<p>On the financial aid agreement, it said that early decision is binding as long as sufficient financial aid is given.</p>
<p>I'm currently in a pretty bad situation where I probably would not get much aid, if I do get any, but it would be REALLY hard to pay 50k a year. My family only gets about 40k a year as income, and spends most of the money to pay off debts, but we have a lot of assets (that my parents aren't too keen on selling).</p>
<p>So, I guess my question is, would it be hard or tricky to get out of early decision if my family decides that we can't pay?</p>
<p>You meet with the financial aid adviser and explain the situation, if they understand then you are released from your contract. They won't jail you if you break the contract but they won't be happy. To answer your question, it will be alittle tricky.</p>
<p>Well...you knew your family financial situation and the costs at the ED school BEFORE you applied ED. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you get a good financial aid package. Being released from an ED acceptance is a little more than tricky...because the school determines your need and then they award the package. I hope this is a school that meets full need!!</p>
<p>Really think hard about this...unless the aid is just terrible, your wanting to get out of the ED will make it hard for other kids at your hs to get in. Your guidance counselor should have made it absolutely clear that you don't apply ED unless you are going to go if accepted.</p>
<p>And the schools don't care if your parents don't "want" to sell their assets. None of us "want" to pay what we have to pay.</p>
<p>However, some schools do consider a low income sufficient to give aid without even considering assets. So if your income (that's salary + any investment/business income) is really only about $40,000, there are some schools that will give a lot of aid. I hope you applied to one of those.</p>
<p>I wish guidance departments were more proactive in warning students and parents of the potential pitfalls of Early Decision. Yes, I realize many do, but I can think of at least six kids in our community who have unwisely applied ED over the past couple of years. In 2 or 3 of those cases the parents lacked the financial wherewithal to pay for the colleges their kids were accepted to without a much bigger scholarship/grant package than they actually received. In the other situations the parents had not anticipated the EFC the Federal government calculated they could afford. Anyone who has spent any time around CC has heard similar stories, but too few of the people I know who could benefit from CC have ever heard of this site, let alone visited it.</p>
<p>hudsonvalley,
I agree with you about the need for GC's giving better direction about FA, particularly concerning the decision to apply ED. At least in our school, they seem to concentrate on the academic aspects of getting accepted and ignore the financial aspects of actually being able to attend. </p>
<p>The other thing I don't understand is why so many parents take so little interest in understanding a potental 80 - 200k investment. The basic information is readily available on the internet and in books. Maybe GC's need to hand out some manditory FA reading before they meet with parents and kids.</p>