<p>I am desperate to apply ED to my number once choice school - Brown University - however, my mom firmly believes that ED applicants get poor financial aid because the colleges know that they are bound to their school. Is this true?</p>
<p>Brown’s aid is need-based only, so it won’t matter. They have a formula for granting aid based on income and assets. The same formula gets applied to everyone. If your family income is under $100/K, they won’t package loans in your FA aid offer.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t blame your mom for not taking my word on that. You or she could call the FA office to confirm.</p>
<p>Although I don’t firmly believe that ED applicants get poor financial aid because of the binding agreement, I do firmly believe that anyone who needs financial aid should not apply ED because it does not allow the student to have any basis of comparison or any negotiation. You are taking a chance. You can get some estimate from Brown or other such school that guarantees full need met and no loans, but until the actual fin aid app is received, and processed there is no guarantee that you will get that estimate. Too many things can go wrong. It is a big pain in the neck to bail out of ED, and you can end up in a very stressful and ugly situation doing that. </p>
<p>I personally know of a young lady some years ago who applied ED, did not get a package that she thought she would get from estimates because the final numbers provided had some differences, and she regretfully pulled out of ED after not being able to work out anything. It turned out to be her best offer. I’ve also seen families who felt, rightfully or not, that they got a skimpy ED fin aid package after hearing what other folks got, and they could not really compare or negotiate. I know too many kids who got widely disparate packages from similar schools.</p>
<p>When I applied to college, I ended up changing my mind about my first choice school because I got so much more aid from another school that was not that much different and I wasn’t so stuck on my first choice to want to pay the extra. I ended up at a college that gave me some merit within aid that ended up being close to a full ride, and it was a college not that different from my first choice, in selectivity, ranking, etc. I have seen others get some widely disparate packages from similar schools as well in recent times. When you throw merit into the picture, it can change a lot of things. </p>
<p>I guess it depends on how badly you want to go to Brown and only Brown, and if you can take the chance financially or are willing to go through the stress of backing out of ED if the package is not sufficient.</p>
<p>My son’s two best friends applied and were accepted ED to selective schools. Both negotiated better aid than the originally got. One got a non-custodial parent waiver after his ED acceptance. The other got a special adjustment because of a second home that was kept because one parent worked out of the area for parts of the year.</p>
<p>I think if a school like Brown with good financial aid policies has accepted you ED, they will work with your if your needs are legitimate in order to make it possible for you to attend.</p>
<p>It is true that they are under no obligation to, but then no college at any point is under any obligation to.</p>
<p>You can’t compare offers, this is true. My kid knew where he wanted to go. He would go there over any other school as long as it was financially do-able. It was a no-loans school with generous aid, and estimates of what that aid would be were available online.</p>
<p>People will argue about how much advantage ED actually confers for an unhooked applicant. If you think it would be a help in getting accepted (again, arguable), then maybe giving up that opportunity to compare offers is a reasonable trade-off. We thought it was, and it all worked out fine for us.</p>
<p>A good friend of mine’s daughter decided she wanted to go to Brown more than anything. She waited until RD though for reasons of comparing offers, and then didn’t get accepted in spite of her super high-stats and strong ECs. She’s happy where she is going to college now, but in retrospect she wishes she’d applied ED to Brown.</p>
<p>The OP and her mom just need to talk it over, but talk it over with information that is as accurate as it can be. I have one perspective on it, Cptofthehouse has a different one. But the facts are the same in both cases, so it’s just a judgement you need to make for yourself.</p>
<p>The only stress of backing out of an ED offer due to insufficient financial aid (at a common app school, at least) is the emotional stress on the student and family. You just tell the school thanks but no thanks and it’s done, and you apply RD elsewhere. As 'rent ^ says, it may be possible to appeal for more aid; if a school accepts an ED student who needs FA, the school clearly wants the student to attend. But applying ED needing FA should be done only at the dream school.</p>
<p>A recent article on the subject:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/education/edlife/strategy.html?_r=1[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/education/edlife/strategy.html?_r=1</a></p>
<p>I agree with what the earlier posters have said. I would add that you should figure out how much financial aid you can expect Brown to give you. They go by formulas, you should be able to get a handle on this. Is this enough aid for you to attend Brown? If it is and you want to attend Brown even if that means turning down another school that would gove you better financial aid then it seems to me you could apply to Brown early decision.</p>
<p>But remember, the scenario where another school will offer you a better financial aid package than Brown is a likely one. You have to want to go to Brown so much that you don’t care about this possibility.</p>