<p>Okay, so I'm still very confused about Early Decision.. So say I apply to a school ED and I get accepted and I still apply to other schools. If my Financial Aid packet isn't good and I can't afford it, so I have to cancel the agreement...</p>
<p>Do I have to apply to the other colleges again and wait another year to go to college?
or...
Could I still wait for the other replies from the other colleges and go there instead since I broke the agreement with the other school because of financial reasonings?</p>
<p>I really, really, really want to apply ED to my dream school that I've always wanted to go to and I don't think I have much of a shot getting in with RD.</p>
<p>You can apply to other schools at the same time you apply ED to your dream school.</p>
<p>You will hear early from your ED school along with a FA offer … at this time you likely will not know your other acceptences or FA offers … you can turn down the ED offer if the FA offer is not good enough. Please understand this is saying NO to the school … you do not get to wait until the regular decision cycle to compare the ED FA offer to other other FA offers … the ED school offer must be accepted or rejected in isolation to other offers. If you accept the ED offer you must immediately inform the other schools to which you applied about your ED acceptance and withdraw the other applications. If you are rejected or deferrred ED than your other applications proceed without any restrictions because of the original ED application.</p>
<p>If you want to compare FA offers DO NOT apply ED.</p>
<p>PS - in some cases you might have a rolling or EA decision and maybe even a FA/merit offer before your ED decision is due … but you can’t bank on this.</p>
<p>Simply stated: yes, you could go to the other colleges if the financial package wasn’t good enough. And that is the ONLY reason you can break the bind (it’s a legal contract) you made when you applied early decision that won’t get you blacklisted by colleges.</p>
<p>You can apply ED as long as you understand what others have been posting here.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you’re accepted and the financial aid award is workable for you and your family, then that’s that. You accept the ED school’s offer, pay a deposit. You contact all the other schools to which you applied and withdraw your applications. You’re done.</p></li>
<li><p>You are accepted and the aid is insufficient. You then tell your ED school you won’t be attending because you can’t pay for it. You then wait to hear on other RD applications you have out, and/or scurry to fire off a few more before the application deadlines.</p></li>
<li><p>You are deferred or rejected by the ED school and then you… same as above: wait to hear on other RD applications you have out, and/or scurry to fire off a few more before the application deadlines.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The biggest issues are that you may get an aid offer you can barely make work from the ED school, you accept in the happy delerium of having been accepted, and then you struggle for four years to pay for it and never know of other schools that might have given you a better offer and where you would have been just as happy (or more so) and you’d have not dug yourself or your parents into a financial hole.</p>
<p>Or you might get accepted and get an offer that feels just out of reach, so you sadly decline the offer and hope for better aid elsewhere, and then later (too late) you find out it was the best aid offer you were going to get. At that point, you can’t get it back.</p>
<p>Other pitfalls are that as your high school senior year wears on, you begin to doubt your choice. Maybe having that extra time to consider your options would have been an important thing to do. Also if you have multiple offers in front of you, you will look at the various schools more carefully at that point, rather than basing you decision on a “dream” about a certain school.</p>
<p>All that said, my kid applied ED and, now a junior, he has never had a moment’s regret. Although his (and my own) process in choosing that particular college in the first place was very pragmatic and not about fulfilling a dream. I’m not big on emotional choices when it comes to something significant like where you’ll go to college and its financial implications.</p>
<p>Well the reason why I really want to go to this school because it has an amazing International Relations department and a very even better Political Communications degree. Also they have lots of great opportunities. Although my second choice is very good too, it still doesn’t compare to my first choice. That’s why I really want to go to that specific school because it’d be good for my career, yet I’m afraid of the financial aid packet. When do you find out how much the school will give you? And so say if I do apply ED and I deny it because I can’t afford it, I could still wait for other schools? That was my main question, because if it’s the case I may still apply ED. I’ve been struggling with this for about a year and I’m still unsure…</p>
<p>And the school I plan on applying ED to is George Washington University. I heard they give out lots of scholarships and good packages for students that need it, is that true?</p>
<p>It’s definitely a dilemma. You want the admissions boost from ED, but if you really need that ED boost just to be admitted, it doesn’t look like you’d be high up in the applicant pool, which is what you need for significant merit aid. :(</p>
<p>An anecdote, for what it’s worth: My D1 visited and loved GWU. She’s a National merit semi-finalist, and GWU says that they “consider” NMFs for their merit aid programs. She was told by admissions that she would be more likely to get significant merit aid if she applied RD. For ED, they know they have you in the bag, and there’s no need to try to lure you with merit money. Other students might have different stories, especially those who’ve gone through ED in past years. </p>
<p>Tread carefully. Yes, GWU would be a great school for your career, but finishing with no or minimal debt would ALSO be great for your career. It’ll give you more freedom to choose what jobs to take, or where to live, or even to go back to school for a graduate degree. GWU offers grad programs, too.</p>
<p>I agree with SlithyTove, that where merit-based aid is something you need, you’re probably better off not applying ED. Schools that have a need-based aid only policy are sometimes more predictable. I don’t know enough about the particular aid packages at GWU. My sense is that they could vary widely depending on how attractive a candidate you are.</p>
<p>I’d like to add that applicants that are accepted and try to get out of the ED agreement due to insufficient financial aid aren’t always successful in doing so.</p>
<p>“I’d like to add that applicants that are accepted and try to get out of the ED agreement due to insufficient financial aid aren’t always successful in doing so.”</p>
<p>Where do you know this has happened? Are students somehow compelled to attend, and are then expelled when they can’t pay the bill? I, for one, have never heard of such a case.</p>
<p>You would get a tentative financial aid award with (or shortly after) your acceptance in the ED round. You would have a chance to review it very early and decide if it will work for you. The school will have a deadline (usually 2-3 weeks) within which you need to confirm your acceptance and declare your intent to enroll. They’ll expect a deposit at that time as well. If the financial aid isn’t sufficient, that is when you’ll ask to be released from the ED agreement and you’ll move on to your other apps in the RD round.</p>
<p>If you decline the ED offer then, yes, you’ll be able to wait on your RD applications and perhaps submit others if the deadline hasn’t passed.</p>
<p>Post #12, yes, I’d also be interested in hearing about a specific case where a specific school compelled an actual student to attend who could not pay the bill. That’s the kind of publicity any school would kill for, right?</p>
<p>“Should a student who applies for financial aid not be offered an award that makes attendance possible, the student may decline the offer of admission and be released from the Early Decision commitment…” </p>
<p>If a college determines that they’re financial aid makes it possible for you to attend, you may still have to attend. This is why many people (like me) have problems with ED. My point is that the college, not the applicant, will determine whether there’s enough aid to make attendance possible, so the OP shouldn’t count on withdrawing from ED just because he feels that he didn’t get enough financial aid. However, if the student indeed can’t afford the school, he can simply explain that to the college, and he can withdraw from the agreement, giving him time to apply to other schools during the Regular Decision period. </p>
<p>“If a college determines that they’re financial aid makes it possible for you to attend, you may still have to attend.”</p>
<p>Colleges do NOT determine if their financial aid makes it possible for you to attend; they calculate an amount based on your submitted data, and make an offer. The family determines if it is possible to attend.</p>
<p>I understand what you’re saying Harambee. You are extrapolating a potential outcome where the ED agreement may be interpreted by a college in a way that compels a student to accept the offer that is made to them.</p>
<p>What I’m interested in hearing about is an actual occurance of a school telling a family that the offer made to them is, in fact, sufficient (regardless of what the family might think) and refusing to release a student from the ED agreement. Maybe there has been such an incident, but can you tell me where I can find out about it? (Believe me, I had read countless threads on the subject here on CC, and participated in more of them than I can recall – probably most of the ones linked above. I still haven’t heard of such a case.)</p>
I don’t think an incident like that has occurred, as far as I know. A college can’t really force a student to attend. I apologize if that’s what I implied on my initial post. All i’m really trying to say is that applying ED really isn’t a good choice if financial aid is a concern, and it may be hard to withdraw from an ED agreement if the college meets your demonstrated need (as determined through FAFSA, CSS, etc).</p>
<p>I think ED is not the best option for most people for a number of reasons. It’s not even the best option for a lot of people who really want to do it.</p>
<p>There is however a kind of mythology about the mortal consequences of ED that floats around CC. There are plenty of good reasons for a student needing financial aid not to apply ED, but there are times when it’s a reasonable choice to make, and perhaps even a beneficial one. I don’t think the OP’s situation is one of them, but if he/she does all the homework, fully understands the implications and potential complications, then assuming his/her parents are on board, they certainly could have a go at it. My fear is that in this instance it would cause more stress --regardless of whether the student is accepted with insufficient aid or not accepted at all-- than just applying there in the RD round.</p>