Interesting question that I don’t have any experience with (my kids all went EA rather than ED). Do you think that applying ED reduces your chances of getting any merit money?
Logic would say it should. What’s the point of giving a discount to a kid who is already required to enroll?
There’s not a ton of merit money in the top 25 ED schools and it is very competitive. But there is some – Emory, Vandy, WUSTL, Rice etc.
Probably doesn’t come up all that much. Since the ED boost is most helpful to applicants who are well qualified but not slam dunks to be admitted at such selective schools.
Most top 25s offer to meet full need, whether through merit or FA. If an applicant is clearly a full pay student why offer merit when he/she is already required to go. I think those schools would still be generous with FA because students could still get out of ED for financial reason.
I was under the impression that she had a good experience at college – especially in terms of her challenging double major and her involvement with her sorority. And she went on from college to a very interesting (though demanding) career. Was I mistaken about her college experience being a success?
We paid full price as we had been saving to do since they were little. Saved a little money with prepayment plans, but no aid.
D1: Academic star - Applied to rolling safety, Sep 1 and was admitted in mid October. Top two choices based on preapplication information were EA - she was admitted to both, she only filed 2 more applications where she was either waitlisted and denied. She did due diligence overnights at the two EA schools between January and March and picked the favorite. When the last two decisions (WL, and deny) arrived on April 1, she was ready to commit to one of the EA schools.
D2: Started visiting a little early because we knew an ED would help her application as her GPA was ~3.5. She visited a school that she fell in love with during college visits Junior year. Around Labor Day, she made an overnight visit to another school that she thought could be a top choice. Finally in October she revisited the school she fell in love with the first time and did an overnight, visited classes, talked to a professor, etc. She was sure of her choice. She applied ED and was accepted.
She also got a $20K merit award from another school that she had applied to, but had to turn it down when she got the ED acceptance.
Both Ds applied to a total of only 5 schools each.
Marian - D1 loved her experience at her college, but the process of getting there was extremely stressful. She ED at the wrong school, and was WL at the school she attended. It took some effort in getting her off the WL. But I think because it was such a long road in getting there, she valued her experience even more. At the end, it all worked out.
@oldfort Yes, that certainly does sound stressful!
I admire the adaptability of students who get admitted to a college off the waitlist and decide to go for it. It can’t be easy to change your plans at that late date.
Can we just take a breath here to think about how we are reading an article on “the average excellent kid”? How lucky are we??? One of those “average excellent kids” and my DD’s very close friend had a devastating stroke over the holidays. Let’s count our blessings that our biggest worry is EA vs ED!! Thank you for all these wonderful thoughts!!!
With D1, she applied to 1 school EA. She made the decision over Columbus Day weekend after a visit to a school where her thinking about what she wanted in a college became very clear to her.
With D2-- she applied EA to schools where she could because several of her choices had scholarship competitions which required EA to be considered
I disagree wholeheartedly that ED is only for those without FA concerns specifically when applying to 100% needs met schools. As a single parent, there was no way I could afford my D’s first choice $63k school as i make too much for FAFSA aid. I was comfortable knowing that, should she be accepted, her school would meet her need above my EFC. She was accepted EDII and the financial package is very doable for me. I can also say that, if she hadn’t applied ED, her RD chances would’ve been very slim
I agree with @MrylndMom. If you are applying to a school that guarantees two things (1. Need blind admissions, 2. Meets full need of admitted applicants), there is absolutely no reason not to apply ED for financial reasons. True need will be met. (Yes, it might affect non-financial need, merit-based aid some places, if you don’t NEED fianancial aid but would appreciate some merit money if you could get it. In that case, wait for the RD round.)
If the school is not need blind or does not guarantee to meet demonstrated need, then it also would not be a good idea to apply ED if you need money. But schools like ED Ivies will take care of meeting your need either way and you will not be taken advantage of just because you committed early.
I also disagree that you need an overwhelming first choice to apply ED. In fact, I think almost the opposite: putting all your emotional eggs in one basket is a recipe for terrible disappointment if you do not get in. If there are a few colleges at which you think you would be happy as a student, it makes strategic sense to pick one of them to which to apply ED. Just look up “early decision acceptance rates” and compare them to regular admission rates! If you are someone who rues decisions and thinks you would always wonder “what if,” avoid ED. If you have a college you really like that you are not likely to get into but want to throw an application their way just in case, avoid ED. But if you think there are a range of colleges at which you would have a great education and a happy experience, and you have stats in line with most students at these colleges, there is no harm in picking one for ED. If it works out, celebrate and do not look back. If it does not work out, you can apply to the other ones you like and be happy when you are admitted to one of those RD.
You definitely should do your research and visit, to be sure that are no indications that the college might not be a good match for your needs, interests, and personality, before you apply ED to a college.
Early Action vs. Early Decision… There is no reason, other than a SCEA or REA agreement or a desire to raise your grades or scores in the fall of senior year, not to apply Early Action to any schools you like that have it.
“Need” is what the college says it is – not what the parent thinks it is – and none of those 100% need ED colleges agree to meet the FAFSA EFC. My d’s financial aid award at the 100% need college she attended (after an RD admit) set a family contribution +$10K over and above the FAFSA EFC. And it was a significantly stronger award than a package received from another 100% need college.With my kids I’ve seen significant differences in the amount of money offered to purportedly meet full need.
I’d note an added wrinkle – my daughter was Pell-eligible the year she applied, which qualified her for extra grant money (both from Pell and from an Academic Competitiveness Grant) – but she only became Pell eligible because of a professional judgment adjustment the college made to our FAFSA – there is no way I would have known in advance about that possibility. So just to keep things simple that our FAFSA EFC was $5K, and after financial aid, college A cost $15K and college B cost $25K. If hypothetically my daughter had made an ED commitment to college B (which at the time had a somewhat higher admit rate, so might have appeared to be a better strategic choice) – then that choice would have cost $40K over the course of 4 years. Let’s also say hypothetically that I was mentally prepared to pay $20K a year – so being asked to pay $25K would have been a stretch, but not a completely unreasonable stretch. (After all, I was taking PLUS loans to cover my own gap…it’s not as if I had to come up with the full difference out of pocket). It would have been a very touch choice to make in December or February without knowing what my D’s options would be in April.
I’d also note that college B’s award put a significantly higher work-study burden on DD – I think college A expected her to earn $1500, whereas college B expected a student earnings contribution of $5000.
Anyone who thinks that they are fully protected with an ED application to a 100% need school simply doesn’t understand how financial aid works.
I’d note that in our case, my daughter preferred college A, so we didn’t appeal the award from college B. But if it had been the other way around – if my daughter’s top choice had been college B – then after I learned from college A what they had done with the professional judgment adjustment (based on information gleaned from my tax return) - we could have taken that award back to college B and requested that they re-evaluate the package in light of the adjusted FAFSA. Maybe they would have, maybe they wouldn’t have. But in my hypothetical situation, that would have been information that I could have used to potentially save thousands of dollars per year.
The situation may be different for -0- EFC families --those who truly are low-income and whose income puts them at the level below which assets are even considered.
But for the middle class who have home equity and other factors complicating their financial situation, it just doesn’t work that way. ED is potentially a very expensive proposition - and unfortunately, it often deprives the family of even the knowledge of how much it has cost them. There is a difference between “doable” and “affordable” – especially because none of us knows what the future will bring.
“Yes, it might affect non-financial need, merit-based aid some places, if you don’t NEED fianancial aid but would appreciate some merit money.”
Do I really “need” my second kidney? Or do I just “appreciate” having it?
There’s plenty of families whose “need” and actual ability to pay are two totally different things. For those families, merit money and/or a better aid package is a “gotta have”, not a “nice to have.”
My youngest son almost applied ED to a largish LAC. The other schools on his list were medium to medium large universities. By the time spring rolled around he was so happy he hadn’t applied ED as the LAC in question seemed way too small and isolated. Meanwhile another college he’d applied EA to and gotten him became his ultimate second choice.
I think ED pressures a lot of kids to make less than optimal choices out of fear.
1 did not have a clear first choice, and left most of the list-making to me! "Major league city" was one criterion. He was very very busy, in the heat of his policy debate competition, which along with working for school newspaper pretty much consumed all his non-classroom waking hours. He only visited colleges after he was admitted. Everything worked out fine. He attended UChicago.
2 did not want to apply ED to art schools. She was still building her portfolio, but also visiting National Portfolio Days to show her work and get advice. All of her applications were successful, and she chose RISD from those.
My D applied RD and was accepted to state flagship school UIUC, Purdue, Rose Hulman, Iowa State and Northwestern. We were able to look over the FA offers- and it was cheaper out of pocket for her to attend NU. When it came time for S to apply, he applied ED to NU - and was accepted - and because of D’s experience, he knew NU would be less expensive to attend than any other school. Good luck to all of you that have to make the tough decisions.