Is it a bad idea to apply early decision and also apply for financial aid?
If you’ve run the Net Price Calculator and have no exotic financial issues (own a business, divorced parents) then I don’t think it’s a bad idea. If you want to compare FA offers from different colleges then it is a bad idea IMO.
Erin’s Dad is right.
Run the Net Price Calculator.
Does your child have a NCP? If so, is that person cooperative and has agreed to pay fair share?
Does any parent/stepparent take any business deductions? Even if you don’t own a business, you could be taking substantial business deductions. Realtors often deduct all sort so things, including cars, gas, cell phones, copy services, etc.
Do you own a business? Does it have assets?
Do you own property with lots of equity and/or do you own properties other than your own home?
I guess my question comes down to, “If you apply ED you’re saying you can afford the college, but if you also apply for financial aid, are you giving mixed signals, and therefore will you be looked down upon when applying ?”
Is the college an affordable one? Are finances a significant consideration?
If the college really doesn’t seem affordable to you, and you need financial aid for your kiddo to attend college, it might not be such a good idea to apply ED. With ED, if your kiddo is accepted, you will get that one financial aid package and net cost. You will have a short window of time to accept or decline the offer.
The thing is…that net cost could be the lowest, or it might be the highest. You will never know because all other applications must be withdrawn if you accept.
I can’t say whether ED is a bad or good idea for your student given the very limited amount of information in your post. But if you would benefit from getting financial aid…apply for it.
My daughter applied her college ED, after we ran the NPC and determined that as long as the actual award was close, it was in our budget. She does receive FA and the award was very close to what was predicted.
I read that you don’t have to accept the ED choice if you have not gotten the FA package yet, but the school my daughter is applying to ED requires the FAFSA and CSS PROFILE as part of their application. I don’t think there is any way to get out of it for certain schools, even if you clearly don’t qualify (300K+ per year).
The school is my daughter’s #1 choice. I just don’t want the fact that she applied for financial aid affect the school’s decision to accept or reject her. I know if you apply ED you should run the financial calculator but the school is pretty pricey ($50,000) and we would need to beg, steal, and borrow to afford it for four or five years.
If you need aid…apply for aid. If your daughter gets accepted and you can’t afford the costs, she might as well be rejected.
Without knowing the college, it’s very hard to give you advice. If this is a need blind school, your financial aid needs won’t be known by admissions at all.
If it’s a need aware school, your financial status can be considered when your application for admission is considered. But that doesn’t mean your kid will be rejected because of your finances.
So…did you run that net price calculator?? What is the estimate of your net costs? Is that affordable, or not.
My understanding is that the only valid reason to turn down an ED acceptance is that you cannot afford to attend the university. If you run the NPC and it predicts that the university is going to be affordable, then I think that it is reasonable to expect it to be affordable. I would print out and save the NPC results. Then if the actual award ends up significantly worse than what the NPC predicted, you have a strong argument regarding why you backed out.
One daughter wanted to apply ED to a university where the NPC predicted that it would not be affordable – not even close. In that case we did not allow her to apply ED. However, if the NPC had predicted that it was going to be affordable we would have been okay with it.
I guess my basic question is if a school will look down on an applicant if they apply for financial aid at the same time as applying ED given the fact that ED essentially tells a college that family can afford it.
“ED essentially tells a college that family can afford it”
I think that if you apply ED and also apply for financial aid, this suggests that you can afford whatever the NPC said.
NO. The answer is no. A college does not “look down” on ED applicants applying for financial aid. I think you are misunderstanding. Applying ED does NOT mean that you are signaling that you can afford the LIST PRICE of the college. However, you should be applying in good faith that you can afford the NET PRICE that results after you run the school’s Net Price Calculator (NPC).
Did you run the NPC? If so, what was the estimated net price that resulted? Can you afford that net price? Because that is what it is likely to cost you (unless you have some complicating financial situations that would affect the accuracy of the NPC).
Schools do not “look down” on students who apply for need based aid. Who told you that?
If you NEED aid, apply for it.
Are you thinking that NOT applying for aid will give your kid an admissions edge applying ED? If so, please let go of this idea. I explained this above.
D20 applied ED to a T20 LAC that is need-aware, meets 100% of demonstrated need, and has no loans for students from families with income under a certain amount. We ran the NPC, found it within the range we were comfortable paying, printed out each page, she applied for both admission and aid and got both.
Did it hurt her? Obviously not. Her chances may have been better applying earlier and having fewer students competing for the aid money.