what and the extent financial aid is not negotiable.</p>
<p>On the other hand, lets say I apply to Carleton and Claremont Mckenna College for RD with financial aid and get accepted to both of them. Carleton gives me a lot of financial aid and CMC doesn’t. Then I could CHOOSE or NEGOTIATE with the financial aid office. </p>
<p>Am I getting this right?
So… Do you guys think it would be better for me study hardcore and boost up my scores then apply to reach schools for RD so I could choose/negotiate the financial aid?</p>
<p>Or should I still try to apply to my meet schools (which are within top 50 universities) for ED and see the result? </p>
<p>I don’t think Claremont McKenna College would view Carleton as a “peer school”. IF a school will review your offer (you are not negotiating…you are asking for a review based on another offer), it would need to be a peer school.</p>
<p>What are you getting when you do these net price calculators? Have you done any of them? They will at least give you an estimate of your net costs. Have you talked to your parents? What WILL they pay per year? Are you a low income student (from a family where the family income is below $30,000 a year)? Does your family have any assets…home equity, savings, etc?</p>
<p>All of these questions need to be answered (not here…but by you…). </p>
<p>Will your family qualify for need based aid? </p>
<p>If financial aid is a serious consideration…you might want to consider applying RD.</p>
<p>And if you are a competitive applicant for some of these well endowed schools that meet full need for all, perhaps you should also consider some schools where you would receive merit aid based on your stats.</p>
<p>ETA…here is your chances thread. The schools you are listing are not a slam dunk in terms of admission even applying ED or EA. </p>
<p>You need some true match and safety schools on this list. And a safety would include affordability as well as a very strong likelihood of acceptance. </p>
<p>UT Austin, BU, UMich, UCLA, and Berkeley will not likely give you the aid you need to attend. None meet full need for international students…and those publics won’t give you sufficient aid to attend. </p>
<p>The rest of your list is REACHES for almost everyone…except Carleton. But again…aid? Who knows.</p>
<p>Run the NPCs for the schools and you can get an idea as to what they will expect you to pay. It gives you some ball park figures. Just to make it clear, if there should be a huge difference between two like colleges in terms of fin aid that reflects a fundamental difference in methodology, it is doubtful the school offering less is going to come up with a huge amount of money. Where it can make a difference is in “deal breaker amounts”. Yes, it happens sometimes, but rarely. To count on negotiating huge amounts is unrealistic.</p>
<p>My guess is that CMC and Carlton would come up with similar amounts. However, if both were on the table at RD and it came down to a deal breaking increase in aid, you’d have to be up there on the want list of a school for it to ante up a whole amount. </p>
<p>When you apply ED and cannot afford the school due to an insufficient aid package, you are permitted to get out of the commitment. You have a limited time period to take or leave the acceptance offer that will have an estimated aid package with it. But what you can’t do with ED, is see what Carlton or other schools might give you. You have to make the decision in a vacuum. Basically, you apply ED if you know what your family will be able and willing to pay, and if the fin aid falls short, then you can’t afford that school. You can’t compare to get the best deal as you can with RD. It’s not so much about negotiating. Though it is possible, and some people have gotten packages increased, it is absolutely not something to count on. It more often than not does not work that way. If you think you’ll be sitting there wheeling and dealing with the upper hand with a bunch of variant offers to strike a great deal, you are likely to be sadly mistaken. It’s not the way it usually works. </p>
<p>I can never understand why int’ls ask whether they should apply for aid or not. If you need aid, then you HAVE to apply!!! Why would you want an unaffordable acceptance??? Just for your ego?</p>
<p>If your family will happily pay and can afford to pay (not sell their home!!!), and you think it will help with admissions, then don’t apply for aid.</p>