What happens if we use early decision for a school that ends up admitting our kid but provides little scholarship (in our opinion)? Are we still obligated to go if other school may provide more scholarship? Obviously both fit and affordability are important so we are debating whether we should not use ED. Thanks for any insights.
Generally, unaffordability is the only reason to back out of an ED acceptance. That being said, if you need need-based financial aid to be able to afford to go, you should run the NPC before applying. If the number given is acceptable to you, print out the results so you have something to use as evidence should the aid not be the same as you thought.
I get the impression from your post you are not asking about need-based aid but are asking about merit scholarships. If that is the case, you may end up being disappointed. The vast majority of schools that offer merit awards do it to attract high caliber applicants that would get in to a âbetterâ school in the hopes of luring that student to attend, so as to increase the stats of enrolled students. They generally do not give a lot of merit money to ED applicants because the ED agreement says you will go if accepted. Additionally, once accepted to an ED school, the student must withdraw all other applications. You end up not having the opportunity to compare scholarship offers from other schools.
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You should run the Net Price Calculator on the schoolâs website. If that amount is not affordable to you then donât apply ED. The only exception is if there is a scholarship that you know that you will get but it isnât on the NPC (e.g. the 1/2 tuition at USC for NMF).
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You may not get the `merit scholarship info at the time of the ED acceptance, and you might not know if other schools are going to give you more in aid since those decisions usually donât come until after ED; there are a few rolling admissions schools that you might find out about before the ED decision is released but usually youâll be deciding yes/no on the ED school without a lot of other information.
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Thank you for the insights and tips. Yes we are looking for merit-based scholarships. I suppose the consensus is not to use ED if we would like to compare any potential merit-based scholarships. Perhaps we can use EA if thatâs an option, being conscious of their deadlines.
You are right - ED is not for you.
If you want to compare offers, you need to apply EA or RD where EA is not offered. Also, if aid matters, then you donât have a true first choice - so ED would be out anyway.
Also, you can âpre-determineâ at many schools who offers aid and how much. Many tell you up front - such as Hofstra and Bradley on private and Arizona, Arizona State, MS State and more on public. Others provide no merit aid at all.
Thereâs also a school of thought - some say itâs not true and some say it is - probably depends on the school - but if you apply ED and they accept you, why take care of you financially? They already have you.
My daughter was a merit hunter - and sheâs on free tuition at an OOS school - assuming she keeps a certain GPA.
Good luck.
Thank you, and congratulations on the free tuition. We have a second child two years behind the first so have to be careful not to exhaust all our savings. It seems merit-based scholarships are harder to come by these days, and the Universities are playing games to maximize the return on their $$$ as well. Very much appreciate the tips and suggestions.
Several schools with EA will say quite explicitly that the early deadline is the one to use for best consideration for scholarship dollars, so I think the best option is to apply EA to every school on the list that offers it, if possible. I know that means having all the application materials ready in time, but if youâre hunting merit, you have to follow their guidelines.
We agree that EA may be the best option for scholarships. Thatâs the current game plan for those schools with EA option. We also plan to send in applications early for those with rolling admissions.
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Just sliding this out there, very gently and kindly:
Be careful with plural pronouns: there is only one person writing and sending in applications. I know- you are knee-deep in getting them there! and the distinction may seem subtle, but it matters now, and will matter more and more throughout this year and next. Next September âweâ arenât going to college.
Applications take a lot more work than most parents and students expect- when the Collegekids first started doing applications the mantra was âconsider the workload as equal to another subject at schoolâ. Merit hunting often involves a lot more applications than average, and student burn-out is real!
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