Emory is without a doubt my top choice, and therefore, I am highly considering applying through the early decision II process. The only reason I’m hesitant to apply through this process is because of financial reasons; I understand early decision is binding and if admitted I will have to enroll and withdraw all other college applications. If I was to get accepted but find that I cannot afford the school based off of the amount of financial aid offered, how easy is it to get out of the binding agreement? I would really appreciate it if someone could elaborate on this!
I assume that you ran the net price calculator so you have an idea of what you would receiving in financial aid. Now call the financial aid office and tell him that Emory is your first choice, and ask them if they can give you an estimate before you commit to ED2. Only apply if you and your parents feel it’s affordable.
Not worth it, ED II only exists to deflate the ED I rate. They will just defer you to RD, so considering finances is a heavy factor for you (and you missed the merit aid deadline) just apply RD so you can assess later.
ED2 has an earlier date for filing the FA forms than RD and I believe they will also notify you how much aid you will receive at or very near the time of your acceptance. If your family, for any reason, feels the FA is not sufficient, you can turn down an ED offer without being penalized i.e. you are free to accept admission at another school for this reason. This is the ONLY acceptable reason to turn down an ED offer, and it won’t make you popular but if your family, in their opinion, truly can not make up the difference between your offer and what you owe, it is legal to turn it down. But before I would make that decision, I would definitely have a follow up call with Emory’s financial aid office.
ED2 exists to help Emory (and others with this option) protect their yield. When they accept an ED applicant, the school knows that the applicant will enroll and they want the percentage of people they accept who attend to be as high as possible - it affects their rankings etc. So I think there is a small advantage to applying ED2 over RD. Emory is also need blind. In other words, they will not consider your FA needs when you apply, and will likely offer you 100% of your demonstrated need, although some of this may be met with loans and what any college expects your family to pay and what your family feels they can afford may be at odds. The calculator will give your parents an idea concerning how much aid to expect based on their assets and income.
Schools offers can vary quite a bit so the one risk of applying ED2 is that you may need to commit to Emory before you will be able to compare FA offers at any RD schools. You can turn down an ED offer because your family feels the FA isn’t enough $$ to make the school affordable, but you shouldn’t turn down an ED offer just because another school offers you more money a month later. I would definitely call the FA office and ask them to walk you through the process before you make a decision. I am sure it is a common question but the answer is a little complicated and there can be stiff penalties for violating ED agreements, including essentially being barred from enrolling at other schools during that application season. However, if you are confident that Emory is your first choice, and a sweet merit offer or scholarship from another school isn’t going to change this choice, ED2 is an advantage.
Thank you for acknowledging that it is yield protection and not admit rate deflation…if Emory wanted to drop its admit rate so much, it would have followed in the footsteps of other schools and had decided to accept less people in say, the last cycle of applications where its numbers increased by 3k almost. Instead, Emory actually accepted a little more or roughly the same as previous years. Schools desperate to show off shiny new, low admit rates take advantage of those moments to accept less people and boost stats. In previous years where apps. were flat, of course they could not have much leverage to employ such a scheme, but in a year where apps. spiked some, they certainly did have leverage. My guess is that they just became more selective with EC accomplishments and tried to yield more scholars (and they were successful).