@cptofthehouse , I think that’s way too pessimistic. I followed a few ED threads this year (the college where my daughter applied as well as the others that she was going to apply to if she was denied, which included AU) and all of them had some posters here saying they had been offered merit with their ED admits. (None of the schools concerned was meet full need IIRC.) That said, getting merit from a school that is not normally overly generous with merit anyway may still leave a gap even with needs-based also factored in, and from what I can see AU falls into this category - their merit awards seem to range from $8k-$22k per year, far below COA. So while I would be less pessimistic than you on the prospects for $$, I definitely agree that @btownrumble should run the numbers properly before applying if his/her parents are not intending to be full pay.