I seriously don’t think parents read “contracts”, or if they do, they don’t understand them. Look at the housing crisis.
Not everyone is anal like us ;))
Did this family expect to get need based aid at their income level, and if so, how much did they hope to get?
I can assure you our guidance counselors had no time to worry about ED or finances or signing off on things or counseling to make sure the student and family understood the consequences of not accepting ED. Their main concern was getting the applications for state schools in (very early first deadline of Oct 16), and making sure the half of the class that was failing actually graduated. The GCs did not care if the one MIT applicant was ED or if her family could afford it. If we asked for a transcript, it was sent. They cared a little more about helping the military kids get the stuff ready for ROTC or the academy applications. Didn’t care much about the athletes. Quantity, not necessarily quality (although they did their best).
For my D’s high school, the GC would only continue the college application process (including submission of mid-year or final transcript) to in state public schools if one declined an ED admission for a financial reason. That is the school policy.
Is it that your parents cannot afford the ED school or that they can afford it but are unwilling to pay for it?
<<<
For my D’s high school, the GC would only continue the college application process (including submission of mid-year or final transcript) to in state public schools if one declined an ED admission for a financial reason. That is the school policy.
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
well, that is what is going on here. The family says that they can’t afford it.
Are you saying that the GC demands to see the FA pkg (even if 0) and the family’s finances to determine whether they can afford it? I doubt that…so the GC has to accept the family’s word that they can’t afford the school.
My sister’s kids applied ED and didn’t apply for aid, but if during the short period time of application and results, if something had happened to change their financial situation, they would have declined and her kids would have gone to a more affordable school. in my sister’s case, they got some bad news about her H’s health. Turned out ok, but if the news had been bad, the kids would not have gone to their ED schools. Is a school’s GC going to demand to see health records? pink slips from job losses? These GC threats seem like paper tigers.
This is why ED is getting ridiculous. Might as welll be EA or SCEA.
I agree on getting rid of ED. It’s not fair to the kids who would commit. It’s not fair to the income insecure. It is apparently not binding. So what is the point?
I think billsco is saying no matter your FA, if you decline ED, you can only finish your apps to instate public! yikes…bc they give oodles of aid! not.
Actually…for ed if you decline, you don’t have to withdraw all of yoir other applications that are pending.
When applying ED, the only other “early” applications you are supposed to submit are those to rolling admissions public universities.
But that has nothing to do,woth regular,decision applications. You can submit a lot of those…and you are only required to withdraw them if you accept the ED offer of acceptance. Otherwise those applications can move forward.
billsco was saying the GC will only provide the transcripts for in state publics if kids do that at their school. School policy harsher than common app!
And ED agreements differ. Duke’s only limited you to other nonbinding early apps. They did not need to be rolling or public.
@mom2collegekids That is the warning from the GC that the students should think it though before applying ED. Financial reason is the only excuse one may decline the admission offer. It does not matter how many applications the student submitted besides or after the ED, the GC would refuse to submit letters or transcripts to other private or OOS public schools once the student declined an ED admission offer. The student can proceed with other applications to in state public schools. Again, that is my D’s school policy. In your sister’s kids scenario, OOS public or other private would still have the same financial problem.
^^^
THat is an outrageous policy and if my kid were exposed to that harshness, I’d pull my kid out and homeschool him the rest of the year and send transcripts.
Imagine the student who applied to an ED school and it’s not affordable (maybe business deductions or NCP info is the issue), but the only affordable school is an OOS public with merit or another private with merit. This school thinks it can interfere???!!! And what??? Force the family to take out loans??? Outrageous!
^exactly, all that is left for the FA needy is the FA stingy public in state. That’s what I don’t get. If your FA was inadequate at a private, it will not likely be better at a public.
[QUOTE=""]
In your sister's kids scenario, OOS public or other private would still have the same financial problem.
[/QUOTE]
Why would you say that??? Absolutely not necessarily true. both of her kids had the stats for private and OOS offers of large merit.
I can’t believe that you would say that in response to one of my posts! Do you have any idea how many OOS students Bama scoops up because their ED schools were unaffordable?
Your child’s school’s rule is narrow-minded.
I don’t think guidance counselors have any business intruding in people’s finances without an invitation by the family. They can and should monitor applications ensuring that students do not apply to more than one place ED, they should be required to send what is needed within a reasonable time period as requested by a student and other required administrative tasks. If a student informs them they have declined an ED offer that should be the end of the discussion. It is up to the parents and students to determine if they can afford an ED college or not.
At our school, GCs are forbidden to discuss anything related to finances with any family…forbidden.
It’s really none of the GCs business why a student declines an ED offer of admission. And finances is a reason to decline.
Schools who have a policy like @billcsho are overstepping their bounds. If it’s a public, then that school may be leaving itself vulnerable to a lawsuit.
Once a family says that they can’t afford their ED school, then that’s it. There are other schools that might give that student a “preferential pkg” or may not use an aspect into the FA calculation that the ED school did.
I think Vandy is a school that doesn’t use NCP info, UChi may not either. I think Duke may be a school that doesn’t use Step-parent incomes (or maybe it’s another CSS school). Some schools ignore home equity, and some consider K-12 private school tuition or a grad school child. For anyone to claim that other privates won’t give better aid is naive.
How does an ED school deal with this situation? Huge difference between NPC and FA package?
Are you asking: If someone has a screenshot of their info and results from an NPC and their actual aid is much less, then does the person have any recourse with the school? Not really. The person can show the results to the school, but the school will either say that there is an error in the NPC or that the person has a situation (business deductions or NCP) and results are not accurate in those situations.
It’s not unusual for the results to be different when finances are more complicated. People often “wing it” when they do NPCs…rough estimates of income, assets, forgetting to add back in retirement contributions, etc.
@mom2collegekids I do not set the policy in my school district. I guess their point is to prevent students from abusing the ED system. They also emphasize checking the NPC before applying to schools and do not apply ED if financial aid is a concern. They set the policy but I am not sure how strict they are when upholding that. I suppose they would give some leeway in special situation.
@billcsho Of course you don’t have any control over the school district’s policy. This policy is just an example of low-level thinking, which is often found in K-12 schools.
[QUOTE=""]
They also emphasize checking the NPC before applying to schools and do not apply ED if financial aid is a concern. <<<
[/QUOTE]
The district is talking out of both sides of its mouth. Anyone checking an NPC has finances as a concern. A more honest approach would be: “if you’re rich and/or have $200k+ sitting in a college fund, then our policy won’t hurt you. If you need aid, don’t apply ED because our policy may hog-tie you later.”