<p>I applied Early Decision with the hope that the financial aid office would have at least a little bit of mercy on my family. I was accepted, but our financial aid package turned out to be non-existent. I also applied Early Action to the University of Chicago and have not withdrawn my application yet, because in the event that I am accepted tomorrow, I want to see the financial aid package and possibly use it to compare it with the Columbia aid package. Since I have not yet withdrawn my Chicago application, am I technically breaking the ED contract? Can I use the Chicago aid package to help show Columbia a different interpretation of my circumstances without getting in trouble for it?</p>
<p>This is an interesting question, one that my younger son faced two years ago. He decided (with my advice) that the risk was not worth it, and withdrew his Chicago application before the results were announced. (Chicago then wrote him a nice personal letter of congratulations and asked him to consider Chicago when applying to graduate school…) My reasoning, as the guy who has to foot the full-freight bills, was that if Columbia didn’t offer aid, Chicago wouldn’t either.</p>
<p>“Since I have not yet withdrawn my Chicago application, am I technically breaking the ED contract? Can I use the Chicago aid package to help show Columbia a different interpretation of my circumstances without getting in trouble for it?”</p>
<p>Yes, and of course not. It’s unethical, but probably safe, to decline Columbia for financial reasons and go to Chicago (though you won’t get any aid there, either). Showing Columbia that you deliberately violated their ED contract has to be the most absurd idea I’ve ever heard. They will almost certainly instantly reject you (and deservedly so) for breaking their rules, and Chicago might as well, if they get wind of what you did. It’s a bad idea to play with fire, but it’s an even worse idea to play with arson.</p>
<p>pwoods, I am usually the one riding the moral high-horse. This question is a bit more nuanced than most (e.g., “will they catch me if I don’t report all my scores?”). The OP is contractually bound to attend Columbia (and I assume he/she will). As I recall, however, the requirement to withdraw all other applications has no timeline, and a week seems within reason. Waiting to see if he/she is accepted (obviously no certainty), and what, if any, the preliminary award may be, before withdrawing does not immediately strike me as a clear violation of the contract. The OP can then withdraw his/her Chicago application and, if an award was granted, notify Columbia of the discrepancy. If Columbia made no mistake in making no award, no award will be granted, and the OP attends Columbia paying full-freight.</p>
<p>ED is not intended to allow schools to shaft accepted students in the financial aid process; rather, it is intended to bind students who are willing to give up other options (in April) in exchange for the relief of certainty (in December).</p>
<p>Having said all that, I reiterate that I believe the OP should withdraw his/her Chicago application immediately.</p>
<p>hey - not so fast. he can keep his application open if he is considering withdrawing from columbia.</p>
<p>the OP should know however that there really is only 2 options re: columbia. either he accepts their offer and attends, or denies their offer and there is no second chance with columbia.</p>
<p>he/she should know that under only the rarest of circumstances would financial aid at uchi be better than it is at columbia. (though their merit aid may be good.) uchi just doesn’t have the same amount of resources as columbia does financially to be as generous with higher income families. thus i guess it would be feasible to show columbia the chicago package, i just wouldn’t hold my breath. in general there are only 5 schools that may give a package more generous than columbia’s (and a few others that from time to time may do better). uchi as far as i know rarely outaids columbia.</p>
<p>eventually columbia will get kind of ultimatum-y - sign up or release your place in the class for someone else. but that is not for some time, and you still have the opportunity to appeal your financial aid estimate (do know it is an estimate, you do not receive the actual finaid award until your 2010 taxes are in).</p>
<p>i will slightly criticize the notion you make that columbia should have given mercy to your family. financial aid doesn’t quite work like that. there is to an extent a subjective quality to the financial aid officer reading your file, but ultimately if your family is making too much money it is hard for you to get aid. and i say this mostly to clarify to other EDers and future EDers how important it is to have the conversation earlier with your family. paying for college is really a family decision, it is expensive, it requires sacrifice, it requires in many cases planning. it is important going into it to be okay with the worst case scenario (no aid). in my situation, my family (one of those classic middle class income families that are at the cusp of aid) didn’t originally apply for aid because we weren’t aware that having my sister in college would impact the amount of money i could receive or that things change. we were okay with the worst case scenario. but funny enough they encouraged me to apply for aid anyhow and i received some, which really lessened the burden.</p>
<p>though columbia would say (and barring the 5 schools that might outbid CU leading them to sweeten their offer) that what you receive in finaid ED is probably what you’d receive RD, the advantage certainly of doing RD is the fact that you can shop finaid offers and also different kinds of finaid offers (merit v. need-based) - even if you can’t get a school to sweeten their deal. so it is knowing the sacrifice that you have to take (in either case - the ease of being admitted early v. the flexibility of shopping offers regular).</p>
<p>Harvard, Yale, possibly Princeton, and then…Williams and Amherst?</p>
<p>I have to say, adgeek, I’m surprised that Columbia is so lenient with the ED agreement. I assumed you’d be bound to attend and immediately withdraw all applications, or else face immediate rejection and (if Chicago found out) rejection from Chicago as well. But I suppose admissions is not really that cut-throat.</p>
<p>I believe the OP is bound to attend Columbia. The only reason to wait for Chicago is to see if financial aid is granted. If aid is granted, the OP says “thanks, but no thanks” to Chicago, and presents the Chicago data to Columbia, with an explanation that the Chicago offer has been declined. If no aid is granted, the Chicago offer is simply declined. Either way, the agreement is honored. The primary downside (which was compelling to my son) is that perhaps someone else was not admitted because his or her space was already taken.</p>
<p>yeah pwoods, chill out dude</p>
<p>I also EA’ed to Chicago, since Columbia was extremely competitive and I wasn’t sure if I would get in ED. I asked counselors, my interviewer, and even on Columbia’s website it said you can EA to a school after doing ED to Columbia. </p>
<p>I was accepted to both schools, and since Columbia was binding whereas Chicago was EA, obviously I committed to Columbia. </p>
<p>Columbia’s Financial Aid was also literally 2.2 times better than Chicago’s. I dont know if its Chicago was out of money, but I have this financial aid book (from collegeboard), and Columbia’s aid followed a formula on there almost exactly. It was very generous. Chicago, did not, but I can understand, with the current economic system and all.</p>
<p>A lot of my friends asked me “Whoa, you could ED and EA? Isn’t that breaking the rules”</p>
<p>Even though I’m only a high school student, I can say confidentally the answer is NOOO (unless its like SCEA or restrictive EA or something). I think this is a misconception a lot of people have. But EA is definitely not binding, whereas ED is.</p>
<p>Also, if you think youre ED financial aid is really bad, you can definitely consult with Columbia’s financial aid office. If you show them Chicago offered you a lot more (which I highly doubt would happen), and that if you had to pay $___ for columbia, your family would go bankrupt, I believe you can be released from the binding agreement. Those are, of course, extreme scenarios, and highly unlikely to happen.</p>
<p>Admissiongeek, correct me anywhere you think is wrong lol</p>
<p>also i think the 5 schools that <em>might</em> outbid in aid is harvard, yale, princeton, stanford, and MIT lol</p>
<p>well - the student in good faith probably should withdraw all other applications, but that would be presupposing that his/her family does not anticipate withdrawing from columbia itself. it would be stupid of the OP to withdraw other applications if he/she is anticipating withdrawing, it would in fact lead them to perhaps be stuck without a home come next year. it is however the imperative on the OP to be deliberative and ultimately decisive. he/she has to choose yes to columbia or no by jan 15 (or whenever the deposit is due). i think that is reasonable. my only criticism to the OP is that his/her family really should have had this conversation in september and not now in december.</p>
<p>for a good article about this read the choice blog, [The</a> Case for Early Decision - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/the-case-for-early-decision/]The”>The Case for Early Decision - The New York Times)</p>
<p>HYPSM are the only ones that consistently out-aid columbia, with s and m only on some of the middle class income cases, and not all because of slightly nicer cap on home equity at s and m, and m going up to 70k for families v. 60k.</p>