<p>mcghee, Applying ED when you need financial aid is not necessarily a mistake, but it is a risk. The decision to ED or not to ED, depends on your family's tolerance for financial risk. Since Wesleyan is both needblind and promises to meet admits' demonstrated need, it is reasonable to assume that they will offer you a reasonable package. The risk is that you have to take it whatever it is and can't compare other offers.</p>
<p>If you apply RD to Wesleyan and several colleges you have the option of comparing packages, which can vary up to $10,000 in total (maybe more) and also in makeup between grants,loans, workstudy proportion. That way if college B makes a better offer you could go back to Wesleyan and ask them to reconsider, which often happens. </p>
<p>For some families a $10,000 difference would make a huge difference; for some it would be unpleasant but still absorb-able. The point here is that you really don't know: in the end Wesleyan may give you the best finaid package. They don't necessarily shortchange their ED applicants. The only difference is that you can't compare and negotiate.</p>
<p>So, the decision really depends on how much your family needs -- or wants -- the aid. You won't get nothing from Wesleyan if you apply ED, but you'll have no way to know what better offers you may have received from other colleges. </p>
<p>My advice would be for your parents to contact the financial aid office at Wesleyan and discuss this dilemma openly. LACs like Wesleyan (and AWS) really want kids to apply ED. It helps them and it helps the student. It's a win-win situation. If what's standing between you and an ED application is the unknown financial aid package, then you should try to address this with Wesleyan directly. They most likely will not give you an exact figure, but they should be able to give you a ballpark so that your family can calculate whether the financial risk is workable.</p>
<p>The Wesleyan website has a lot of financial aid information including this calculator. </p>
<p>At this point you should be neither overly optimistic nor overly pessimistic. Keep researching.</p>