<p>I'm a junior narrowing down my list of colleges where I will be applying. While I have several safeties, two schools that might be considered "high matches" or "reaches" for me have really grabbed my attention. I would love to attend Vanderbilt or GATech if accepted, but I'm not sure that my family could afford it. My stats make it possible for me to attend my state schools (AL) for a very good bargain, but I'm not really "in love" with any of them. Should I apply ED to Vanderbilt in hopes of having a chance to be accepted (I have a chance me thread with stats!!), or do they not have good aid (I've heard GTech's is bad)? If anyone has any advice or information about aid offered by Vandy or Tech I would love to know!
Also, I have used net price calculators, but I'm not sure how accurate they are because I have a strange family situation. If you have any questions that would help you give advice, please do not hesitate to ask. I need all the advice I can get.</p>
<p>If you apply ED somewhere, will you be willing to make the decision to attend or not without being able to compare the financial aid with that of other schools?</p>
<p>The net price calculator is the best way to estimate financial aid for you at any particular school, but if you have an odd family financial situation, it may be less accurate for you than for other students.</p>
<p>^I agree. Use the net price calculator for Vanderbilt.
It does cover 100% need and is pretty generous if your family is middle class but if your family makes 250k you aren’t likely to get aid. They do have merit but you’d need to be well above the top 25% mark for stats. Other private universities you may want to look into include Davidson, Rhodes, Centre, Emory, Tulane, UMiami.
GTech is a public university. Therefore, it exists primarily to serve the needs of its state residents and doesn’t offer financial aid to out of state applicants.</p>
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If you do have an odd situation or your parents own a business then the NPCs will likely be off. If you need to compare offers you shouldn’t use ED.</p>
<p>There are varying opinions on this: I feel strongly that anyone who needs financial aid; for whom money would make a difference in choice should NOT apply ED. IF you have a hard and fast amount that you know is your limit, and it looks like a school can meet it from the NPCs, and you are not interested in doing better; it’s that worth it to get in for that price or less, that is about the only reason I’d go ED If you don’t get the $X when accepted, you appeal and if they still won’t give it to you, you then decide to request a release or not and try your luck with other schools, not knowing if this is the best deal you are likely to get or if there are some goodies out there that are much better. </p>
<p>I know some grim faced parents whose kids applied ED, got packages that strained them but caught in the momentum, decided to go for it. Then come the end of the year, the second choice school that the kid liked just about as much is giving their kids’ peers some nice big time awards, that the ED kid likely would have gotten too had the chance been given. Yeah. Or the school is not such a big deal any more after the financial stretch was made. There is that impetus to take the ED offer because so much emotion gets invested into it. </p>