<p>Is it bad to apply to a school ED if your attendance relys on your financial aid package. I'm just wondering because I know that there tends to be a higher acceptance rate among ED applicants. But what if you don't get enough financial aid...? Does this mean I shouldn't apply ED to any schools?</p>
<p>I know I could always do a non restrictive EA, but a lot of the schools I prefer only have ED!</p>
<p>There's an argument going on about why the ED acceptance rates tend to be higher. I think that it's because (1) the ED applicants are more highly qualified than the regular applicants, in general, and (2) they're showing that they're taking the school very seriously and really really want to attend.</p>
<p>If you receive an adequate amount of aid, you've gotta accept the offer, even if you don't like it. If the aid is absolutely unbearable, then you can withdraw. It sounds like you shouldn't apply early.</p>
<p>I applied to both the University of Chicago and Swarthmore regular decision. At the time, UChicago was definitely my first choice, and Swarthmore the second. I wanted to show Uchicago my senior year grades and to have more time to complete the application, so I applied regular (they have an early action option as well). Now, let's pretend that UChicago only had ED. As it turned out, I got about $20,000 in aid from UChicago, about $17,000 in scholarship, and $3,000 in loan, but they expected my parents to pay $26,000 a year, which my parents really, really didn't want to pay. They probably would have refused to pay the whole thing at once, and I would have had to take out a loan. But that loan would be a student loan, so I would essentially be paying for them to pay! We talked, and my parents basically claimed that if I do go to UChicago, I'd better get a well-paying job soon after! Then I knew that I was in a bit of a mess. Furthermore, what if I wanted to go to grad school? Then I'd have to take out even more loans! But I still would have had to accept the offer, because technically my parents were able to pay the full amount, they just really didn't want to. Thank goodness I didn't apply ED. Thank goodness that doesn't exist for UChicago, or else early in senior year I probably would have done it! In fact, a lot of student applicants are angry at UChicago's aid system because a lot of very qualified applicants had to turn down the offer due to financial aid alone, or perhaps lack of financial aid alone.</p>
<p>Later I got my financial aid package from Swarthmore: $43,000 in scholarship money!! Guess which school became my first choice then? :)</p>
<p>So if your family is kind of worried about not having enough money to pay, I wouldn't recommend applying early. The financial aid package will probably be similar whether you apply regular or early, and applying regular gives you the option to compare financial aid packages, which could be very important once you make a decision, as it was for my family. And you definitely should not apply early just because you think you have a better chance of getting in. It's not worth the risk, financially. Best of luck!</p>