<p>If I apply for ED and financial aid, and I am not offered financial aid that will allow me to attend, I can choose to decline the offer, correct? Who determines whether the financial aid is satisfactory? Is it me, or them? Under what circumstance will I be freed from the ED contract? </p>
<p>Thanks!!!</p>
<p>Depends on your financial status.
If you earn less than 40k a year, you'll pretty much have a free ride. You can't decline this, you have no reason to.
If you earn less than 80k a year, tuition will be covered, leaving you about 10k to pay for books, and dorming. They will most likely give you grants, so this is also a reason why you can't decline it.</p>
<p>They will look at your FAFSA and CSS and what your parents are expected to contribute.</p>
<p>Of course, if for some reason you earn 60k and they don;t end up giving you a lot of aid (mostly if your parents have other assets in houses, cars, business, etc), then you may be able to decline it.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply. But are these incomes before or after tax?</p>
<p>Also, do they decide whether we can decline it?</p>
<p>I think it's before tax, but I'm not sure, mostly because not everyone has to pay tax (for instance if you lost your house to foreclosure).</p>
<p>I don't think they decide if you can decline it, but it will be within reason. If your FAFSA and CSS predicts your parents need to pay 5k a year, and they earn like 100k a year, you will be expected to go, otherwise the school would send out a message to your counselor, and other schools, informing them of your breaking of the binding agreement, at which time Penn , like any ED school, will just rescind you and as would all your other schools.</p>
<p>That is why if you're applying ED, you sure as hell better know you're going to attend no matter what.
I most likely won't have any financial aid during my first year should I be accepted, so I'll take out a giant loan and deal with it.</p>
<p>Thank you for your response. </p>
<p>I am not American though (Canadian). Does this change things? Thanks :)</p>
<p>Canadians are treated the same way as Americans for financial aid; you just fill out a different set of forms (on the financial aid website, there's a list of forms for Americans, another for Canadians/Mexicans, and another for all other internationals)</p>