<p>My niece has told me she really wants to apply to a specific very competitive private LAC, ED. Her parents are not so convinced. She has great test scores and the potential for good scholarships at the state university. Her parents admit that since the private school meets need, if she got in, and still wanted to go, they would still let her go. She is a junior and her PSAT is right on the border for National Merit. It could go either way. Niece is pleading to me to please explain to her parents that ED could be the difference between getting in and not. Honestly, I am unsure about this issue. I will happily talk to my sibling and explain the benefits, IF I know the benefits! This is a school that was listed as accepting 30% ED last year and 20% RD. Any advice or explanation will help. Even links that I can share. Thank you!</p>
<p>Please note that ‘meets 100% of need’ is not a bag of money waiting for her. If her EFC is $50k, she’ll get $10k.</p>
<p>Sometimes applying ED is an advantage, and you can see that the scores and gpa’s of the ED group might be lower than the big RD group, but remember the ED group can include legacies and athletes whose numbers might be a tad lower than the average s</p>
<p>How do you see what the ED stats are vs the RD stats at a specific college?</p>
<p>@lmkh70–some people rely on Naviance and that can be a very useful source for a student’s peers, the data is also available for the entire university in the Common Data Set. </p>
<p>A 30% vs 20% admit rate is not a huge ED advantage. Are those figures specific to your niece’s own HS or from the CDS? </p>
<p>I also find it interesting to calculate what percentage of the class has been filled via ED.</p>
<p>Agreed with CT1417 that ED doesn’t seem to be a huge factor for this particular school. That’s a small enough swing that the entire difference could be that students applying ED tend to self-select for good matches and good fits.</p>
<p>twoinanddone can you explain the 100% need10K for a 50K EFC. That seems really low to me. Just starting though so I would appreciate your input.</p>
<p>@isaelijohjac–twoinanddone will do a much better job explaining, but my vague understanding is that full need is not how much the parent thinks he needs in order to be able to send the child to college but what the college calculates that the parent should be able to pay, given parent’s income and assets. That is a very simplistic explanation. So, if a college determines that parent should be able to pay $50K (EFC = expected contribution), then college will only pick up the balance, or roughly $10K/year on a private LAC. This will still be defined as meeting full need, even though parent may not be able to come up with the expected $50K.</p>
<p>thanks @ct1417 that’s how I understood it. I just read her post that she meant the <em>actual</em> EFC was 50K and they only received 10K. If the EFC (actual FAFSA) is 20K per year and the school meets 100% need they will pay the 20K. correct?</p>
<p>It’s not necessarily based on FAFSA. Most schools that meet need use the CSS Profile or their own equivalent forms. That takes much more into account than FAFSA (primarily assets and whether income is from an owned business). Another thing to consider is that Loans are considered meeting need. So for the example used, a COA of $50K with $20K EFC, the gap could be bridged by Direct Loans to the student and PLUS Loans to the parents. </p>
<p>Check the school’s common data set or its entry on <a href=“http://www.collegedata.com”>http://www.collegedata.com</a> to see if “level of applicant’s interest” is considered in admissions. If it is, ED is probably the strongest expression of interest that an applicant can make.</p>
<p>However, colleges are unlikely to want to give any indication how much of a boost that ED gives; they want to attract ED applicants with the hope of getting a boost, but not make applying appear futile to RD applicants. Acceptance rate is not a very reliable indicator, since the applicant pools may differ in strength (e.g. the recruited athletes may be in the ED pool).</p>
<p>Of course, an applicant considering ED needs to at least check the net price calculator before deciding. The ED school should be his/her clear first choice, to which s/he will want to attend without comparing financial aid and scholarship offers from other schools.</p>
<p>I do not know one single white non-athlete who got into any school ED this year.</p>