<p>hi all. i’m an amherst ed acceptee and i was wondering if anyone recieved their financial aid packets. i was hoping they would “meet my need” and they didn’t really soooo… that’s bad! i’m kind of freaking out. any words of wisdom would really help, haha. peace out girl scoutssssss</p>
<p>So what was the offer, and what were your expectations?</p>
<p>One of the Top 10 misunderstandings is that a college's definition of "need" is equivalent to a student's or parent's. As Mini says, what are the details?</p>
<p>let them know that without more help, you won't be able to attend.</p>
<p>(redbeard09)</p>
<p>Unless the college agrees with your financial analysis, they in all likelihood will not let you out of your ED commitment without blacklisting you with comparable institutions.</p>
<p>This goes to the core of why I intensely dislike ED: people who have any concerns at all about financial aid should not apply ED. Therefore ED is just one more tool that favors students from wealthier families to which many other advantages already accrue.</p>
<p>Saying "Without more aid, I can't come" will not necessarily save you.</p>
<p>they have been pretty understanding and they definitely won't blacklist me or take away my acceptance..</p>
<p>How do you know? They don't "blacklist" - rather, when you are accepted ED, the list is shared with other "like-minded" schools. Unless they make an active attempt to inform the other schools, your name is on the list. Columbia, for example, says they will indeed release ED acceptees under such circumstances, but only in rare instances, and only to apply to less expensive (state) schools.</p>
<p>So what was the problem with the offer?</p>
<p>TheDad, i think times have changed, if they were ever like you described... saying "Without more aid, I can't come" is one of the few things that WILL save you, especially with understanding schools like Amherst. LostMermaid could probably apply to peer institutions for RD and compare financial aid offers without risk of being blacklisted, as long as the schools understood that she could not have paid for her ED school.</p>
<p>"TheDad, i think times have changed, if they were ever like you described... saying "Without more aid, I can't come" is one of the few things that WILL save you, especially with understanding schools like Amherst."</p>
<p>Nope. It has nothing to do with "understanding schools" - and everything to do with the standardized process that ALL of these schools use in alerting others that a candidate has been accepted ED. Unless Amherst ACTIVELY makes an effort to inform other schools of what has happened, she has already been "blacklisted". </p>
<p>And you need to understand, it is not "blacklisting" - Amherst (or any other school) is not being meanspirited. They have the courtesy of a gentleman's agreement with other schools with whom they compete. This makes their life easier, and it makes the life of the other schools easier. If I knew that an applicant had already turned down an offer from a school with a billion dollar endowment, and who really, really wanted her, why would I go out of my way to take a special look at the applicant when I had so many other qualified ones?</p>
<p>If I were Lostermaid, I would do absolutely everything in my power to find a way for this to work, both for her and for Amherst. Otherwise the stakes are simply too high.</p>
<p>ok, you win</p>