<p>I come from a low-income, single-parent household with an annual income of about $33,000 a year. Obviously, there is a large percentage of colleges with tuitions that are much higher than my family's income. However, I was wondering if I applied to a school (Rice University) Early Decision, and they are commited to meeting 100% percent of my family's demonstrated need, how does that work out? I mean people are always saying don't apply ED just in case you don't get the finaid that you would need, but if the school I'm applying to meets all of my demonstrated need, how can I lose?</p>
<p>Wow, that is exactly the same argument I have. Everyone asks me "Why are you applying ED if your family has a low income?" and I repeat myself, one too many times, with the same answer: "X University meets 100% need!" </p>
<p>And correct me if I'm wrong, but based on a number of posts from others, the financial aid package received through Early Decision turns out to be approximately the same amount you would have received through Regular Decision in most cases.</p>
<p>I think you're right!</p>
<p>Seriously, I just want a straight-up answer! I don't see what the flaw is in our plans...</p>
<p>Tlanton, the question marks for you will be, how much of that need will be in loans? (Which isn't really "meeting" your need, it's just putting you into debt so you'll be meeting it yourself in the future.)</p>
<p>And more importantly, as a child of a single parent, your non-custodial parent's income and assets will be figured into your financial aid whether they're willing to contribute or not. (You can appeal this after getting a tentative award, but just a heads up that it's something that trips up the best laid plans of lots of students.)</p>
<p>That said, my son applied ED with high financial need to a meets-100%-of-need school. This particular school also has a no-loans policy for students receiving financial aid, so that eliminated that particular variable for us. He did get accepted, they did meet his need. The EFC they calculated is pretty much the same as our FAFSA EFC even though it's a Profile school, and everything worked out fine.</p>
<p>'rentof2: Do you happen to know if Cornell, where I'm applying ED, has a no-loans policy for students with a certain income? I haven't been able to find any info on that on the Cornell website.</p>
<p>"but if the school I'm applying to meets all of my demonstrated need, how can I lose?"</p>
<p>Since financial aid packages are not all alike, and schools don't all calculate EFC in the same way (re Profile), you can "lose" by getting a smaller award from Rice than you might from somewhere else. But if Rice is your dream school, and you will somehow make it work no matter what aid they award, then maybe you can't lose. And should it happen that Rice offers less than you can really afford, you can decline the award and admission without consequence (there's no way they can or will try to "force" you to attend, and you won't be blackballed elsewhere) and apply elsewhere RD, without consequence.</p>
<p>But if Rice is just one of the schools you like, you might do better by applying RD so you can compare your various awards.</p>
<p>You can lose because what you may consider your "need" and what Rice (or other 100% of need schools) consider your "need" may be worlds apart. </p>
<p>The first thing you should do is go to FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans and test out their Federal financial aid calculator. That will give you your FAFSA (federal) EFC. That's based solely on your custodial parent's income and assets.</p>
<p>Then gather the financial information from your custodial parent, and from your non-custodial parent. Run the Institutional Method financial aid calculator. That will give you what is likely to be the lowest EFC that a college would apply to you.</p>
<p>Then, just to be sure, add another 20% to the EFC. If you can still afford to pay that EFC, then go ahead and apply ED.</p>
<p>Otherwise, be ready with an appeal to get out of ED because you just can't afford it.</p>
<p>See this thread:</p>
<p>"Otherwise, be ready with an appeal to get out of ED because you just can't afford it."</p>
<p>Has anyone ever heard of such an appeal being denied? They seem to be automatic.</p>
<p>kMz - It looks like Cornell has a no-loan policy if your family income is less than $75,000, and they limit loans if family income is less than $120,000. This is from the "Comparison and Analysis of Financial Aid Pledges" found at the Project on Student Debt (projectonstudentdebt.org). Look in the Publications section.</p>
<p>tlanton - Rice also has a no-loan policy for families with incomes under $60,000, according to the same source.</p>
<p>But the best source is the college web site. I didn't see anything about loan limits on Cornell's web site, so I'd call them to find out about that. Rice does put its no-loan policy on its web site.</p>