<p>@jkeil911 Thanks for the answer. I will run those calculators and if I really if there isn’t much of a gap, I will go ED. Thanks can you chance me on Carleton, Kenyon, Colgate, W&L and Hamilton with my stats above? I would really appreciate it </p>
<p>Those schools are matches, OP. You don’t need me to tell you that. You knowhow to pick a match by now.</p>
<p>@jkeil911 That’s what I thought but some people tell me they are my far-reaches or reaches because I need a lot of Financial Aid</p>
<p>We have to separate, most of the time, financial need from admissions likelihood.</p>
<p>Only you can know what you need financially, and it will be in very specific terms such as “we can contribute 17K/year but not 19K.” We can’t know your need with such specificity.</p>
<p>So we can only tell you whether a particular school is a reach/match/safety for your RESUMÉ or not. </p>
<p>So what are the calculators telling you about any gap between what your family can/wants to pay and the Expected Family Contribution at any of these schools? Is there a gap? Is it a thousand or tens of thousands of dollars?</p>
<p>It’s a sample size of one, but I do know a US applicant who was accepted to both Colgate and Hamilton, small family business, and Hamilton was much more generous, which swung her decision.</p>
<p>@jkeil911 I just ran the calculator… I can pay 20k maximum… but all of the colleges expect me to pay 35-40k…
@MrMom62 Hmm I should then consider Hamilton as ED right? Do you think I have chances to the schools I wrote on the comment section?</p>
<p>I don’t think you should apply ED at all if the colleges do not appear affordable. Apply RD so that you can compare and maximize FA / merit aid offers. You may also have to add some colleges to the list that offer true merit where you stats are well above the upper quartile of applicants - some colleges will use large merit awards to entice applicants that they really want to attend. $20K budget is going to be tough if the NPCs are indicating that the colleges expect you to pay $35-40K.</p>
<p>@momofzag what do you mean maximize offers? you mean make a deal? Right… I’ve applied to Depauw, Dickinson, Kalamazoo… Do you think I should apply to lower ranked colleges as my “safety colleges”? </p>
<p>If you can pay $20K max and your EFC keeps coming up $35-40K, then RD should be your choice. That’s too big a gap to expect an ED school to make up. It’s just asking for trouble.</p>
<p>I’m glad you have also applied to those other 3 colleges - they all provide merit aid don’t they? You can try getting colleges to increase theFA / merit aid awards after acceptance. I have heard that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But it makes absolutely no sense to apply ED to a college that you already know does not give merit aid (Colgate / Hamilton) and whose NPC is indicating that you will have a gap in your financial aid. </p>
<p>@MrMom62 @momofzag yeah I might also apply to some schools within that range… so what you are saying is that I can make a “deal” with schools after i get accepted if i apply RD. But if I apply ED, I won’t be able to do that. </p>
<p>The only reason why i’m applying ED is to increase my chance of getting accepted 
</p>
<p>You can certainly compare all your financial offers if you do RD at all the schools whereas you will only know the ED offer if you do ED. You will have to withdraw all your other applications if you are accepted ED (or if you decline the ED offer due to lack of funds, you may not end up with a better offer later).</p>
<p>You can bargain even in the ED rounds, but expecting to make up that huge a gap is not a good idea. Yes, you can decline the ED offer if the FA package doesn’t add up, but do you really want to have to go there? That’s really going to suck, especially if you went in knowing it would happen. Save yourself the angst and just do RD everywhere.</p>
<p>@MrMom62 and @momofzag I will definitely follow your advice. Thank you so much! Last question for both of you guys! </p>
<p>My stats: 2160 SAT (650 CR, 780 M, 720 W),
SAT II Math 2, French, Literature (650-720 don’t know yet)
GPA 3.56 (Cumulative) 3.89 (Senior) UW for both
IB TOK, Geo, Math, Design Tech, Econ, English Literature, and French</p>
<p>ECs:
Swimming Varsity (10-12) Captain
Orphanage (11-12) Founder and leader
School Class Leader (11)
School Vice President (12)
Green Team leader (10-12)
NHS Member (11-12)</p>
<p>Awards:
High honor roll (9-12)
Presidential award (10)
Excellence award in french (10)
French Delf B2
Math competition (35/100)
Swim medals (4 gold, 1 silver)</p>
<p>Essay: Good (not great),
Recommendations: Very good</p>
<p>Do you think i have fair shot at Carleton, Kenyon, Macalester and Grinnell? </p>
<p>Your limiting factor will be your GPA, depending on how your HS grades. Carleton is your longest shot.</p>
<p>If you could get one of the coaches interested in your swimming, you could play that into an admission, but it’s a little late for that. Still might be worth a shot with a last minute phone call, depending on your times. Try looking up the swim team’s times and compare them to your own, see if you’re competitive for any of the schools.</p>
<p>Yes , you can. But it can be a pain in the neck. </p>
<p>IMO, Colgate has more name recognition.</p>
<p>Only because of the toothpaste and the ESPN coverage. :)) </p>
<p>Academic recognition-wise, they’re about equal. </p>
<p>The last time I checked, Colgate’s student body had only about 40% on Financial aid of any kind, which seems to me to indicate their FA is not very generous, even though they claim to meet 100% of financial need (as defined by the school, of course). </p>
<p>@marysidney So IF i choose to apply either Colgate or Hamilton for ED, choose Hamilton since Colgate isn’t very generous?</p>
<p>@MrMom62 Yeah I’ve heard that, my friends who never heard of Colgate make fun of me saying that I’m going to work at a toothpaste factory later on. </p>
<p>@cptofthehouse Does your comment mean that I have a chance and that I should try Colgate Hamilton or Carleton?</p>