I am applying to a university with merit scholarships. I have high enough stats to receive a scholarship, and I would like to ED to that university because it is my top choice. However, I am a bit concerned that I will get less money in ED than in RD because my acceptance is binding and I must attend whether or not my scholarship amount is what I expected. Is this true? Has anyone had experiences with this?
There isn’t much motivation for a school to offer a merit scholarship to someone who is applying ED. So most likely, a scholarship wouldn’t be forthcoming if you applied ED. Maybe someone here has a different experience, but I would guess that would be the exception not the norm.
As for the binding nature of ED. Yes, it is binding but there is an “escape clause” for financial reasons. If the aid they are giving you is not enough you can decline. But it gets sticky and there are two lines of thought. Some here might say you should just “give it a shot” and if it doesn’t work out you can decline due to financial reasons. I’m of the opinion that if you know going in that it’s unlikely you will get enough (based on running the NPC, or hoping for a merit scholarship), you shouldn’t do it. You should do your best to honor the binding nature of ED.
In any case, if you need the FA, you should probably just wait until RD and then compare offers.
Well…according to one of your other threads, you applied ED to University of Rochester. So…at this point, I guess you just need to wait and see.
Did you run the net price calculator for,the school? Did it look possibly affordable?
I saw a post on the UR website that there is a “formula” to estimate the amount of merit scholarship money you will receive based on your stats. I don’t know how reliable this is, but I’m assuming they have to follow the formula somewhat. The price is affordable, but I still want to maximize the scholarship amount I get.
We had the very same concern, but D’s ED school includes the following on a list of Myths about ED:
“Students diminish their chances of receiving academic scholarships on the theory that since they already are committed to a college, it will have less incentive to award them scholarships as an inducement to enroll. This is not true at [_______] . A student who would have received an academic scholarship in the Early Action or Regular Decision processes will be awarded one in Early Decision.”
Yes, but the ED applicant also foregos the opportunity to compare merit offers from different schools.
We are new to this experience and are finding it may too, depend on the College. There are some COA scholarships out there that are ONLY awarded to ED students. The deadlines are from mid-October to mid-November depending on school.
There may be a few schools who award merit the same for ED and RD students, but they are few and far between. Colleges have limited money to give for merit aid, and their goal is to sweeten the pot for students who bring something especially desirable to their pool of students – high test scores, URM, geographic diversity, etc. They give merit to improve their yield with the students they want most. ED students are already committed.
While quite a few schools have early deadlines to apply for merit, I am not sure I have seen any that require an ED application. For the colleges we have encountered, an RD application submitted by the scholarship date is all that is required. You don’t need to apply as a (binding) Early Decision applicant.
I know at CWRU the decision plan (ED, EA, RD) has no bearing on merit money awarded.
You have to accept the premise that the schools give less aid in ED. I don’t believe that but have no way of proving it. At the schools my kids looked at, the merit aid was awarded based on stats and it didn’t matter if you applied ED, EA or regular admissions.
Some schools have earlier deadlines for certain merit scholarships.
I have had the same concerns with a DD looking to apply ED to Oberlin. We will not qualify for need based aid so there is no way to back out for cost concerns and, while she’s a decent applicant for RD, she’s not a shoe-in. Someone posted a link in response to my question that allows you to submit information to get an early read on merit, which I had no idea about. DD submitted her request today and they have promised to get back to her by early November before the ED1 deadline. When she asked her school counselor today, she told her that if they say she is likely for merit money they will award it during ED. I know it doesn’t allow you to negotiate after the fact but that’s ok with us!
Here is the link:
http://new.oberlin.edu/arts-and-sciences/admissions/first-year-applicant/early-decision.dot
I know this is only Oberlin but I’m betting other schools have this too.
Some schools will do an “early read” for FA, and some schools explicitly say that they will not. If you don’t see a policy stated one way or the other on the school’s website, you can always call or email and ask.