How do Early submissions really work for academic superstar students needing substantial FA?

Paying for College
1

Different schools call it the early process different things, like Early Review, or Early Application, others call it Early Decision. As I understand these, Early Review seems to allow a student to still apply to other places, but they will just find out sooner if they got in. Early Application means a student cannot apply early to other schools - an exception is usually made for a Flagship State. Early Decision is binding, a student is agreeing to attend if they get in. The student can get out of this binding agreement if the financial aid is not sufficient.

But this is what brings up my question - apparently it is up to the student/family to decide what sufficient financial aid means.

A friend of D’s, now a junior, is a similar student to her, she has 2350 SATs and 4.0 UW GPA, she will have 15 AP classes by the time she graduates. Well loved by her teachers, she will get terrific LORs, but she is a shy kid with few ECs other than 300+ hours community service. We have known this family since grade school, she has followed my D (now at Stanford) in the G&T program as they were both early readers, I helped her mom navigate the process then in our school district. There are ~ 400 kids in the graduating class, she will be ranked 2 or 3 because she is also taking multiple language courses (level 1) and not only APs (like the 1 and 2 kids). So she may not qualify for the full tuition scholarship to Flagship State as she is not Valedictorian.

Their family is less financially secure than we are, but she is the only child. She is hoping for a mostly full ride, with no loans, and with her grades/scores she should get it somewhere, but she would like to remain in the Northeast.

We have told her that D’s aid packages varied from fabulous to terrific, to great to very good, and she will have to run the NPC’s for each school. Our family with 3 puppies (S2 is a HS sophomore) is different than hers with just one kitten, and they are beginning to understand all of that - aid packages are often hard to compare.

D (now at Stanford) did not apply early anywhere. S1 had applied early to H and was deferred to the regular pool, then rejected, but he is happy at Columbia.

But they have asked me if she would be able to apply early to say Brown, Amherst, or Swat, but then still apply to Columbia, H and Y, and Princeton for the regular round, as the FA is generally much better in her family situation at those 4 elite schools. Some schools seem to favor their early applicants (based on acceptance percentages), and as a white female non-athlete interested in Lit and French (though she also excels in STEM) she is naturally concerned about her chances at these fabulous schools. If her odds improve with ED she is willing to try.

If she gets in, the need-based aid at these top schools - which has more kids competing to get in - is often much better than chasing merit-aid at other schools - which have fewer dollars to go around.

Is there a general rule on this? Does EA or ED mean you cannot also apply RA at other schools that may have better aid? I told her she probably has to check with each of the schools she is considering early, and then decide. Now I am wondering if there was a more general rule that means an early applicant has to also withdraw other applications once they are accepted?

2

You have this part right. Early Action gives an early admission decision and is nonbinding. There are also Restrictive Early Action (or Single Choice Early Action) schools which generally don’t allow you to apply early elsewhere (some allow apps to a public U or rolling admission schools).

All schools allow you to apply Regular Decision. If you get in ED you’ll have to pull those apps if the finances work.

3

Others should chime in here too, but ED means you’re committing to attend if accepted. At top-notch schools you can get a very good idea of what financial aid will be from the net price calculators on the website, so you’re not going in blind. You CAN get out of your application if your FA isn’t what it needs to be, but if finances are super-tight most people recommend waiting to RD so you can compare FA offers. If you have high need though, schools that meet 100% of need MAY be your best bet if you’re not interested in a less competitive school that gives automatic merit.

Early action is not a commitment, so you can wait and compare offers. Some schools have single choice early action, where you can’t apply to other schools ED, but some EA is just more like rolling admissions with a deadline, so you hear the decision earlier.

She definitely needs to check with each school and find out what they do.

4

If she’s accepted ED and the financial aid is sufficient, she’ll have to attend. They should run the net price calculators at those schools and see if it is likely to be enough. Amherst is very generous, on the level of Harvard etc. and doesn’t use loans as part of FA package, not sure how Swat and Brown are.

5

Her FA at those schools depends on her specific family financial position and how each assesses need. Early applying doesn’t change that. They all do need based aid only. I think there are several misunderstandings here.

6

Sorry for the confusion. I should have specifically listed some of the “other schools” she was talking about visiting, because some of them are not need-based only, but they offer material merit aid to those that win it.

I am not sure about the merit process at other schools, because my pups did not apply to merit-aid schools other than Flagship State as a safety. They could have had free tuition, but since R&B is sky high there it was not comparable, much less the fact that C and S are better schools for them.

But even if the schools I listed all do need based aid only, the NPC will give substantially different numbers because they count things like age, 401K contributions or home equity very differently. In D’s situation, Y and S were several thousand dollars per year cheaper than Amherst and Williams. The difference between S and Brown (which included loans), over 4 years, was over $32,000, which is a lot of money to people in our income bracket.

So knowing that the aid varies so much, even though these all tout “full need met”, some including loans and some not, and from what I know of this family, I would expect that the NPC’s will give substantially different numbers for them as well.

But the question was about if ED gives students a “boost”, does it make more sense for a student to apply to one knowing they might get better aid at another in the RD round. I don’t know what her top choices are, but let’s say if she wants to get into Swat she pretty much figures she has to apply ED since she is not an athlete, and is not hooked. Pretty much the same for the other top LACs. She would prefer to go where the best money is but she understands the chances there are also not great for anyone. Could she apply to Swat ED, but still apply RD to HYPC knowing that the aid might be better there?

@“Erin’s Dad” the question is what is meant by the last for words of your reply #1 - “if the finance’s work”. The finances don’t work if the school turns out to be more expensive than other choices she might still get into. But if she doesn’t get in to the better aid RD schools, somehow the family might find a way to make the finances work.

I appreciate everyone’s help on this, and I feel better that I suggested to them that they need to check with each of those schools. It sounds like she might be okay if any of these offer EA or even SCEA, but applying to a binding ED might not be in her best interest as she will need to compare her offers.

7

You don’t really get to check on whether the offers will be better somewhere else. The ED FA offer will come long before any RD admissions occur (and very possibly long before the FA info comes for EA schools). If the family really needs to compare FA offers then they shouldn’t use ED.

They should really use the NPCs on each school’s web site. If they don’t own a business or have divorced parents then they should be accurate. Then use that as an indicator for whether they need to stick with RD.

8

When the ED school offers acceptance it will also give a FA offer. AT THAT POINT the family needs to decide if it is affordable or not, and either accept the admission or state that it is not affordable and refuse admission.

They CANNOT say “we need to wait and look at other offers to see if they are more or less affordable”. The decision has to be made on the ED school’s offer alone. Asking for the ADVANTAGE of ED means also accepting the RISKS of ED - not being permitted the chance to wait and compare financial offers from other schools.

As everyone has stated, if they want to compare packages to find the most affordable school, then ED is not a wise option.

9

This. If the NPC at the top choice school (completed using accurate information) indicates that it is affordable, they should feel reasonably confident going ahead with ED. If there is an ED acceptance and an aid offer that is not as generous as the NPC predicted, an inquiry/appeal can be made pointing to the NPC results. If the results of that are not satisfactory and the school is out of budget range, they can decline the ED offer and look for RD acceptances and aid offers.

10

This kid is not a good candidate for ED.

I’m reading between the lines of what you wrote and am assuming that even if College A came back with a package which is “affordable”, if College B came back with an extra 3K in a grant, not a loan, and College C came back with an extra 8K per year, the family would much prefer College C, even if the three colleges were more or less the same in terms of academic preference, etc.

True?

in which case, don’t apply ED. It does this kid no good to be admitted anywhere they can’t afford. Whether applying early conveys a marginal advantage or not, to get admitted and locked into a sub-par package vs. being able to compare several packages, seems to me to be a bad outcome.

Yes- she can turn down an unaffordable package in ED. But she can’t “hold her seat” open at that school just in case the other colleges come back with similar aid and the family decides that they can swing the original package.

Really bad idea to apply ED. Sounds like this family needs to see the numbers on the table before committing- which is what RD is for.

11

Thank you all for the clarification.

So, it would seem to me that applying ED is a privilege, or perhaps a better way to say it, it is only a realistic option, only for those wealthy enough to afford to take the risk. I guess the very very needy who would qualify for a full ride would also be okay, but for the modest working families the risk is too high.

12

I know modest working families who ran the NPC’s, discovered a number they could live with, and opted for ED. But these were families where the kid had an overwhelming preference for one particular college; the parents had pretty simple financial affairs (i.e. two wage earners, modest savings, nobody owned a business or had a divorce/non-custodial spouse to deal with), and everyone agreed that a “good enough” package from the most preferred school was better than more money from a less preferred school. And the parents had a realistic plan to pay for their share- not a “maybe we’ll win the lottery” plan, but a realistic plan- Dad is going to moonlight as an SAT tutor, Mom is going to do weekend nursing shifts twice a month- keep the 8 year old car two more years kind of plan.

It doesn’t sound like this describes your friends. If they are going to wonder if school number three could have given them a few more thousand dollars vs. school number one, they are not good candidates for ED. If all they want is a workable package- and have run the NPC’s and are satisfied that college A will be affordable they can go ahead and apply ED- but not if they want to keep that offer “open” while they explore alternatives.

13

If this family needs to compare financial aid packages, and bottom line net costs, the student should not apply Early Decision. When a student receives an ED acceptance, they have a very short window to decide whether to accept the admissions offer…or not. They can decline if the financial aid is not sufficient. But here is the rub…they won’t be able to compare amongst multiple offers. This ED offer could be the best…or,the worst…but there is no way of knowing because they will have only this one offer. For all they know…it could be the best offer of my school…if they decline the offer, they could find that no other school gives more!

It’s fine to apply early action. You need to check each school. Some have restrictive early action (REA) or single choice early action (SCEA) and other early applications are not permitted. But any early action admission is not binding…and you can apply to,other schools. You have until May to make your matriculation decision…but most important, they will be able to compare multiple financial aid offers, and net costs.

The net orice calculators are a help, but they can sometimes be a bit inaccurate.

14

Being able to compare FA packages is such a huge advantage that I would be loathe to give up the opportunity. There is also the possibility that schools will find more money for a student they really want when it can be demonstrated that a different peer school would be more affordable.

15

@3puppies I agree with your ED summary. Those most advantaged are at the extreme ends of the income spectrum