My top choice school is UPenn. It is, far and wide, where I would choose to go if I could go almost anywhere. Aside from the fact that the school itself is excellent, the location is exactly what I want.
I was thinking about applying ED. The only thing that would stop me is financial issues. I cannot afford $40,000 a year for an undergrad degree. If I were to apply ED, and were accepted, but could not pay, would I be able to reject on the basis of financial issues (assuming that they didn’t try to accomodate)?
Am I a candidate for ED, or for UPenn for that matter? 4/570, SAT: 2150, GPA 4.0/4.49W, EC’s, many–some volunteering, some in school, some political, yearbook, etc–two with a leadership position, job, will have completed 9 AP courses (most with very high A’s), including Chem, Bio, Phys, USHistory, etc.
I plan to major in either Bioengineering or Chemical Engineering.
<p>Never, Never, Never apply for ED if you can't afford the tuition. I believe that you, your parents, and your guidance counselor must sign an ED contract when you apply ED. If you do and you get admitted but can't afford it then I have heard of cases where people get out of it HOWEVER I have heard that if you do this all the people who apply from your school will NOT be admitted to this school for a very long time. Read all the threads on ED and you will see that no one ever would tell you to do this unless you have the money.</p>
<p>In theory, you can request to be released from a binding ED if the financial issues are not doable. But the problem with this strategy is that you will get the decision between the first week of December and mid December. You then have to let Penn know that your family cannot financially swing it, go over all the financials with the FA office to see what could be worked out. You then are running into winter break. The list of ED acceptees are circulated and your name is automatically on it. You need to now send out all your RD apps. It is possible that you are just immediately put in the reject stack since you are on the circulated ED list. When a decision is finally made by Penn that they cannot accomodate you and you are released from the commitment, you may well already be compromised by a number of other schools. They do not necessarily tell you, nor are you necessarily happily reinstated if you notify them of the situation. This fail safe clause is supposed to be used only in very unusual situation such as a parent or family member becoming seriously ill, and even then it can be touch and go. </p>
<p>Then you may end up with the same or less aid from your other colleges and have lost out on Penn. I have seen that happen alot.</p>
<p>Hi mf06d ... doing some homework you can get some idea of what UPENN will provide for FA. Find one of the web-based estimators so you have an estimate of your family's EFC. Investigate if UPENN fills 100% of need and how much of aid is loan based. If your family is comfortable with the EFC estimate and with UPENN's typical package make-up then maybe ED for UPENN works ... knowing you could be off a few thousand dollars a year but probably not off tons of bucks. (That was general advice I'd call UPENN FA directly and find out if the use forms beyond the FASA form to esimate the EFC ... and if they would suggest a way to estimate the EFC). Bottom line, if you can get a reasonable estimate of the EFC UPENN will decide for your family and of their response you can decide if ED works for you.</p>
<p>You can ask to be released from ED for financial reasons ... but my understanding is if UPENN has provided their typical aid for your EFC (as UPENN determined it) then they will not typical release you ... because your financial situation is what would be expected when you applied.</p>
<p>Exactly, at a school that doesn't give merit money, it should be very easy to approximate what it will cost you. You can also call their financial aid office to get an estimate of the structure of their packages to assess your likely loan component. </p>
<p>It really is OK to apply ED to a school that meets 100% of need after doing the analysis if you won't be swayed by merit offers.</p>
<p>The downside is that sometimes things do not come out exactly as one planned. Amount of loans is an example. THough schools may give 100% of aid, how it is distributed can be an issue. There is preferential packaging even at the ivies. Also I was shocked at some of the loan amounts given to some kids with an EFC of 0. Way above what the government would recommend. If you really need the aid, do think about the worse case scenario because that is where you will be in trouble. It does happen too often with financial aid. If you think you can still swing it or will work it out, then fine, go on ahead. But make sure you do know what the worst case scenario could be.</p>
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The downside is that sometimes things do not come out exactly as one planned. Amount of loans is an example.
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I agree ... I was chewing on that one last night ... if it were me I'd set up 3-4 scenarios in a spreadsheet each with differing loan % of the aid package. If we could live with any of theloan amounts ED would be fine ... if only the worst loan % would be a show stopper and it is not vry likely and there is a (unpleasant but doable) workaround then ED might still work .... if typical loan amounts are a problem then ED doesn't seem like a fit. I think I'd need to be like 75% comportable with the EFC, % need filled, and % loan to risk the ED chance.</p>