early decision isn't REALLY binding, now is it?

<p>the boston university admissions rep came and talked at my school a few days. She said that there is priority, in fact, for students who apply early decision to receive the University Scholarship (half tuition) and a better chance for fin aid. i kid you not</p>

<p>I was in your same place - my top choice is a 40k school, but I don't have the means to pay for it. Alas, I am stuck doing regular - waiting until April to find out if they will or won't take me...</p>

<p>nedad,</p>

<p>I understand your perspective but I disagree. All of the ED schools say that they will provide sufficient financial aid without defining what that is or how they derive it so the term is sufficiently undefined. Further, they all say that a student can get out of the ED agreement for "financial reasons".</p>

<p>Let's assume that the average private university is $45K/year for tuition, room, board, etc. That amount is well above the average EFC as defined by the FAFSA for most families in the US, probably 95% of the families. Further, most of the universities use the CSS profile. All of this data is used to produce a financial aid package that may or may not meet what the family defines as their EFC.</p>

<p>Because the financial term is so undefined going in to the process students who are concerned about the financial considerations opt out of the ED process so they can compare financial aid packages. This outcome may well run counter to the mission that a particular school has set for themselves.</p>

<p>Well if you look back even a few more threads (i don't seem to have it in my bookmarks it might be in my archive) there was this thread and I think Northstarmom (maybe? or Ohiomom) said that some schools blacklist you for graduate schools and that one would be suprised "how schools shared information."</p>

<p>" Wrong
"I do not see how the ED agreement can be a 'binding contract' because it leaves a significant term of the agreement, i.e. the actual cost, out of the agreement."</p>

<p>Well no, it doesn't. It is assumed that you can and will pay up to the full cost, or you wouldn't have applied ED. You know the actual cost of the school, and so the contract is for an amount not to exceed that actual cost. Perfectly legal."</p>

<p>I'm sorry, but YOU'RE wrong. Many people apply knowing they will get some amount of financial aid based on school policy, but just don't know how much. Thus the actual amount the school costs for HIM OR HER is undetermined.</p>

<p>Early decision may not be binding in the legal sense. However, it should not be taken lightly. Many schools will honor each other's decisions. A good article to check out regarding early decision / early action is:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.lunch-money.com/Articles/resEarlyAdmissions.aspx%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.lunch-money.com/Articles/resEarlyAdmissions.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>It looks like it was written by an admissions consultant.</p>

<p>from a princeton review admissions consultant:
"By the way, don't take risks: Many institutions communicate with each other and will know whether a student has applied early decision, single-choice or early decision, first-choice. It's almost guaranteed that a school will not accept a student who has been dishonest on his/her application."</p>

<p>One very important thing to remember is that if you get accepted ED you MUST withdraw all other college applications. Period. This includes previous acceptances for rolling admissions schools (which you can apply to when applying ED). This means that you will not have any college applications pending when you get your finaid award. Therefore, where would you end up? In some states, the state U would not even be an option because enrollment would be filled. DO NOT apply ED if you have any circumstances at all that might prevent you from accepting admittance. ED is binding. Colleges DO share ED acceptances. If your GC is encouraging you to apply thinking it is easy to back out...your GC is WRONG. It is not. Keep in mind also, that your financial need will be determined by the college, and may actually exceed what YOUR FAMILY thinks it can pay. And your finaid package can be heavily weighted with loans to meet your need.</p>

<p>Conceptually, when you apply ED you are saying that if admitted you will attend and you must withdraw all other application. </p>

<p>Let's call it what it is you know pretty much how much the cost of attendance is (or shame on you and your parents for applying to something blindly without regard to cost). when you apply ED, you are also indirectly saying you are attending regardless of the package that is being offered (because you have given up your ability to compare packages).</p>

<p>To piggy back on Eagle's statement, he is right that the college essentially holds all of the cards. There are a lot of definitions to meeting 100% of demonstrated need. The demonstrated need thing can get really sticky for people who own their own businesses, people who may be house rich, divorced parents where one is unwilling to pay anything but their income is still counted in the aid package.</p>

<p>Theoretically, the school could offer you a PLUS- parents loan (as your parents based on their creditworthiness would be able to borrow the entire cost of attendance ) and the school will have met your need.
There are other factors that students and parents should look at before applying ED. At minimum you should read the finanical section of the common data sets of the schools which you are intered in attending. </p>

<p>The report will list
The number of student who applied for aid
the number of students who were determined to have a financial need (according to the school)
Average grant
loan</p>

<p>the average grant
the average loan
the average workstudy</p>

<p>People tend to forget that ED was orginially designed for athletes as coaches wanted commitments from their recruits. Schools shared ED lists to make sure that no school was stealing the players of another school after the player committed to a college. Over years, other studnets got into the ED pool, but the concept of sharing lists has not changed. The Ivies have a joint statement where they essentially tell you that they do share list and they do not take ED students who were admitted into one of other ivy schools. Some colleges are very specific that they will only let you out of your ED commitment to attend your state university (because you are the one who is stating that money is an issue, so you get the most affordable option). The world of college admissions is very small, Adcoms and financial aid directors all know each other especially those that are part of consoritiums or peer insititutions.</p>

<p>In addition, your GC is responsible for knowing the rules of ED. So when a student does not keep the ED commitment, it does reflect poorly on the GC and the school. There are always students waiting to apply RD and students applying in subsequent years. Yes, admissions committees do blacklist GC's and schools because at the end of the day they are people who can be just as flawed and petty as the rest of us (they do not want to waste an admit on people who have a track record of not keeping commitments).</p>

<p>I know from our experience D was accepted to all 7 need blind, meet 1005 demonstrated need schools which she applied to. There was a $10,000 range from the "best" to the "worse" package. In the end her to 2 choices were williams and dartmouth. She used her williams financial aid package to negotiate an $4,000 in scholarship money from dartmouth (this reduced our EFC and eliminated a loan). Our package for the second year was pretty consistent to the package we got first year. Over 2 years we have gotten over $8,000 in grant aid she would not have gotten if we did not have the ability to negotiate. She saved $6150 (the first year loan of 2625 and the second year loan of $3500 were eliminated) and my EFC is still lower than Dartmouth's orginial EFC offer when D was first admitted.</p>

<p>regarding BU's 1./2 tuition scholarship (15,765), it is a DROP in the bucket if you consider that the cost of attendance is 44,375. If that ends up being all you get from BU (because the big bucks are reserved for students at the to of the applicant pool...</p>

<p>Need-based grants are awarded based on a combination of calculated need and academic merit. To apply for need-based aid, you must complete two financial aid forms: the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the College Scholarship Service (CSS)/Financial Aid PROFILE. For more details on how eligibility is determined and packages are awarded, please refer to the "Application Process" page of the Office of Financial Assistance website. For more details on the types of awards that may appear in a Boston University financial aid package, please refer to the Types of Financial Aid at Boston University page.
<a href="http://www.bu.edu/admissions/apply/finaid.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bu.edu/admissions/apply/finaid.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>you could be caught between a rock and a hard place. One of D's best friends is a commuter student at St. John's now (they gave a scholarship that covers her tuition) because BU did not come through with the money (the hald tuition scholarship was it, the rest was loans).</p>

<p>this sux for me....I was thinking of applying to Cornell ED but after reading this Im not sure they would meet my financial requirements. Especially since im really low income.....</p>

<p>If you are really low income and have the stats for Cornell, you don't need any ED advantage. Many top colleges, including Ivies, are trying to diversify by admitting more low-income students.</p>

<p>Since $ is a consideration, you'd also probably be better off to apply also to colleges offering merit aid, which might give you an even sweeter deal than would colleges like Cornell that give aid only on the basis of financial need. If your stats are good, you might be able to qualify for completely free rides -- no loans -- at some good colleges.</p>

<p>his sux for me....I was thinking of applying to Cornell ED but after reading this Im not sure they would meet my financial requirements. Especially since im really low income...</p>

<p>You are very much misinformed. Very low income is the best position to be in for college financial aid. Run your numbers thru an EFC calculator (this site has one), to be sure. You could get the entire thing paid for/financed.</p>

<p>I applied early decision to my top choice even though my parents are not going to pay anything and I don't have that much saved. If I have to I will take out loans and pay them off for the rest of my life. I have my heart into this school and I am not going to let money hold me back. Either way don't make a decision that you will regret for the rest of your life. If I don't apply because of money I will always regret it. Besides if you decide not to pay for it just withdraw your application by the deadline and apply somewhere else. The only schools that you should apply to ED anyway are reaches which are always way expensive.</p>

<p>THINK about it though</p>

<p>A low income student whose family can barely get by applies ED and is accepted. It wouldn't make sense for the college to accept the student and give him a ridiculously low aid package that he can't afford, right? Because then the student can't attend, which just doesn't make sense</p>

<p>Of course, in many cases, what he can and can't afford is arguable. Perhaps the college's definition implies that every dollar that doesn't go into the absolute necessities should go towards tuition.</p>

<p>"A low income student whose family can barely get by applies ED and is accepted. It wouldn't make sense for the college to accept the student and give him a ridiculously low aid package that he can't afford, right? Because then the student can't attend, which just doesn't make sense"</p>

<p>The college may load the student up with loans. Meanwhile, that same student might be able to get a full ride including all grants (which don't have to be paid back) if the student had applied elsewhere or had been able to compare offers. I've seen students posting on CC who had been offered financial aid packages that included $20,000 a year in loans. That's a loan amount that would put a stranglehold on the student's options for years.</p>

<p>But you see, NorthstarMom, early decision for some like me is not just to get an edge at a school, I truly love the school and believe it is the one for me. I want to use early decision the way it was meant to be: it's your number one choice and will go in a heartbeat if accepted. It is <em>quite</em> unfair that I can't use the binding contract to demonstrate my sincere love and commitment to a school and the benefits from what opportunity that provides because I don't have as much money as someone else. It's not my fault I come from a very low income family, my parents have separated last year and my father refuses to speak to me, he told me that he would never help pay for anything. I guess you can go, "Oh well. That's life, get over it." And maybe you're right, but it's incredibly unfair just the same. </p>

<p>Full rides at schools are great and all, but it's worth jack if a student has no interest in the school because of the character, size, or location. But it might be different for someone else, money does make the world go round as they say.</p>

<p>"
The college may load the student up with loans. Meanwhile, that same student might be able to get a full ride including all grants (which don't have to be paid back) if the student had applied elsewhere or had been able to compare offers. I've seen students posting on CC who had been offered financial aid packages that included $20,000 a year in loans. That's a loan amount that would put a stranglehold on the student's options for years."</p>

<p>I have never thought about that, thanks for pointing that out.Do you by any chance know how generous Cornell is torwards ED applicants? I heard its pretty generous even torwards ED students.</p>

<p>I would like to know the answer to Agrophobic's question as well. I would also like to add: How much of the Cornell ED financial aid package will be in loans? and what is the EFC breakdown for a median income family? I know there are calculators all over the Internet, but I hope someone can give me a real life example</p>

<p>
[quote]
It is <em>quite</em> unfair that I can't use the binding contract to demonstrate my sincere love and commitment to a school and the benefits from what opportunity that provides because I don't have as much money as someone else.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>White Materia,
It's true. I sympathize, really I do. We were in the same situation last year. I'm glad my son didn't apply ED though, because we got basically nothing from the school that was the perfect fit, the school he wanted to attend since he was about 8 years old, the school he would have attended in a heartbeat. The love only works one way, and I don't believe colleges will care if you have been pining for them all of your life, even if you are qualified. ED might get you some admission advantage, but I really don't think it gives you any financial advantage. They are going to use whatever financial aid money they have to get the kind of student body they want. It's a business, a cold, hard, business. They are more concerned about formulating the desired freshman class composition they want than to admit and give aid to a sincere applicant, unless you are what they want. THerefore, unless you would happily take on enough loans to attend, you should show your interest another way, such as letters and visits. And you should be sure to have a couple of schools you like on you list that you can affort to attend without any help other than loans.</p>