<p>I was wondering if anyone had any issues with Rice/Duke fin. aid packages. Also, do ED applicants usually receive a less generous fin. aid package?</p>
<p>If you need financial aid, do NOT apply ED. It doesn’t matter whether the package is more or less generous… if you apply ED, you’ll never, ever know what it could have been.</p>
<p>Both claim to meet 100% need, (as they define it) both have merit aid (I believe Duke has several FULL rides, while Rice may have more partials)</p>
<p>I didn’t apply to Rice, but I did to Duke. My FAFSA EFC was 42K, Duke adjusted it to around 35K (via a 21K grant) plus they offered loans and WS, taking it to 27K …</p>
<p>Duke has issues with being labeled a “Rich Kids school” …</p>
<p>[Duke</a> draws ?rich kids of all colors? | The Chronicle](<a href=“http://dukechronicle.com/article/duke-draws-rich-kids-all-colors]Duke”>Duke draws ‘rich kids of all colors’ - The Chronicle)</p>
<p>They will help you IF you come from a poor family, … if you are middle class, no so much. Most of the student body is from well-to-do families …</p>
<p>good luck …</p>
<p>To answer your other question, ED applicants do NOT receive less generous FA packages. Something like that would get around and hurt admissions.</p>
<p>^ I didn’t answer the question on ED, because calmom did (very well). And she is absolutely correct. ED should only be used for those students where NEED based FA is not an issue. Since the top schools have been know to “adjust” their need based aid (as they did in my case) you will never know what your aid package COULD have been, if you are locked into an ED agreement.</p>
<p>Heres a slightly dissenting opinion. Clearly, if you want to compare fin aid packages and make that a consideration in your final decision, do not apply ED. </p>
<p>If you have a 1st choice school, and you are willing to forego FA comparisons, then you shouldnt reject the idea of applying ED. Our S applied ED to Duke. We estimated our EFC using the collegeboard.com estimator. He knew going in, if he got accepted, and if Dukes FA package was not consistent with that estimate, we would decline the acceptance due to insufficient FA (a legitimate reason to decline). </p>
<p>Dukes ED policies are clearly laid out on their website. Expect ~2K in work study, and a max of 5K in loans (actual loan amount is based on income). The balance in grants. It all worked out for us. ED acceptance came with a reasonable FA package. </p>
<p>One caveat. The simpler your financial situation, the easier to trust the estimate from online calculators. If your situation is more complex (e.g. business owner), it might be more difficult to determine how any school might calculate your EFC. </p>
<p>One last point, agree with Erins Dad. No way any college deliberately shortchanges an ED kid with regard to need-based FA.</p>
<p>Colleges that offer merit aid or will combine merit money with need-based aid very often will extend better offers to students in their RD pool – they are motivated to sweeten the pot in order to attract those students.</p>
<p>Strongly disagree with Erin’s Dad. Some full financial need colleges practice ‘preferential packaging’ all of the time. In other words, if you show them an offer from a peer school (or better), they can and will review your finaid app and adjust the “standard” amount, but only if you have something that they really want. It may only be an additional thousand or two, but every grant dollar counts. And if you can find the data points on cc, from some students each spring AND from long-time parent posters.</p>
<p>That being said, if Duke is your clear #1 choice, the ED boost is hard to pass up. Just know that you are potentially gambling away some money.</p>
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<p>Umm, that is true at pretty much EVERY private college.</p>
<p>^ I’ll have to disagree with bluebayou. If there is a difference in the offer it would have to be in the merit component, not the FA component. If there is some evidence that Rice and Duke do this then I’ll retract.</p>
<p>^^Perhaps you meant your post #4 to apply only to Duke and Rice, E-Dad, but that was unclear (at least to me…) And, since both Duke and Rice offer merit money the line is not so clear cut at those two schools.</p>
<p>But need-based only schools – those with no merit $ – do offer preferential packaging of $$.</p>
<p>Do you have some examples?</p>
<p>Sure. There are plenty of examples on cc. (Of course, a poster could be lying, but what would be the point?) It is easy enough for a finaid officer to accomplish under their professional expertise and finding additonal ‘need’. Adding in/or backing out additional expenses, for example. Or, handing a non-custodial spouse’s income differentially.</p>
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<p>Rumors have been rampant for decades of a certain lacrosse powerhouse finding ‘need’ in nearly every player – never hurt admissions! Don’t forget, that the schools that meet full need are already the most highly selective. Redirecting a few thousand of the finaid budget is meaningless to the mass of students, who are full pay.</p>
<p>@E D, are you speaking to ONLY Duke and Rice, or was your statement more general. I just went through this process last year and was amazed at the “flexibility” in FA packages offered. They like to pretend that all they have to offer is extended payment/financing plans, but when confronted with a better peer offer, they DO change their numbers … IF you were locked into an ED and so withdrew all other applications, HOW would you know what COULD have been?</p>
<p>I was speaking about Duke and Rice but the general idea still applies. The difference is some colleges include loans as part of meeting need. Duke’s does include a loan contribution but it’s limited based on family income. <a href=“http://dukefinancialaid.duke.edu/documents/policies/policies_ch6.pdf[/url]”>http://dukefinancialaid.duke.edu/documents/policies/policies_ch6.pdf</a> Rice is a little different in that families with lower income will not have loans. [Financial</a> Aid at Rice University](<a href=“http://financialaid.rice.edu/main.aspx?id=38]Financial”>http://financialaid.rice.edu/main.aspx?id=38) In all cases the school gets to define the financial need.</p>
<p>@E D, “In all cases the school gets to define the financial need.”</p>
<p>Yes, and they seem to do it on a case by case basis. My FA award from Duke was $30,020 with an EFC of $42,000. The award sheet put total cost at $55,890 for an imputed “Duke” EFC of $25,870! If I had applied ED, I do not believe the award would have been the same.</p>
<p>Thank you guys so much for responding 
I really want to go to Rice or Duke, in fact I’m visiting both campuses this month.
My parents are middle-class, so yes, money is a factor… 
My parents are also divorced… do you think that I wouldn’t have to pay too much out of my custodial parent’s pocket? Do these schools generally force the non-custodial parent to pay too (considering I have to fill out a Non-Custodial PROFILE)?</p>
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<p>Non FAFSA only colleges may expect both parents to shoulder cost but colleges do not have a mechanism to “force” both parents to pay. How the costs are split is up to the student and the parents of that student.</p>
<p>The important take-away, aznstudent, is that the income and assets from both of your parents will be used to calculate your EFC at schools that use the Profile.</p>
<p>You definitely should NOT apply ED anywhere with divorced parents. That is a total wildcard thrown into your financial aid system. ALL private colleges that promise to meet full need will ALSO take noncustodial parent assets and income into account, but they may each treat the information very differently – and NONE will give you much in the way of information about what they have decided. They are more concerned with protecting the privacy of the NC parent than with giving you a detailed account as to how they come up with EFC… so even after all the numbers are in, you may be left scratching your head as to how things are calculated. </p>
<p>In your situation, you absolutely need to look at a wide array of colleges, including those which offer merit aid – at least, assuming that both parents are employed and income producing. (The situation would be different, of course, for someone who had a NCC at poverty level – such as a parent who was disabled). </p>
<p>It all gets even more complicated if one or both of your parents has remarried.</p>
<p>Well luckily my parents did not remarry. o__o!!
I visited Rice and I really feel at home there.
In fact, my interview is this friday!! panicccc :(!! </p>
<p>But based on what you say calmom, I really shouldn’t apply ED? </p>
<p>One reason why I don’t think I should apply RD is because there would be more competitive applicants… and I’d probably not get in :(</p>