<p>If financial aid is a concern, you should <em>never</em> apply ED (or anything else that would be binding). I can understand your concerns, but look at the worse case scenario. What if you don't get enough financial aid (or any financial aid)? You would be hard pressed to get out of the binding agreement and your family would have to take on even more debt. Also, if your family has a "huge amount of debt" there is a chance that they could have a difficult time getting loans--or at least getting enough loans to cover a large gap in financial aid.</p>