<p>I have heard a lot about Early Decision. I understand it is binding (with some exceptions) if my daughter is accepted, but I've read that you are supposed to w/d your applications from other colleges if accepted ED. </p>
<p>My confusion is-- what if the financial aid package is not enough to support my need and I need to decline where my daughter was accepted ED, but she has already w/d her applications elsewhere? Will she then need to re-apply at other colleges or can she keep her other applications out there until she sees the finalized award package from the college she applies ED to? </p>
<p>I think it makes sense to keep the applications in elsewhere, but is that the ethical thing to do and can she be penalized if the school she is accpeted to ED finds out she has not w/d her other applications after her acceptance?</p>
<p>Reading this over, my question is rather confusing, any advise is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Usually the only reason you can withdraw from a college you are accepted into ED is for compelling financial reasons - not sure if you fit this category as I have no idea of your situation.</p>
<p>Best way to figure it out is just send the admissions office an email asking them what you just asked here</p>
<p>I’m applying Duke ED, and I have actually just contacted the school about this. They said that the school WILL work with you in order to keep your child at Duke. For example, if you are making $200,000, you are relatively wealthy but the $55,000/year is still a bank-breaker. In this case, they’ll try and give you as much aid as possible to make it easier on you but will also be slightly stingy as they know you have a good income. A rep for Duke told me that only 2 kids last year had to withdraw.</p>
<p>As far as the other applications are concerned, you are REQUIRED to withdraw them from the other schools once accepted ED because you signed a legal contract stating that you would do this. After you get accepted ED and don’t get the money you are looking for, you should immediately contact the school and explain the situation. If you are still unhappy, then you will most likely be able to withdraw from the school and are able to resubmit your applications to the other institutions RD in those approx. 2 weeks before the deadline.</p>
<p>You are not expected to withdraw applications the instant you receive your ED acceptance. If the aid offer is insufficient, you may try to negotiate with the financial aid office. In the event that you cannot accept the offer of admission because of (legitimate) financial reasons, you are then not expected to withdraw your applications.</p>
<p>glasses is right; only after you accept the ED FA offer (you’ll be given enough time to decide; two weeks seems to be common) is she expected to withdraw her RD applications.</p>
<p>“you signed a legal contract”</p>
<p>There is no legal contract involved; these are honor-system agreements, though there can be consequences (non-monetary) for flagrant violations.</p>
<p>You only have to withdraw your other applications once you’ve been accepted ED with an acceptable financial package. Just because you’re accepted doesn’t mean you withdraw them right then.</p>
<p>Golfer111 may have misunderstood. If you do not qualify for aid, and the $200k family in his example probably would not, Duke and other schools meeting 100% of need will not give you a cent.</p>
<p>If the school does not meet 100% of need and you need aid, do not apply ED.</p>
<p>Most schools that meet need have aid calculators on their site or will work with you to understand what aid you’ll get. This is a good exercise before deciding which round to apply in.</p>
<p>^I understand where you are coming from, but I did not misunderstand. I am actually the example of the 200k family, and I wanted to address this to the admissions rep to make sure I am making the right decision. She said that in my situation, it would be very unlikely that I would receive any aid INITIALLY, but if we contact the school afterwards, we could probably get some money through negotiation. I remember her specifically saying this to me.</p>
<p>^ because in the RD round you might have more leverage to negogiate a better FA aide. With an ED acceptance all you can do is say “gee we really need more” … in the RD round you might be able to say “our child got FA offers from school A and school B which were better than your offer … your school is our first choice would you match these other offers?”</p>
<p>^Keep in mind that schools are unlikely to renegotiate finaid offers unless they really want you or you’ve received significantly more favorable offers from peer schools. This means that, say, Middlebury is unlikely to renegotiate your aid just because your state school is cheaper, and schools that aren’t need-blind won’t give a hoot about your Harvard package.</p>
<p>Golfer, I’m shocked a Duke FA rep would have told you that unless your family has special circumstances or unless they mean a Stafford loan which anyone can get.</p>
<p>This is the first time I have heard of Duke offering need based aid to students with $200,000 in family income. As Redroses said, if they offer you loans (Stafford, unsub, PLUS loans) then it is not real aid as you can get it from any school. Even Harvard, generally phases out aid at $180,000 income and very few other schools even come close to Harvard. </p>
<p>I ran an EFC calculator assuming $200,000 in income, $150,000 in liquid assets and $200,000 in home equity and got an EFC of approximately $50,000 using the institutional methodology. With that EFC, you will only get loans. Unless I am doing something wrong.</p>
<p>^^^^ Schools that really want you show it by offering FA at ED time, trying to lock in your academic stats; they’ve already accepted the financial “loss” and now must find a way to enable you to matriculate. There’s no point in low-balling your FA offer.</p>
<p>If you are very unsure about whether you can afford a college, you should not be using early decision. Schools will do their best - they want you to come. Remember , one reason they offer ED is so that they can be sure about a percentage of their class.<br>
Consider also that breaking a ED agreement comes at a cost to your school and your counselor and the students who come after you. You break your ED agreement at college X. Next year, somebody from your school applied ED to the same school. What will the college do?
Colleges are not excited in general by students who have broken an ED agreement as well. It’s entirely unclear how much communication goes on, but it is entirely possible that the schools you applied to RD will be made aware of the situation.
Now, the police are not going to break into your house and drag you in cuffs to the school. The school probably won’t hire a lawyer to sue you either. But do you want to start your college career with a lie?</p>
<p>^ But be aware that these warnings don’t apply if the FA offered with the ED acceptance is insufficient to support attendance. The consequences apply more in cases where no FA was requested, or when applying ED to more than one school (GCs are supposed to know better), or when backing out after accepting the offer.</p>
<p>No matter how many times this is repeated on College Confidential, this is STILL not entirely correct. While the consensus has changed over the meaning of the “binding” part of the agreement, NOTHING gives you the right to extend the deadline to reply to the admission offer. When you receive the offer of admission AND the financial offer, your options are to accept the offer or … notify the school that you ask them to release you of your previous commitment to attend. </p>
<p>In so many words, you either accept the offer and you HAVE to withdraw all other applications, or you notify the school that you will not be able to attend with their financial aid package. </p>
<p>There is no “grey” period after the stated deadline to reply to the offer of admission.</p>