<p>I really want to apply early decision, but Wake Forest says not to apply early decision if your decision to enroll at Wake Forest will be based on Financial Aid. I'm pretty confident that I would receive full or close to full need based aid because my parents barely make over the total cost of attendance which is $54,135. The website says, "Wake Forest is one of a small group of private institutions that agrees to meet 100% of each regularly admitted student's demonstrated financial need". So clearly I should receive at least a close to full scholarship. Should I apply early decision?</p>
<p>No. Part of the admissions process involves following directions. Wake Forest has made it very clear that ED and FA do not mix.</p>
<p>Wake Forest’s determination of financial need is based on both FAFSA and the CSS Profile and may differ from what your family thinks your financial need is.</p>
<p>My daughter applied ED as Wake was her number one choice. In the event that she didn’t get Wake we still had room and time to execute plan B. However, Wake scooped her up (early) and the FA package was quite generous. So I don’t necessarily agree that ED will be a detriment to FA. Not sure if our experience is rare but it worked for us.</p>
<p>From the Wake Forest website:</p>
<p>"Because of the binding commitment that early decision entails, it is important that you have considered your options carefully. If your college enrollment is dependent on financial assistance, we believe that it is important for you to have the opportunity to compare aid packages in the spring from a number of schools rather than committing yourself now through an early binding agreement. Our aid decisions, both need-based and merit, are made in April.</p>
<p>For those planning to apply for financial aid or whose enrollment is contingent on merit based aid, or for those who have misunderstood the binding nature of our early decision policy, we strongly encourage you to move your application from Early Decision to Regular Decision"</p>
<p>If you are accepted ED - you must pay the $500 deposit within 2 weeks - which would be before you see any FA award letter as those are not available until April. What happens if you are accepted, pay the deposit, and then April rolls around and the FA is $10,000 or $15,000 less than you anticipated? I guess you could back out of the binding agreement at that point - but that defeats the agreement between parties to binding ED and would leave you scurrying to choose another school based on the other acceptances you have rcvd and pay a deposit there by May 1.</p>
<p>Dmocha - I’m glad it worked out for you - but in most cases - ED and need-based FA do not mix well. There have been many, many threads on CC on this topic - and the advice is always as close to unanimous as anything on CC is ever going to be - don’t apply ED if you need FA. You will be in a bad position if you are accepted and the FA pkg is not sufficient and you are depriving yourself of the opportunity to compare various FA pkgs.</p>
<p>Out of curiousity, what was your backup plan?</p>