<p>Hi, I have my heart set on EDing Rice University if all things work out. I know that they are a "100% Need met" school but I ran the NPC and it is around 6-8 thousand dollars for my family. Of course this would definitely be a stretch for my low-income family but I wouldn't consider it the end of the world. I would consider either pulling out small loans/taking up summer jobs to help pay this all off. But since NPCs are not guarantees, what is the premise by which you can be released from an Early Decision commitment if you're unable to pay?</p>
Early Decision: What constitutes as not being able to attend because you haven't received enough aid
<p>I think in the past from the parents forum once you have the financial aid numbers and they don’t look good then you can withdraw.</p>
<p>6 to 8 thousand for <em>you</em>, as in you taking out that much per year in loans and. doing work study should not be unacceptable.
If they offer to cover a lot less than they said, like $10,000 per year less, that would likely be unacceptable.</p>
<p>But you better not take a spot at a similar price tag school unless the FA package is a lot different.</p>
<p>I cannot address Rice per se, but some first-tier ED universities operate on the principle that YOU are responsible – utilizing the NPC – to ascertain if the institution is affordable, BEFORE you submit an ED application. Therefore, if you accurately and thoroughly complete the NPC process and the university does not provide the NPC-specified financial assistance/need-based grant, you are released from your ED commitment. However, if the school provides the NPC stipulated financial aid/grant and you renege (even if due to erroneously NPC information), that is an ED violation.</p>
<p>As far as I know you have no LEGAL obligation to attend an ED school. Regardless of how much FA they offer, if you insist that you can’t pay for it, they have to release you - otherwise, what are they gonna do? Drag you to school and force you to pay?</p>
<p>^^Are you bound to attend? - no. Can they make it difficult for you to attend elsewhere in the current year? - yes. Do not take your commitment to attend lightly, there can be consequences for you and your school if they detect a less than sincere commitment to attend. If you truly can’t afford it, that one thing, if you’re playing games, it’s quite another.</p>
<p>@MrMom62 - I’m curious. What steps can they take to make it difficult to attend a different school?</p>
<p>I’ll add one thought to @MrMom62 ‘s (with whom I thoroughly agree). The very best and most competitive National Research Universities (predominantly private) can – and will – note individuals who unscrupulously renege on their ED commitments. Of course they can’t – and won’t – institute legal action, but students from those kids’ secondary schools may not be as well received for several future years. Universities feel this way because they expect GCs to explain to senior/parents both how serious the ED commitment really is and how stringently ED operates. When a university is accepting only about 10 percent of its applicants, they’re not exactly “hurting” for SUPERB candidates, which absolutely allows them to exercise their judgement and prerogatives with no penalty or risk. </p>
<p>In addition, @sherpa and @SiemensMIT, senior admissions administrators at first-tier NRUs know each other very well and communicate frequently. They also know the other schools to which an ED “reneger” has applied (from his financial aid information). Therefore, how difficult do you think it would be to advise peer institutions that “X played ED games,” operating unethically, which certainly isn’t propitious for X’s prospects? </p>
<p>Are they going to make it hard for you to attend your state flagship? No, of course not. Is elite School A going to let all the other school’s in its class know they offered ED to a student who then reneged, essentially informing all the other schools of a character flaw - the inability to keep their word., in other words, no sense of honor. Sure, and it wouldn’t be very hard for that student to get rejections that look just like the ones 75-85% of other applicants are getting.</p>
<p>A small percentage of kids do renege, most for financial or other hardship reasons. It’s probably less than 5% and more like 2-3%. They won’t hold it against anyone in those circumstances. But play games, and you and your school could have a tough time. There are rumors that a certain Ivy blackballed a certain elite HS in our area for a very long time. They could get kids in any Ivy but that one.</p>
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<p>If that is the case, then a student may want to see if his/her high school’s counselors will tell him/her where past ED admits have backed out of ED agreements. Then remove those colleges from the application list, because it is likely that the student’s high school is on an auto-reject list for this reason.</p>
<p>Seems like what ED schools should do is require the ED applicants to run the NPC and sign off that they have seen the result (which is recorded for later comparison). Then if the college admits with a financial aid offer (based on the same family finance parameters) equal to or better than the NPC result, backing out can be viewed as a problem (but not if the actual financial aid offer is worse).</p>
<p>^^It’s not a bad idea, but I think it adds a layer to the system that really isn’t necessary. There isn’t a wave of kids rejecting their ED offers for no good reason and I don’t think you want to institute more bureaucracy for the 1% who do cause trouble. Besides, financial circumstances can change and NPC calculators are known to be wrong - I don’t think we want to scare off potential low income applicants who are reluctant to take a chance applying ED anyway with some sort of legalistic looking disclosure. </p>
<p>I’m sure there are some applicants each year who are say the NPC numbers are a little bit of a stretch, but we’ll apply anyway and hope we get a little more - and they do get it. Tell them that they’ll be locked into the NPC numbers and even more people are going to believe that people who apply ED get price gouged because they have no negotiating power. That’s not necessarily a good thing for schools seeking some degree of economic diversity.</p>
<p>This gets debated all the time out here. I think it is horse puckey that if they meet the NPC and you reneg because you still think it is unaffordable, it is considered an “ED violation”. Many families have not familiarized themselves with outside loans, whether they qualify, etc. prior to getting the ED package back. Once they figure out the difficulties, they decide it isn’t workable and refuse the ED acceptance. Or the family has a change in situation (Grandma offered funds for college, now she is not going to after all or something like that). </p>
<p>Not sure how the original school could possibly know if the student took a similar offer later from another school (maybe the student only applied to schools that would give similar packages, hoped for something cheaper, and didn’t get it – and they decided after all to bite the bullet and take out big loans or sell their car or something). But neither colleges you turn down or your GC has any idea what your FA package looks like from another college unless you tell them.</p>
<p>I am not advocating reneging on ED packages at all. And I believe if a college thinks you reneged for reasons other than finances, they MAY blackball other students from your school. And I personally think ED is a bad idea for students who need FA – FA offers varied by as much as $10,000/year for my D2. You have no chance to compare offers in this situation, the school has all the power. Your list SHOULD consist of reach, match, and safety schools that you would be willing to attend – so seeing where you get in EA or RD and comparing prices is a much smarter way to approach this than applying ED anyplace.</p>
<p>Wow, it sounds like this whole ED thing becomes a whirlwind of paranoia and legalistic nitpicking at some schools!</p>
<p>On a personal level, regardless of whether or not there are any formal or informal sanctions in place, I would try to be both pragmatic and honorable at the same time. I would not apply ED if I believe there was something less than an 90% chance that I could attend given current information. However, I would not lock myself into an unaffordable school if I received a bad financial aid package. If you’re not comfortable planning that far ahead, I don’t think applying ED makes any logical sense. There isn’t anything wrong with regular decision or early action, and if you already know today that there’s a high probability that you can’t attend then that negates any strategic advantage of ED.</p>