I assumed that ED was for students with a very low EFC who applied to schools that meet full need, for the rich and for recruited athletes. This was my assumption and may not be accurate in all cases. I did not encourage my son to ED to a school with the hope of snagging a large merit award.
I can’t understand why low income students apply ED to schools that gap. I think this is a waste of an ED in most cases. And then when I read that a student will take out huge loans to finance a dream, I feel ill. Financial literacy seems to be sorely lacking.
But the schools can be aggressive in touting the benefits of ED. One of my DS’ top choices has sent numerous emails encouraging him to switch his already submitted app from RD to EDII. I think the school knows he is expecting a significant merit award, and it is my opinion that the school would award him a lower award EDII. Showing interest is supposedly really important, so showing interest might now equal applying ED. I feel a bit cynical.
My DD’15 did ED at an in-state school where we were prepared to pay full price (which would be the equivelent of a 50% scholarship for a private school).
It’s not just “Can I get out of ED?” This year, I’m struck by the number of kids with “Urgent!!!” posts about dumb, avoidable mistakes or questions about things they should well know, especially if they applied to a highly competitive college. Or the many kids submitting late. I don’t know if it’s a change in CC (more asking these questions or more pulling legs) or says something, albeit a small sample, about the current crop.
Some colleges are already reporting higher numbers of ED apps and acceptances. Whether that’s to fill more of the class early or some issue with yield, no idea.
At my youngest kid’s very small private high school, those college lists were built with the help of the college counselor, who seems to have pushed “fit” and “getting accepted” above all else. Nary a conversation of NPCs and the NPC pitfalls, building room in the budget for cost increases, what happens when the # of kids in college changes, or where/how to find the money before deciding where to apply.
I’ve learned SO MUCH from reading here at CC. Unfortunately, driven here by a shockingly high EFC when my oldest hit college. We are not naive this time around. I don’t think the college counseling program at my kid’s high school is serving them well if they are not discussing Financial Literacy 101. It is Magical Unicorn Thinking 101, or just ignorance.
When my son applied ED to Virginia Tech last year the application was very clear to NOT apply ED if financial aid was required to attend. I have always thought being released from an ED for financials reasons was for catastrophic unforecasted financial changes, not because the aid package wasn’t enough.
I think it would be helpful for me to share our family’s Early Decision Experience. My daughter’s college counselor has always advised her senior class to avoid early decision and to cast a “wide net” when applying regular decision so they could compare the financial aid packages of their accepted schools. We live in Hawaii and most of the kids at her school end up at west coast public schools where the Western Undergraduate Exchange allows them to attend public universities at 150% of resident rate as opposed to out of state rates.
I took the time to really begin educating myself about the whole process at the beginning of my daughter’s junior year. I came to this forum and enrolled in the online course, “The College Solution”. It soon became apparent private institutions with generous financial aid would be the way to go. Fortunately, I could see that my daughter’s high GPA, great test scores and leadership in key extra curricular activities would make her a serious candidate at highly selective liberal arts colleges that were need blind in the admissions process and would meet 100% of need.
The next important step was finding private colleges that did not consider the home as an asset when computing need. This was very important for our situation as we own our farm and home outright and its value has increased tremendously since it was built 25 years ago. We are land rich and cash poor.
We visited several colleges on the east coast, once in the fall of her junior year and again in the summer before she began her senior year. I was convinced at that point that ED was the way to go. There were aspects of each school that she liked, but none were really hitting the sweet spot for her. It wasn’t until her fall break this past October that she realized that Haverford College outside of Philadelphia was a school that she hadn’t visited, but that seemed to fulfill all of her needs. She flew out for two days (using airline miles) and toured, sat in on classes, talked with students and interviewed. She knew, without a doubt, that Haverford was the school for her.
She spent the next two weeks preparing her ED application for Haverford. I got myself in gear and filled out and submitted the CSS Profile and supplements for our businesses and farm. It was a stressful and emotional time for our family as she really worked on her common app essay and the two supplements required by Haverford. She submitted her application on the final day, November 15. A month later she was accepted ED with a financial aid package that was more generous than anything we could have hoped for. When computing her real expense costs, the financial aid office even included travel expenses between here and Philadelphia. Books and personal living expenses were also added to tuition, room and board costs.
Our daughter will be attending a highly selective small liberal arts college for less than the cost of an instate public university. For lower and middle class families, ED is a great way to go wtih need blind schools that meet 100% of need. The acceptance rates for ED are much higher than RD rates- 48% verses 24% at Haverford College. Schools like to create the base of their class with kids who know that their institution is the number one choice. ED is not just for those who don’t have to worry about tuition costs. It’s a smart strategy if your child meets the admission requirements.
Hiisland- great post. I’ve posted before about a friend whose kid applied early to Princeton, was admitted, and his package was within $5 of the Net Price Calculator. I know some people thought they were crazy not to shop around- but P was his number one choice, they determined that they could swing the costs based on their need-based aid, and they moved forward.
So it’s not as though every kid with financial need has to shop around. But increasingly- people look at the need based aid, even at schools as generous at Haverford, and wonder “can we do better somewhere else?” And those people should NOT be applying early, using the “we can’t swing the package” excuse. If you need to compare- don’t apply early. period.
Congrats to your D. Haverford is a really, really special place.
For many of us, there were no NPCs when our kids applied, or few. Today, families should run them and react accordingly. But, we know so many, too many, never really dig in deep to many aspects of their targets.
Well, “magical unicorn thinking” is the adult version of adolescent magical think (“if I wish it hard enough, it’ll come true somehow”.)
Believing that something good will happen is being optimistic and we value that as a society - ie, we’re not constantly morose and expecting the sky to fall upon us, we have an idea that the future isn’t a repeat of the past but brand new, totally open, and likely to be positive if we do everything we can to make good things happen, and while bad things may happen, ultimately everyone deserves to catch a break. It’s kind of All-American. Therefore, we use knowledge to help the good things along.
However, what happens here is delusional thinking: you KNOW the costs are too high but you still hope that magically the university will give you more than they said they would. Or you’d rather not know and deal with it “when/if” it happens. It was very common in the past but caused by the lack of cost transparency maintained by colleges; however, now there are NPCs, and there are still students or families who refuse to run them (noticed that, too, for the past 2 years.) It’s the opposite of being optimistic in the all-American way in my opinion. People choose to not use knowledge in order to remain “blissful”. (There may actually be a trend at work of deliberate ignorance in more than college financial aid, BTW.)
I excuse the families who don’t know the NPCs exist (I do blame guidance counselors who didn’t mention them).
There’s also the case of families who think that if their kid got a scholarship ED/EA in the Fall, the rest of the needed money will be in the package as grants and are surprised in the Spring to see them as loans. We haven’t seen that yet.
And finally there’s the case of NPCs not being accurate and thus sometimes the financial aid detail is a blow.
An example you may have seen on this forum: a girl was in foster care until 3 months ago. A child in foster care at any point at age 13 or later is considered independent with EFC0. Social services have tried reuniting her with a parent and colleges now want the parent to pay for her college, even though there’s no way that parent will pay anything nor is a parent in the regular sense (it’s not even sure the parent will be approved for parenting if things don’t turn out right, it’s still considered tentative. Kids don’t get into foster care for years without a good reason.) Three months ago she’d have been an independent student.The ED college decided the parent had to pay 25% of income. What do you think happened?
It’s impossible to tell if there are more of these stories this year, or just more posts about them, but I’ve noticed it too. I think kids are believing the hype of “it’s twice as easy to get in if I apply ED,” and that is driving them to apply early and disregard the finances. My D applied ED to a selective LAC because she knew that was where she wanted to be… but I’m not sure that ED really gives a bump in admissions since it seemed like it was mainly athletes and legacies in that cohort. Looking at the acceptance rates, though, it does look promising. If you want to compare offers and look for the best “deal” (or if the NPC doesn’t look good) ED really isn’t a good idea.
I think the problem is wishful thinking, but it probably stems from several causes.
I think parents are afraid that if they don’t choose a well known school, it will harm their kid’s career. Name brand schools have name recognition and can provide valuable contacts.
People don’t always trust the advice they’re given. CC seems to be full of high income families whose kids all have stellar stats. And those kids didn’t, and won’t, be attending the Rutgers of the world. So it can be tough for low income families to buy into the advice that Rutgers et al are perfectly fine schools. Because what they’re reading is “perfectly fine for you”.
People are given bad information or don’t understand the info. they get. Low income kids are told they’ll get school paid for, or assume that a low EFC means that’s what they’ll have to pay. The Net Price Calculators aren’t always accurate and schools are pretty fluid in some of their language. It can be difficult to understand what a “meets need” school means by need and confusing to figure out who determines it. Add to that the bump people think they get from ED, and the advice to apply for aid early before it runs out, and you have a formula for the ED disasters we’re seeing.
ED is certainly a mixed blessing. I do think it gives an edge in admissions, although less of an edge than it seems from the statistics. My son’s ED school has an overall admission rate of 9%, and a much higher apparent acceptance rate for ED. We did some calculations based on last year’s ED information, including numbers of athletes, and our best estimate was that the unhooked ED acceptance rate was about 12%. Three kids from my son’s HS were accepted ED: one recruited athlete, one legacy, and my son with no hooks.
I worried about the ED application, because my son was barely 17 at ED deadline time, and I was not sure that he was ready to make an absolute commitment. And it was very clear that it was a commitment. He and I both had to sign off on this, as did his GC. We are full-pay, so no possible way out. I agreed to it only because he had very good reasons for wanting this school, and I also believed that it would be a great place for him. Now that he’s been accepted he is more sure than ever; he’s already chosen his courses for the fall (by which I mean he’s decided what he would like to take, not that he’s had the opportunity to register).
I think that the ED application did give him a slightly better chance, in that he had the opportunity to fill several “slots” in the class before similar RD applicants.
@intparent “I am saying I wonder if the ED yield is dropping…colleges generally don’t release information that they don’t have to unless it benefits them somehow.”
For class of 2019, 816 kids were admitted ED, and 798 enrolled. For class of 2018, 798 were admitted ED and 777 enrolled. Granted, we don’t know that the ones that didn’t enroll did so because of finances, but it’s a fair guess IMO.
I think in a few cases, it’s “lets convince the grandparents” going on. In other words, Grandpa/-ma or both went to Duke, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth, etc. They’ve hinted they’ll help with tuition, but nothing firm. Then, if kid doesn’t get in ED, no harm done. If kid does get in, parents look at the costs and tell grandparents that they have to pass due to costs, but if grandparents will contribute X, then grandkid will go. If not, the kid will be looking for merit money at a less prestigious college.
Sometimes, it works. I know it worked for Williams College with one family. I doubt grandpa would have helped pay for any other college, but it was his alma mater and granddaughter genuinely wanted to go there. Her parents didn’t think it was worth the money, but granddaughter and grandpa both did.
