You can be released from an ED contract if the financial aid is not adequate.
Why do some families buy BMWs and some take the public bus? Not every college has sufficient funds to give generous grants. Harvard, for example, has $38 BILLION. University of Alabama has $1.4B. Tennessee Tech University has $67 million. Here’s the latest data on college endowments:
file:///Users/admin/Downloads/2018%20Endowment%20Market%20Values–Final.pdf
To get a more accurate picture of the utility of their endowments, here’s data on endowment per student for selected colleges:
http://www.reachhighscholars.org/college_endowments.html