If the package awarded with the ED is not one that YOU feel makes it possible for you to attend, you do not have to withdraw the other applications. You simply ask to be released. I can see how if you do not apply for financial aid, it’s unreasonable to ask to be released. But if you apply for financial aid, and upon seeing said aid, you don’t feel it’s possible to attend you can be released and do not have to withdraw the other applications.
I want to emphasize that YOU are the arbiter of whether YOU can afford it.
Run the NPC on the college website to see what your EFC is
Look at the Common Data Set to see what the average merit is
Look on CC for posts about merit aid for that college and compare your childs stats to those
Like at CWRU, the average merit scholarship is 25K and on CC they will tell you what stats kids have to get that. Is that enough for you? Then apply ED. If you need to compare merit offers, then do EA.
“ED prevents students from applying to other private colleges that offer ED.”
Nope. While you can’t apply ED to two different schools (you can only apply ED to a single school), you can apply ED to one school and have an EA or even RD app turned in early open at another school that offers ED. It’s only once you’re accepted ED and you accept the acceptance that you have to withdraw all other open apps.
When DS applied ED to UChicago, he already had an acceptance to one school that had rolling admissions and had submitted EA apps to several other schools. Those EA apps remained open and active with the GC’s knowledge and blessing until his UChicago ED acceptance, which DS promptly accepted and withdrew those other open apps. All perfectly legit.
this is what you posted-
"The UChicago description is that you are offered ED admissions, then accept, then withdraw all other apps.
this is what you have wrong- applying ED is the same as signing a contract that the student will attend if accepted.
NONE have clauses that state IF THE STUDENT ACCEPTS the ED admittance
. .
Once again- from the U of C website under their ED rules-
“This admissions plan is binding, meaning that if admitted, you commit to attending UChicago, withdrawing outstanding applications from any other school, and not applying to any additional colleges.”
“What about schools with a competitive merit award like Vanderbilt or Wash U? Are ED candidates not considered?”
Vandy does consider accepted ED kids for merit schollies. Also say that ED doesn’t hurt or help your merit chances.
I suspect (but don’t know for sure) that a family can finesse around the requirement to immediately withdraw all other apps following ED acceptance. Although the school would prefer that their ED applicants would have figured out the money without relying upon the merit possibility. Here’s the Vandy timetable:
ED1 apps due 11/1. Scholarship apps (and related RD app if applicable) due 12/1. ED1 decisions 12/15. ED2 apps due 1/1. ED2 decisions 2/15. Scholarship decisions February, March. Estimated FA comes out sometime after acceptance. Final FA comes out 4/1.
Since the merit and final FA awards don’t come out until Feb/March/April, I’d think a financially concerned ED accepted family could beg for some time before withdrawing all the other EA/RD apps that are in play. If the school really wanted to push it, they’d just cancel the ED acceptance. No way for the ED school to force the family to actually pull the apps from other schools.
But it probably just doesn’t come up that often at Vandy. If you really are angling for merit at Vandy, the kid needs to be in the top 1% of the applicant pool. A kid that is competitive for merit doesn’t need the admissions boost that comes from ED. If you are worried about trying to game/maximize your odds via ED, you probably aren’t a merit candidate.
So you’d think most merit “gotta haves” wouldn’t bother with ED. But merit “nice to haves” could apply ED and wouldn’t have a problem withdrawing the EA/RD apps from other schools.
"When DS applied ED to UChicago, he already had an acceptance to one school that had rolling admissions "
Applications to Public colleges and U’s are exempt from ED rules.
It does seem like a waste of an ED application to apply ED to a college whose NPC indicates unaffordability. In that case, the only way to afford it is through merit scholarships, but the college may assume that the ED applicant does not need additional incentive to enroll and save the merit money for other applicants it does have to compete for.
“NONE have clauses that state IF THE STUDENT ACCEPTS the ED admittance”
Sigh. Since there’s a risk of others being misled by your advice it has to be pointed out that again, you are wrong.
UChicago’s sentence describes a timeline which clearly shows the school extends the ED offer, the student accepts and then the student withdraws any other apps open at other colleges. UChicago’s ED application clearly states that if the financial terms of the offer are such that the applicant can attend, then the applicant may decline the ED offer and be released.
So if a student receives an ED offer from the school but the offer isn’t financially acceptable, the student may decline the offer. That student does not get to the part of the timeline when s/he has to withdraw any other apps. Done. All other open apps still open.
No way for the ED school to force the family to actually pull the apps from other schools."
This is magical thinking.
The HS guidance counselor also receives notification of a students ED acceptance, and since he also signed the ED contract, he can force the family to make a decision …
Otherwise, his HS is very likely NOT to have any ED acceptances from that college for a long, long time. And no GC is willing to sacrifice future students ED chances because of one student.
“I’d think a financially concerned ED accepted family could beg for some time before withdrawing all the other EA/RD apps that are in play”
Uhuh. IF the student cant afford to go to the ED school when accepted then the decision to withdraw must be made quickly
NO ED college is going to wait around for a student to see what happens at other colleges.
the student signed a CONTRACT. That means it is binding.
ED is for the very rich, who can afford to be full pay, and in some cases, for the very poor who will be assured fantastic full needs met financial aid. Schools don’t tend to release the ED acceptance stats by family income, but it only makes sense that families who can afford it will benefit from it.
For those seeking merit, or those who need to compare offers, ED does not work. But it is just a tool that schools use to make sure a good percentage of their students are full-pay.
“applying ED is the same as signing a contract that the student will attend if accepted.
NONE have clauses that state IF THE STUDENT ACCEPTS the ED admittance”
Nope. Here’s a link to the actual UChicago ED app. The app clearly states you are allowed to apply to other schools (just no other ED apps) and that if your financial aid offer isn’t sufficient, you are released from the commitment to accept the ED offer and attend.
You appear to be very certain of how the process works. Is it possible that you have knowledge of one particular school? If so, why don’t you post some links to that particular school so others know which school has all the provisions you keep referring to.
The ED/big merit combination is limited to a small number of top schools – Duke, Vandy, Rice, WUSTL, JHU, Emory. Unless the schollies are half tuition or higher, they probably don’t move the decision needle. Especially at full need meeting schools.
Presumably those schools have it figured out.
There’s zero point to fuss over UChi. They do not do big merit schollies and they meet full need.
"Applications to Public colleges and U’s are exempt from ED rules. "
Still not right. Should we pause for a minute so you can change that post, too? The ED app states “While pursuing admission under an Early Decision plan, students may apply to other institutions, but may have only one Early Decision application pending at any time.”
In other words, students can apply to any other institution while the ED app is open. Doesn’t just exempt public colleges, students can apply to any college. And there are no ED provisions that specifically exempt public colleges.
“NO ED college is going to wait around for a student to see what happens at other colleges.
the student signed a CONTRACT. That means it is binding.”
You are missing the point. The very few schools where this could come up probably are willing to wait around to see how their own merit process plays out.
If schools like Rice, Vandy, Emory were worried about this issue, then they could simply change their policy to say that ED applicants won’t be considered for merit. Since they do allow that, it probably isn’t much of a problem for them.
There are definitely some drawbacks to ED and it’s not the right choice for all students. But each student should decide based on an understanding of the facts and knowledge of how the process actually works, not hysteria, guessing or misinformation.
" The very few schools where this could come up probably are willing to wait around to see how their own merit process plays out."
and you are basing this assumption on what?
We’re not fighting. Someone’s posting misinformation and I’m posting the correct information so people aren’t misled by it. The OP asked about how ED works and it would be a problem to not correct misinformation, since OP might rely on it.
The OP asked about how ED works and it would be a problem to not correct misinformation, since OP might rely on it.