<p>^^ Yep, good for all to know, but the bottom line is that needy students should NOT be discouraged from applying ED to their dream school out of fear that they will somehow be compelled to attend (perhaps bankrupting their families?) and then be expelled for non-payment of the bill. They should know that they can decline the offer if there’s just no way to make it work. See the NYT link above.</p>
<p>I thought I was pretty clear that I had no intention of trying anything shady…</p>
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<p>I also was not trying to gain more aid than necessaryon the contrary, I mostly wanted to figure out the level of truth to NU’s claim to meet 100% of aid. Most of my concerns have been alleviated:</p>
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<p>So, thanks for all the additional input, but I think I’ve got it figured out now.</p>
<p>This is purely an exercise of interest on my part because I don’t have a student applying this year nor would my student apply ED, but I find myself wondering if the whole early decision agreement “we will only release you to a lower level school” thing has been weakened with so many schools now using the Common Application. I read the same Common Ap ED statement xiggi provided and have scoured the Northwestern website looking for additional specific Northwestern University policies with regard to ED. The only references I am seeing on the Northwestern website are links to the Common Application ED signature page. If NU has any additional policies regarding ED above and beyond the Common Ap language, please tell me where to find it. And if they don’t have any other written policies, how can they (or any other university, really) restrict where a student applies after the ED release? I can certainly see why there is so much confusion.</p>
<p>Toward, I don’t think those last few posts are directed at you. They’re just about ED agreements in general.</p>
<p>Okay. Just being sure! Once again, I do appreciate all the information and advice.</p>
<p>Yeah… the perils of ED get pretty exaggerated on CC. There are certainly compelling reasons not to apply ED in many cases, but the storm of karmic wrath that gets whipped up on CC is often overblown.</p>
<p>There have certainly been repercussions for students who cynically abuse the system… but if a kid can’t afford to go to an ED college and asks to be released from the agreement, that’s totally legit. It’s not as though the college is going to monitor this student to see where else they apply and get accepted in RD. Like admissions offices have the resources for that??</p>
<p>I think if you accept an ED offer and then bail on it the spring to go to a peer school… that could get you in trouble. But at that point you’re just begging for trouble.</p>
<p>xiggi, I don’t understand what exact point that you are trying to dispute. Where in the contract says that the school has the right to not release until it is satisfied with the subsequent school? That is quite a leap.</p>
<p>I have read my copy a number of times and I think we all understand that we need to withdraw within a small window of time if we don’t think we can afford to pay after receiving the FA package. We can only shop around after we withdraw from what we think is unaffordable, I don’t think anyone here is advocating trying to unfairly take advantage of the process. The accusatory tone is kind of a little over the top.</p>
<p>Toward, you have not given the impression of someone trying to game the system or someone trying to get an unfair advantage. You are just one of the many students (and parents) confused about what your signature on the ED agreement page really means. And in my mind, you have a right to be confused. It is not as clear as it could be and maybe that is by design.</p>
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<p>Yep, must be a figment of one’s vivid imagination! OTOH, perhaps it WAS written somewhere …</p>
<p>From the Columbia website: </p>
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<p>^ In a practical sense, this is nonsense. They might as well say “or schools that award more financial aid.” Such students don’t know what other schools will offer later; they know only that they can’t afford the ED offer.</p>
<p>Vossron, why would Columbia spend the time to write a non-sensical statement on its own admission’s board? What do they possibly gain from spelling out in terms that are less nebulous than others what their position is? Or do have a death of lawyers who can compose such agreements? </p>
<p>The way some want to present it, ED is supposed to be void of any type of binding commitment: All a student should need to do is decide his or her financial package is not sufficient an notify the school. The implication that this mere decision and notification triggers an automatic release.</p>
<p>Non-sensical or not, this is not what happens at Columbia. While a release is feasible, it is far from automatic. As far as being released only to attend a school that could offer merit aid, I’ll assume that Columbia just wrote that part as an attempt to be … facetious. </p>
<p>Oh well!</p>
<p>It says ED students who can’t afford to attend Columbia are released to pursue lower-cost options (duh!) such as state schools and/or schools that award merit aid. “Such as” does not mean “exclusively”— for heaven’s sake, those are examples of some (potentially) lower cost options. Of course a student who can’t afford one school is going to look for one they can. If they can’t afford Columbia but they can afford Williams, Amherst or Swarthmore (or wherever) because they get better need-based aid there then they <em>are</em> pursuing a lower-cost option.</p>
<p>Can’t you just see Columbia’s admissions office blowing its stack at some poor kid with limited resources who declines an ED offer from them in a timely manner, and who’s then lucky enough to get admitted to a top ranked school where he or she can actually afford to go… and Columbia hunting them down and punishing them.</p>
<p>Let me know when that happens.</p>
<p>Xiggi, you’re exaggerating when you say, “The way some want to present it, ED is supposed to be void of any type of binding commitment”</p>
<p>It is a binding committment unless you can’t afford it. It’s in black and white. And as you read in the NYT article, there are other reasons students are released from that agreement as well.</p>
<p>A couple years ago when my son was considering an ED app to a number of colleges they all told us the same thing: If you can’t afford to attend with the FA award you get, you are free to decline of the offer.</p>
<p>xiggi, you’re asking us to believe that after forcing a needy student to matriculate, Columbia would either ignore the non-payment of the EFC, or would expel the student for non-payment. Either way it’s nonsense. Columbia might use such wording to try to get applicants to take applying ED seriously, which they should. A cynic might say that Columbia is trying its best to discourage needy students from applying ED. Maybe they have had a death of lawyers. ;)</p>
<p>Not that Columbia is any kind of universal standard… but following on that since it was specifically brought up, here is a quote from their website:</p>
<p>“If applying for financial aid, students receive an estimated financial aid package at time of admission. If admitted, you must withdraw all other applications and accept our offer of admission. Only students who, after consultation with the Office of Financial Aid, cite financial reasons for not attending will be released from the Early Decision agreement.”</p>
<p>So, yeah, check in with the FA office if your aid award is not sufficient (maybe they’ll improve on it!), but the student is the agent who makes the call. They are the one that cites a financial reason for not attending and <em>will</em> then be released from the agreement. </p>
<p>[Early</a> Decision | Columbia University Office of Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/admissions/applications/firstyear/earlydecision]Early”>http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/admissions/applications/firstyear/earlydecision)</p>
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<p>First of all Columbia is not going to “force” a needy student to attend. Through their HEOP program for NYS residents and the NOP (nationwide), they are going to fill the financial need for these students. In addition,</p>
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<p>So there would essentially be very little reason for a student to back out of their ED commitment at Columbia. </p>
<p>In addition, from the GC perspective, many GCs will not go forward with the application process (sending transcripts, evaluations) until they receive written notice from the ED school that the student has been release (remember GCs are also responsible for explaining the process to students and many will not professionally hang themselves out for a family’s lack of due diligence).</p>
<p>Under the Joint Statement on Common Ivy Group Admissions Procedures</p>
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<p>“Institutions will clearly articulate their specific policies in their Early Decision agreement.”</p>
<p>For the benefit of the OP, can anyone find any expanded, clearly articulated, specific ED policy language for Northwestern? I couldn’t find it. </p>
<p>And, outside of the Ivy’s, has anyone come across other schools with Early Decision policy language beyond the generic Common Application ED signature page? Does it show up on the supplement pages of the application? Is it easy to find and clearly articulated (as opposed to buried somewhere on the website and fuzzy in interpretation?)</p>
<p>And if such extra policy language exists why are we not informed before we signed the agreement? We signed the Common App ED form but we are bound to some other extra policy statement? How could that be?</p>
<p>“Can’t you just see Columbia’s admissions office blowing its stack at some poor kid with limited resources…”</p>
<p>It does not even have to be a poor kid with limited resources. If they tell a middle class kid with a couple of siblings and with above average resources that he/she needs to come up with 220k in 4 years, how can his or her family say yes to that. Even if they knock 30-40k off that, it is still an untennable situation for most. Many of us are right at the precipice waiting for the moment of truth and we truly apply ED with all of it’s shortcomings because the school is clearly our kid’s first choice. It really does not help to hear things like they will come after you or your chance of getting to a comparably decent school is basically gone if the school does not offer you an adequate FA package.</p>
<p>If that is the way it is supposed to be, then shame on the system.</p>
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<p>You and a few others continue to make a point with which I do not disagree --now and before. The school cannot force a student to matriculate if offered a financial aid package that his and her family do not find sufficient. </p>
<p>However, what people here seem to be adamant about is that there are no NEGATIVE repercussions stemming from declining an ED admission. Also, the underlying message that people want to either repeat or hear is that the release is automatic. While it might at some schools, it is surely is not the case at Columbia since it requires an interview with a financial aid specialist AND a subsequent decision to release the student from his or her COMMITMENT. </p>
<p>Again, if someone believes that, by holding all the cards, a student could EASILY decline his or her admission to Columbia to test the waters at another Ivy League school or similarly ranked schools … so be it and good luck to you.</p>
<p>This is not an issue of being wrong or right, or black or white. The ED system exists for a reason … and it is not because it helps the students. The system has become critical to a well-defined number of schools, even as other have been able to abandon all early and restrictive decisions. Schools that do depend on the ED process to solidify their yield numbers --and bragging rights-- do not want the ED to be turned in a mockery nor in a system in which the families hold all the cards. </p>
<p>As far as schools such as Columbia, draw your own conclusions about which schools they do no mind losing a promising student to and … other schools. Of course, there is always the assumption that schools only weigh the Common Good and are not engaged in an intense competition.</p>
<p>Again my posts are merely offering warning against messages that intimate that the commitments related to an ED admission are EASY to undo or, even worse, automatically removed by a simple decision of the applicants and do not carry any negatives.</p>