<p>I come from a relatively poor part of New Mexico and I will need a lot of financial aid when applying to colleges. So should I apply ED or RD if finances play a major part of my college chances.</p>
<p>Applying ED will not allow you to compare FA packages, so it is generally not recommended for students who are concerned about FA. Non-binding EA is fine.</p>
<p>If there are no more posts to this thread, it’ll be because there’s nothing left to say after entomom’s post. She’s exactly right. If you need to compare FA packages and shop for the best deal for you, then RD is the way to do that.</p>
<p>I think the better answer is more nuanced than that. Some colleges–not many, but some–have FA policies that are so transparent that you can accurately predict what your FA package will be, at least within a few thousand dollars.</p>
<p>Also, pay close attention to what the colleges themselves say about the circumstances under which they’d let you out of an ED acceptance. Almost all say if their FA is inadequate, that’s a valid reason to back out. But that doesn’t mean you get to apply ED, get accepted, and then hold off on sealing the deal while you shop around for better FA offers. The circumstances under which they’ll let you off the hook are fairly narrow. Read carefully, understand the policy, have a conversation with them if need be, before you apply ED. But most colleges that meet 100% of need will tell you they calculate need and offer FA according to a formula, and that your aid package will be the same whether you’re accepted ED or RD. They don’t want FA to be what holds your back from applying or attending. So if it’s really your first choice college and you think you can live with the FA they’ll offer you, go for it.</p>
<p>I don’t pretend to know the OP’s financial situation, but I can see how that analysis might be a bit too nuanced.</p>
<p>Knowing the FA you’ll receive to within a few thousand dollars may not be good enough if you come from a family that can’t absorb the difference–if a few thousand might as well be a few hundred thousand for all the difference it makes to your family.</p>
<p>In addition, as you’ve said, ED forces a student to make a yes-or-no decision about the ED institution without the ability to evaluate that FA offer against the offers of its competitors. Students who require a lot of aid just shouldn’t limit their ability to shop for the best undergraduate value, IMO. </p>
<p>It’s OK for a kid from a well-to-do family, who’s going to pay retail wherever he goes, to fall in love with, say, Northwestern and apply there ED. But for a kid whose means are more limited, and whose life will probably be changed greatly no matter where she goes, I think it’s unwise to promise any college anything. That student is better off, I think, to look at a lot of FA packages and see, not whether Northwestern will offer her enough aid, but whether Northwestern will offer her better value than WUSTL, Wisconsin, Rochester and her state flagship will. It’s just one more way in which life is much better for people who have money than it is for people who don’t. It’s not fair, but there it is. At least, that’s my take on it.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC App</p>
<p>If the college is known to be at the top of the heap with aid, ED is fine. Note: this includes VERY few colleges!</p>
<p>The best: HYPS</p>
<p>Second best: Dartmouth, Duke, Columbia</p>
<p>That’s pretty much it.</p>
<p>I think there’s a difference between comparing financial aid offers and deciding whether an offer is affordable. Know what you and your family can afford to pay out of pocket. If you are prepared to walk away from the college if their offer is not affordable, I don’t see the real harm in applying ED, especially if the early application significantly increases your chance for admission and the school is one that meets 100% of need. Just have the other applications ready to go just in case.</p>
<p>There are quite a bit more schools that meet 100% of financial need than the ones listed by waverly.</p>
<p>Neither Stanford nor Yale are ED .they are SCEA. Some that means applicAnts can compare FA packages with those from other schools. Dartmouth no longer guarantees meeting full need with grants ., so applying there gives you no assurance you won’t be deep on debt by the time you graduate. There are other Us that meet full neded without loans.</p>
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<p>It’s common knowledge that you can be released from ED if you can’t afford it, that’s not the point, the point is not being able to compare other FA offers. Those here who are advocating ED are ignoring this in the OP:</p>
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<p>And as of this year, H & P are also SCEA. </p>
<p>While FA packages may be close for some families, they are not for others. Y gave us 25k in grants & WS while Dartmouth offered zilch. So, ED at your own risk IMO.</p>
<p>I will give one caveat (the reason I stated “generally” in my post #2): if the OP comes from a very low income family with few or no assets, they could apply to an ED school that has a low income policy. However, they had better be very sure that they fulfill all of the rules of that policy, or they could have a very unpleasant surprise.</p>
<p>Good points. I’m assuming kids know they can meet their EFC if they’re applying to these schools.</p>
<p>Note that while Dartmouth does not have a 100% no loan policy for all, they do for low income students and they publish their cutoffs.</p>
<p>“I’m assuming kids know they can meet their EFC if they’re applying to these schools.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that isn’t a safe assumption to make. While the colleges and universities now are required to have cost estimators on their websites, many of the estimators are not very precise, and all too many students don’t have enough information to be able to use them properly.</p>
<p>I advocated for ED and I didn’t ignore the concern of the OP. My point was that at lower income levels, and I include myself in this category, the need to compare FA offers is almost irrelevant. I can either afford it or not. It isn’t a matter of RD school A is more affordable than ED school B based on their financial aid offers but I never got to see that. School B either meets my financial need or it isn’t affordable at all and I decline their offer. What school A offers would have had no bearing on the decision of being able to afford school B.</p>
<p>Depending on your academic merit, you could do well to apply to some schools EA. You are not obligated to attend, but you’ll be in line sooner for aid packages. Some schools give better aid to well qualified students early and become need aware or worse as the class fills up.</p>