<p>It’s unlikely that a family making $200,000 would get any need based aid. If you really can’t cut corners enough to afford college on that salary, try applying to colleges that offer hefty merit aid packages.</p>
<p>Actually, some families could get need based aid on that salary - particularly if you have a couple more kids in school. But I wouldn’t normally expect a huge amount. I would strongly recommend running the numbers to get an estimate, and looking closely at the aid policy for the school. Not all schools are need-blind. Not all schools promise to meet need without loans.
I imagine that ‘promptly’ means just that. A few days to figure out if the aid is acceptable makes sense, but really, the applicant (and parents) should have come up with a bottom line figure by then.</p>
<p>Note also that the Common app form says “I understand that with an Early Decision offer of admission this institution may share my name and my Early Decision agreement with other institutions.”<br>
Now, in the old days, this was probably done by mail or phone, making it tedious to double-check, but now I imagine it is much easier.</p>
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<p>At which point the school could choose to modify the FA package. </p>
<p>A strict reading of “you need not withdraw other applications until you have received notification about financial aid” implies that if applicant received an inadequate FA offer. they’d have to 1) withdraw other applications, 2) ask the ED school to be released from the ED commitment, 3) wait for the release, and then 4) reapply to other schools. This makes no practical sense, and would frighten away anyone looking for significant FA from applying ED. I don’t believe that’s truly what ED schools are expecting. </p>
<p>golfer111, I’d tread very carefully on this. I’d send this question via email, asking to confirm the information you were given previously. If it’s not confirmed, then you’ll know that it’s not a consistently applied (or understood) policy. If the answer confirms what you were told, you’ll have documentation, which would help you in the event that you’re accepted ED, but there’s not enough aid to make it possible for you to attend.</p>
<p>I explained the entire situation to the admissions rep, which I left out in my initial post. My father is unemployed; he makes his money through the stock market and other small projects various companies ask him to complete. My mother does not work. My sister, who is in 7th grade, is going to a private school which charges ~$20,000/year. She’s planning on completing her secondary schooling there, unlike me who transferred to public school because I wanted to (this is another story lol). With this situation, the admissions rep said that my circumstances may give me a bit of an edge financialaid-wise over another family who is making $200,000 in fixed salary(ies) and whose children attend public school. There is a chance that my father may not make that much next year; it all depends on the market.</p>
<p>The purpose of this story is to say how you should apply ED to a school you are passionate about, disregarding money. Only in cases where your parent(s) are making >$250,000 and are requesting a hefty amount of aid will the student not attend. This is very rare for that reason. The school will also go to great extents to please you to the best of their abilities as every student who “breaks” the ED agreement looks bad on the school.</p>
<p>I hope this clarifies your questions/comments.</p>
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<p>Actually, that is exactly what the schools expect. </p>
<p>If some confusion was started by the Common Application rather loose language, there was never a confusion that the schools expect students to honor their WRITTEN agreement to enroll if accepted. </p>
<p>The only difference --or confusion-- created by the Common Application is that that the release is now supposed to be automatic, which has never be confirmed. </p>
<p>People like to read selectively. However, the bold text is still:</p>
<p>**Early Decision (ED) is the application process in which students make a commitment to a first-choice institution where, if admitted, they definitely will enroll. **</p>
<p>Should we assume that the clear term “definitely” is just for the birds!</p>
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<p>I think you will find out that, as it happens so often, the person who answer your questions before you apply won’t be there to confirm anything later in the process. You seem to have been served a full plate of baloney. And probably by ignorance.</p>
<p>While the financial aid offices should account for the cost of the private education of a younger sibling in determining your EFC, do not expect that they will offer you financial aid to allow your parents to keep your sister in a private K-12 that charges 20,000 per year. </p>
<p>Actually, the fact that your family might be able to keep her in such a school will not help you … at all. Please remember that the PRIMARY responsibility of your education rests on the shoulders of your parents and YOU.</p>
<p>golfer111, I still say confirm what you were told by email. </p>
<p>xiggi, the bold is the bold, but then there’s also the non-bold a few sentences later on:</p>
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<p>Strictly speaking, the two sentences contradict each other. On the one hand, the student is supposed to “definitely” enroll if admitted. On the other hand, they can decline and be released if FA is insufficient. It’s for this other hand case that I don’t believe an ED school would require that students have to withdraw other applications immediately on receiving the FA letter. </p>
<p>The language as it stands is supposed to impress applicants with the serious nature of the commitment they’re making. All well and good. But the withdraw/reapply idea would be expensive, time-consuming, and sometimes impossible (rolling apps? EA? limited window for submitting apps for e.g. UC?). You couldn’t get auto-withdraw of anything but other Common App schools, anyway.</p>
<p>@Xiggi: I’m aware of that, I’m not taking anything to heart. I’ll have to see when the time comes then.</p>
<p>@SlitheyTove: I will definitely confirm that by email. Otherwise it may be just a bunch of he-said she-saids.</p>
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<p>Why would two contradicting sentences create one that does NOT exist? Is there something ambiguous about "If you are an Early Decision candidate and are seeking financial aid, you need not withdraw other applications until you have received notification about financial aid. " This was added to cover the possibility that ED schools delay presenting the financial offer. </p>
<p>Regardless of the confusion created by the Common Application, there is no ambiguity about the deadlines. If a student receives an offer of admission AND a financial offer, there are a few days to accept or REJECT the offer. The reality is that there are only TWO scenarios here, and none of the two extend beyond a few days after receiving the offers. </p>
<p>If before, you HAD to honor your commitment, now it seems that the Common Application is intimating that it suffices to claim a financial inadequate package to be automatically released. A student who does NOT accept the package IS entitled to KEEP the existing applications, but ONLY when rejecting the ED. That does not mean that there is a window to negotiate packages, and especially not one that carries all the way to be able to compare ED and RD offers. </p>
<p>Fwiw, we have debated this issue ad nauseam on College Confidential.</p>
<p>Xiggi is right, good luck finding the person who said that if you get in. I think the operative part of the message was ‘if your father makes less.’ If he makes $200K, no matter how, good luck getting a cent in grant money.</p>
<p>Xiggi, we are more agreeing than disagreeing. However, I originally said (reformatted to make my point clearer)</p>
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<p>What actually happens is that the student doesn’t need to withdraw the other apps until after they have received a release from their ED commitment. That reorders the scenario above to only two steps:
- Ask to be released from ED
- Wait for the release</p>
<p>No need to withdraw and then reapply, which is what you earlier wrote was “exactly” what the ED schools required.</p>
<p>Don’t think of the sections as contradicting each other, think of them working together in a sensible way.</p>
<p>If the ED FA offer is acceptable (the school will tell you how long you have to decide), tell them you accept, and withdraw your other apps.</p>
<p>If the offer is not acceptable, tell them you need to be released. If they say they want to talk more about it, talk to them. If you you still need to be released, they’ll release you.</p>
<p>The reason we discuss this year after year is that there is a new group of HS students every year, naturally asking the same questions, and we try to be helpful every time. :)</p>
<p>My question is - how is “acceptable” financial aid determined? For example if a school is need blind and meets 100% of need, then if the school offers aid to meet the EFC is that deemed “acceptable” even if the family says they are unable to meet the EFC?</p>
<p>If it were a FAFSA school this is easy to predict, but with profile schools, the EFC sometimes vary wildly by thousands of dollars. Is it up to the family to define “acceptable” or the college?</p>
<p>The family decides what is acceptable. Try to imagine a school somehow forcing attendance, then expelling when the bill couldn’t be paid. Great PR for a school trying to attract students with top stats!</p>