I was planning on having 1 EA college to apply to this fall to hopefully have 1 college answer by Jan. I didn’t think, because my family would need quite a lot of financial aid, that I could apply anywhere ED. I got a little confused on some sites though. One said I could apply ED and to other colleges but had to withdraw if I was accepted. I understand that. What is “grey” is the the financial aid side of it. It says on various college web sites that if the finances can’t be worked out, and you can’t handle the amount given to you, you can withdraw. I don’t know how much you can haggle, if at all, but are you not supposed to apply unless you can carry most of the load? Is ED mainly for affluent applicants? I know of a few that weren’t in my school that applied ED but they were athletes or top 5-10%.
Thanks for any advice.
<p>BRJ-CT BRJ-CT, Applying ED when you need aid is a risky proposition. Being accepted ED doesnt mean that you will receive NO need based aid or that your package would definitely be lower than what you would have received from that college had you applied RD.</p>
<p>What it means is that you dont have the option to compare and thus negotiate packages, both for total dollars and for the make up of the offer with regard to proportion of grants, loans and work study. If you have several offers in hand you can always ask your first choice school to match one of the others. With ED, you wont be able to do that. Of course, even with ED you can discuss your financial offer with the school, but you just wont have much bargaining power.</p>
<p>For merit aid, general wisdom is that schools dont offer much merit to ED applicants because they dont need to. I dont know whether this is true or not but its logical.</p>
<p>As far as backing out of an ED agreement, yes, this is done, but no, its not something that you want to plan on doing as a going in strategy. Its not good for you or for your high school. An ED contract is binding, legally and ethically. If you agree to it, you should be prepared to accept the financial risk.</p>
<p>Spend some time studying your first choice schools financial information. Have you parents figure their EFC on an on-line calculator. This will give you a guideline.</p>
<p>If possible, talk to the schools financial people. Schools encourage and benefit from ED applications; they want to help you work it out, but there is no guarantee. Even if the college promises to meet your demonstrated need, what they think your family needs and what you think you need may not jibe.</p>
<p>If, after doing your research, you conclude that the financial risk is too great, dont apply ED.</p>
<p>When you apply EA, you should have the decision by December 15 (before January!).</p>
<p>If you apply ED and get accepted, you must withdraw any outstanding applications. This happens when students apply to rolling admissions schools, or state school applications (like the UC's, whose deadline is November 31, so you would've had to send your application in before the ED decision comes back).</p>
<p>You'll learn a lot more about contracts as the years progress, but ED is binding. There have been some instances where you can back out, but the process you must undertake can be burdensome (so I hear).</p>
<p>If you are very low income (under $20,000), then it's pretty safe for you to apply ED or EA since the financial aid award is generally very generous. HOWEVER, this applies to schools that are known to be fair-to-generous on their financial aid awards. Schools notorious for being poor with finaid, such as New York University, should be avoided at all costs during ED for students who are relying on receiving financial aid... hope that helped, best of luck-</p>
<p>TTG</p>
<p>My parents said today that if applying early lessened their wallets more than it lessened my stress, it wasn't worth it. At a couple of colleges, students told me they had great aid packages either right off or when they said they'd withdraw, but that is so dependent on the college, I probably wont do it. I'll be in the trenches with everyone else!</p>