<p>They (Duke) are the ones who determine if you can afford it or not, it isn’t as easy as people are making it sound, trust me. You can’t just say, “I can’t afford it,” they have to run numbers and believe that. Thats why they say, don’t ED if FA is a big concern.</p>
<p>No, in fact you determine if you can afford it and can be released from the ED contract. You can not, however, go back to them in April and ask for your spot back when the other colleges give you similar or worse awards. It is not uncommon to get wildly different awards from peer schools so you at least have the opportunity, when applying RD, to go back to your first choice school and ask them to increase their award since a peer institute is offerring more. There is no guarantee that they will but you have the potential to getting thousands or tens of thousands more aid to your first choice school. You have to decide if the admission boost applying ED is worth this potential loss of FA.</p>
<p>Not exactly Yaledad. You can’t say “I can’t afford it peace out.” Its not up to you to say that, you have to provide documentation and they make the final decision, its more complicated than “Nope, sorry.” or else all of ED would be pointless because I could apply to one of my top schools ED and apply for FA, not get “enough” and pick a school that I applied to EA that I liked more. Ex Williams ED and Princeton EA</p>
<p>I would just like to point out, no offense to you @username29, but you are also applying ED to Duke. If I were the OP, I wouldn’t take advice from other Duke ED applicants telling me not to apply, because there’s a chance they’re trying to lower their competition.</p>
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<p>While the above statement is an oversimplification, the FAMILY decides if the school is affordable, as sarora said.</p>
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<p>Yeah, it is possible, but then the ED choice is eliminated from the equation altogether if a person uses this approach. Why apply for the ED boost if you are going to reject the school’s offer before you get a chance to see all other offers? It could have been the best offer, but can’t go back and accept it once you find out the FA for the other schools later.</p>
<p>actually I applied as a transfer a while ago… but at least you do your creeping</p>
<p>You can’t just say, nope thats not enough, its more work than that. Its not impossible to get out of ED, just more work than some are leading on</p>
<p>They tell you not to apply ED mostly because you won’t be able to sit back and compare offers, and actively negotiate for a better deal. If their aid package is too low, YOU can choose to get out. You may have to do a little but of work, but they WILL NOT force you to attend a school that will bankrupt you. </p>
<p>Honestly, Duke has plenty of other rich applicants to take money from. Why on Earth would they take one person to court for backing out of one agreement? These paranoid responses make me sad.</p>
<p>@username29 What’s this? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/duke-university/1210490-quick-social-life-question.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/duke-university/1210490-quick-social-life-question.html</a></p>
<p>“You may have to do a little [bit] of work”</p>
<p>Nope, there’s no work. You just tell them you can’t afford it. They already have your applicable financial data. No school will attempt to force someone to attend who can’t afford it.</p>
<p>I’m admittedly ignorant – but</p>
<p>Duke has a Calculator, right? Let’s say a student plugs the numbers into the Calculator and comes up with an estimated EFC of say $15,000. Based on this, the student can calculate what Duke will provide.</p>
<p>If the actual calculation by Duke is consistent with the Calculator (meaning it’s fairly close), then I think the student has committed. (If the actual EFC came to $16,000, it might be tough to withdraw easily. If however, Duke was coming up with a $30,000 EFC you’d probably have strong arguments that your needs weren’t met.)</p>
<p>Here’s the point – Duke has its own calculator and its own formulae. If you apply ED make sure you can afford it based on the Duke formula.</p>
<p>Finally, FWIW – I haven’t seen too many (if any) posts suggesting that this school’s fin aid isn’t in line with the estimates using its calculator. Has anyone?</p>
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<p>Not possible, since Princeton is Single Choice Early Action. You could choose to apply to Williams ED or to Princeton SCEA. Not both.</p>
<p>But let’s assume that you apply to Duke ED and University of Chicago EA, and are accepted at both. And let’s also assume you’ve applied for financial aid at both. If Duke’s FA offer was significantly lower than UofC’s, such that your family said it could afford UofC but not Duke, and Duke didn’t change your offer after being shown the UofC offer, then you would be entirely OK per the Common App rules with turning down Duke ED. </p>
<p>If you apply to an ED school and an EA school and you love both equally and think you’ll choose between them, then you shouldn’t be applying ED. You’re not ready to make your final choice. Which is why people don’t misuse ED in the way that this poster is suggesting. Applying ED feels like a serious commitment.</p>