<p>If I receive very little financial aid for my early decision school, am I still required to go?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>If financial aid is a concern do NOT apply ED. It is binding. Unless your family has some DIRE financial setback between your application and acceptance, you must go to your ED school of acceptance. When accepted ED, you must withdraw all other applications to any other colleges. Remember that the COLLEGES determine your financial need and your finaid package. Your package will be based on what they determine your need to be, and it could include substantial loans. Don't apply ED if you have any thought that you might need to back out. ED is for students who are positive they want to attend a specific school and can do so regardless of the financial aid award.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how that whole ED thing works. I mean, even if it's not for financial reasons, what can they possibly do? Are the Elitist College Police (ECP) going to knock on your door, hang you, and maurade your corpse through the town, warning those who may be thinking about doing such a dubious act? Beats me. Ask the ECP.</p>
<p>Jerzak, Well, for one thing colleges do share their Early Decision admit lists with each other so there is a chance that if you try to weasle out of an ED agreement, you may be blacklisted at other colleges you'd like to apply to. </p>
<p>Pixa, Thumper is right: think long and hard about applying ED if you need substantial financial aid. The problem is the school's definition of "too little money" and your definition may vary considerably. They consider themselves to have met your "demonstrated need" if they offer you any combination of loans, grants, and work study. The problem is, you may not want to take on a financial aid package that is heavy in loans or work study. But, the school will have "given you enough" money so you are stuck. You also can not compare other packages to see if you could get more "free" money elsewhere (by free I mean money that you don't have to pay back or earn.) Finally, at many schools, applying early decision puts you out of the running for many (and in some cases all) merit scholarships.</p>
<p>I have a question about student loans. What is the maximum you can loan? And when do you have to pay back?</p>
<p>For more information about this, see this thread:</p>
<p>"I mean, even if it's not for financial reasons, what can they possibly do?"</p>
<p>It is a LEGAL contract meaning you can go to court for violation a clearly stated BINDING Early Decision Contract to a college.</p>
<p>
You generally can take out loans for up to what tuition, room, and board costs. These are for the government loans, I am not totally sure about private loans. You have to start paying them back 6 months after you finish your highest level of college. You can get deferments or forebearances for just about anything though. But these loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.</p>
<p>Are colleges really gonna take an 18 year old to court if he/she decides he doesn't want to attend their institution? Take him/her to court for... what? Four years of education? I don't know... the whole thing seems a bit dubious to me. Not that I'm planning on applying ED anywhere and backing out just to see what happens or anything... I just wonder what happens.</p>
<p>What happens is that your GC gets ticked at you and doesn't go out of his/her way to help you apply to other schools. After all, when you apply ED, both you and your parents sign a statement indicating that you realize ED is binding. Your GC also is expected to have explained to you the ramifications of applying ED.</p>
<p>If you back out for flimsy reasons (Such as, "Oops. My parents don't want to pay that much for college. We'd hoped I'd get lots of merit aid or a full ride" even though the college gives relatively little financial aid to anyone and we don't qualify for much") then the college will likely hold your GC accountable and not accept others from your college - perhaps for years.</p>
<p>This will cause your classmates and their younger sibs to be ticked at you.</p>
<p>As someone said, too, colleges compare ED lists, so if you back out of ED, there's a good chance that other colleges will reject you on principle. They also may withdraw acceptances you've received if, for instance, you managed to do something like apply to 2 single choice ED schools.</p>
<p>Trust me, too: It is not a trivial thing for one's GC to be angry at you because wherever you go, you'll need the GC's help for things like recommendations, end of year transcripts, scholarship application recommendations, etc.</p>
<p>If you aren't sure that you want to go to the ED school and/or if you aren't sure you can afford it, then don't apply ED. There are plenty of other good options.</p>
<p>try to play the ED game if you want, but if you try to pull out, you'll likely end up at community college.</p>
<p>I'm just curious; what is the most frequent reasons why an applicant had to back out of an ED agreement? When I check on College Board's website, they indicate the number of ED acceptees and those who matriculated, but the numbers are not necessarily equal.</p>
<p>From what I've seen on CC, the most frequently reason seems to be, "Whoops! I changed my mind."</p>