<p>My son was accepted early action and we thought we had all the forms submitted by the February 15 early action financial aid deadline, but something was screwed up with our tax form and we had to resubmit it so we missed the deadline. Now he is grouped in with the regular admission students that had the March deadline and even though the college assures me this will have no affect on his financial aid package, I'm thinking that if the early action applicants were awarded pretty substantial packages, that the aid will not be as much if you are considered at a later date. Does anyone know if this is true?</p>
<p>It depends. It will make no difference in federal need based aid (Stafford, Pell) but it may for college supplied aid if they do not have a strong endowment.</p>
<p>For need-based aid, the financial package would technically be the same whether you get it with other EA applicants or with the RD applicants (since your family’s “need” would be the same). However, as Erin’s Dad pointed out, schools that have limited funds might have less money available later in the admissions cycle and therefore might need to be less generous then with merit aid and institutional grants.</p>