How binding is Early Decision?

I really want to go to Emory, however, my parents will not allow me to go if they think it is too expensive. I know people concerned about financial aid are recommended to apply regular decision, but Emory is my dream school and I feel like I might not get accepted if I apply Regular Decision. If I do get accepted during early decision and my parents absolutely do not want me to go, is there a way for me to get out of Early Decision? Also, for anyone with experience with the financial aid department, are needs usually met?

Your parents should consult Emory’s Net Price Calculator (NPC) to get a sense as to how much aid you will receive and if the school is affordable for your family. If it’s not affordable don’t apply. ED is binding.

@LoveTheBard provided the correct answer. Emory meets need, but what they consider to be a fair parental contribution and what your parents consider it to be may be two different things.

The Net Price Calculator is not an easy tool. I am not sure if it includes an asset factor, but remember that pensions and 401(k) savings are never included in assets. Since primary residence and retirement savings usually are the two largest family assets, it’s important to exclude the retirement amounts.

In any case, after doing the NPC with your parents, that should help with your strategy.

As for having a dream school, you are better off having a dream portfolio of schools that you would be very happy to be admitted to. It’s okay to have a top choice, but no school will live up to dream expectations.

As others have said, you may be able to get out of the contract if the financial aid they provide is not sufficient. However, you probably won’t be released from the contract if your parents could afford it, but just don’t want to. Be sure to talk it over with your parents, and possibly a guidance counselor before signing the agreement. The NPC should give you a good estimate, if your parents aren’t willing to pay what that estimates I would apply RD instead.

ED is a legally-binding contract that your parents will have to sign: https://apply.emory.edu/downloads/Emory_ED_Agreement_2016.pdf

Also here is their lengthy blog post and whether to apply ED or not:
https://blog.emoryadmission.com/2018/10/to-ed-or-not-to-ed-that-is-the-question-3/

^To clarify, ED is not a legally-enforceable contract. It is an agreement that needs to be signed by the parents and high school guidance counselor.

But, backing out can create problems, as some ED schools share names of accepted students with other schools. The agreement usually specifies this as well as getting released from the agreement if the financial aid package does not make attendance possible.

If the estimated financial aid package from Emory’s Net Price Calculator is not affordable for your family, do not apply ED. If you want to be able to compare actual financial aid packages from other schools, do not apply ED.

If you have checked the NPCs of many colleges and your family is comfortable with affording the net price from Emory’s NPC and Emory is unquestionably your top choice, then consider applying ED. Note that upon acceptance to Emory, all other college applications would need to be withdrawn, before finding out an answer from those other colleges.

If you apply for financial aid and do not receive what you need you can back out. No school wants to force someone to go who cannot afford it. Run the NPC. We did this and printed it out in case there was an issue later on. I knew we could comfortably afford what the NPC said we would have to pay. In the end, Emory was very generous with us and my son was able to commit. If you have a very high EFC that your parents cannot afford you should not even consider applying ED.

@ljberkow Emory’s EFC is very comprehensive. It is very similar to what you see on the CSS. Assets are included as well.

To clarify the clarification. To say that a contract is not “enforceable” (or “legally-enforceable”) is incorrect. The terms are clear and simple - in consideration for the institution accepting your ED application, you are bound to enroll if admitted. Whether this is a good deal or a bad deal has no legal relevance. This also has no bearing on whether they are likely to sue your parents if you are accepted but don’t enroll. They certainly could if they wanted. What the post above is really saying is that the school has other ways to enforce their ED agreements outside the court system.

The consideration provided by the college is insufficient to support a contract, although the point has obviously never been litigated.

Sure it is. Accepting a student’s ED application is a very significant consideration. By committing to enroll if accepted, the student is demonstrating an exceeding high level of interest which is factored into the admissions decision. We have seen people recently literally throw their lives away to get “tips” like this. The bottom line is the same advice everyone gives - if the student isn’t 100% sure that they will attend, then don’t apply ED. You are just repeating yourself by saying they won’t sue. They may well not, but that’s not because the agreement isn’t legally binding.

Check on Emory’s website and it should spell out whether there is reason to be released from ED if needed. I don’t know Emory’s policy, but we just went through this with Cornell. My d19 wanted to apply ED, so we ran the NPC. It looked to be just at our budget limit. We let her apply, she was accepted, we got the FA package. We had roughly a month to accept, so we did have time to work things out. We went through every line of the FA package, which was close (a bit over) to the NPC but didn’t look exactly the same. We needed to make sure we understood every single thing before we accepted her place, paid the deposit, pulled apps from other schools. We emailed a few times and even met with FA in person once. They answered all of our questions, and not once did they tell us we had no choice. Once we understood everything (including how some specific scholarships would work), we felt my D could go ahead and accept the offer. We made the decision within a couple of weeks of her getting the offer.

So what the phrase? TL:DR? Be ethical. Run the NPC. If it seems likely doable, you could apply if your parents agree. If you get the package and it looks less affordable than the NPC shows, talk to Emory’s FA and see if there is any possibility of more aid. If not, and if it seems unaffordable and their policy reads that financial unaffordability is a reason to back out, you could. Again, that’s if they state that as a reason. Know that it would be unethical to back out because even though it matched the NPC, it costs more than other places would.
If you run the NPC and your parents say it definitely costs too much for their budget, don’t apply ED. That wouldn’t be ethical, you can be a better person than that.

@damon30 While it’s true that no college would bother suing, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that if this were ever litigated, no court would find that the consideration given by the college is of sufficient value compared to the applicant’s consideration, the promise to attend not knowing the price and without being able to compare other offers. The college offers to maybe provide a decision earlier in the season, or maybe not (college can defer) - that’s basically nothing. Any supposed increased chance of acceptance is illusory at best and isn’t actually part of what the college promises.

It is well-accepted in the world of college admissions that the ED agreement does not constitute a contract enforceable under contract law.

@evergreen5 Let’s agree to disagree then. Please re-read posts #10 and #8. Added to my ignore list.

The ED agreement is very loosely worded. Please see below what Emory applicants sign.

“Early Decision (ED) is the application process in which students make a commitment to a first‐choice institution where, if admitted, theydefinitely will enroll. While pursuing admission under an Early Decision plan, students may apply to other institutions, but may have only one Early Decision application pending at any time. Should a student who applies for financial aid not be offered an award that makes attendance possible, the student may decline the offer of admission and be released from the Early Decision commitment. The institution must notify the applicant of the decision within a reasonable and clearly stated period of time after the Early Decision deadline. Usually, a nonrefundable deposit must be made well in advance of May 1. The institution will respond to an application for financial aid at or near the time of an offer of admission. Institutionswith Early Decision plans may restrict students from applying to other early plans. Institutions will clearly articulate their specific policies in their Early Decision agreement.”

There is no court that would be able to say that an applicant could afford the package given. This is why colleges don’t sue applicants. If they were looking for a “legally” binding contract the wording would be much more specific.

@collegemom9 agree 100%, I went through it. You need to spend some time on the calculation. They look at assets and income. Pretty sure they take into consideration if there are others in the family in college as well. Definitely be sure NOT to count in the 401(k) or other retirement plan assets as the workpaper is not necessarily clear on that one.

I agree with you that Emory doesn’t want anyone who doesn’t want to be there, but some colleges exchange information on students and parents who back out of agreements.

If you run the NPC and your family says they can’t afford the tuition, don’t waste your ED. You may find other schools that will give you merit money that you will also love.

Emory is need based, but the merit based schools often offer much better deals. I remember the results for one of mine were so much better with Tulane.

Imagine a school’s somehow compelling attendance and then expelling when the bill can’t be paid. Imagine the horrible PR for the school. It doesn’t happen. No school will compel attendance. That’s why ED is an agreement, not a contract. There can be consequences (as previously noted) for backing out of ED if no financial aid was requested, but schools will still not compell attendance.

Probably it’s not helpful to use the word “contract”, because that sidetracks the discussion to contract law. Instead, I think the focus should be on whether the ED agreement is “binding” or not. From my own research, all admissions officials agree that the ED agreement is binding. Enforcement is handled within the college admissions community. The only exception is in the question of financial aid, and those terms are included in the ED agreement.