My family is super low-income. I want to apply early decision to my top choice school that offers to meet 100% need. Is this a bad idea?
Do you have a non-custodial parent?
If not, and your family has little assets and don’t own a business, then go for it.
Have you run the net price calculator on that school’s web site?
If the school is wiling to do an early read of fin aid, do that first.
If you don’t have a circumstance that would cause the NPCs to be wrong (such as NCP, assets, family business, rental properties, business deductions), then the NPCs should be fairly accurate.
Is that 100 percent loan free? Not all “full needs” schools are free of student loans. If it’s loan free then I’d say go for it. If it will include student loans then you need to know about how much your 4 year total would be and if that is worth it for you (and if there are comparable but loan-free options for you then it might be worth keeping your options open.) The good news is that financial need is typically the one acceptable reason to reject an Early Decision acceptance.
@scholarme Who and when do I need to contact for an early FA read?
@mom2collegekids We don’t have any of those, but would untaxed income affect the accuracy of NPCs?
@turtletime I didn’t know that! I’m guessing the school would determine my financial need for me to reject the ED acceptance, right?
My anecdote is that it worked out fine for me. My parents are divorced and don’t have a huge income, but I got a very generous financial aid package when I applied ED to a college. I’d say go for it if you know it’s your #1 choice. People here are too quick to tell students with lower incomes not to apply ED. You are allowed to appeal to the school and if they don’t alter your package you can get out of your agreement. Just make sure that you apply to other schools or at least have other applications ready. You need to prepare for the possibility of both being rejected and not receiving enough aid.
@micmatt513 Thank you for your reply. Being accepted to my RD schools and not receiving enough aid is a very big concern of mine. Do you have any advice for this?
Check their website - you might see instructions around the same place they have their net price calculator.
If not, ask whoever the contact person is on that page, or ask the admissions officer for your area.
The way that I handled my college applications was that I applied to mostly colleges that I was more or less guaranteed to get into, but that would be able to supplement my need-based aid with merit-aid. This varies from student to student, but I chose schools like Northeastern that were looking to improve their perception and were taking a lot of higher stats students to try to improve their rank. They’re likely not to give full need-based aid, but they might be able to make a good offer when they combine whatever need-based aid they can give with merit-aid. It’s hard to find schools that are not reaches that will meet all of a student’s need, but if they can meet all of need if they combine the award with a nice scholarship.
Untaxed income (like military housing or subsistence) does get added back in so, yes, it affects the NPC accuracy. Even FAFSA considers those $.