I have a slightly different situation than most.
My mother and I have an ongoing argument about where I go to college–she wants me to ONLY apply (and attend) at my state’s public university (University of Tennessee Knox). It isn’t a bad school, and I believe I’ll get accepted with generous financial aid, but my heart isn’t in it.
I’m IN LOVE with JHU. My father (who is now passed away) was an alumnus of the school, which is what called it to my attention. I would attend in a heartbeat, regardless of my mother’s griping.
JHU is a bit of a reach for me. In a Chance Me thread I described my resume (32 ACT, many ECs and decent course load).
My mother currently is jobless, so yeah, we’re pretty low on the financial scale. If I don’t at least get SOME financial aid from JHU I doubt I will be able to attend.
So, my junior year is coming to a close and my amazing older sister is offering to pay the app fee for JHU (because mom won’t support my application whatsoever). I hear applying ED significantly improves chances, and I can’t decide whether this is a wise idea in my situation.
The first thing you should probably do is read the ED agreement carefully. Specifically check and see under what circumstances, if any, you’re able to break the ED agreement. You don’t want to get stuck in a situation where you’re forced to attend JHU because of the ED agreement but can’t afford the tuition.
After that you should probably have an open discussion with your mom about paying for college. Will she refuse to pay for any college other than UT? If so run the NPC on the Hopkins website and see if you, yourself can afford to attend Hopkins without going into too much debt.
If you’ve determined that finances aren’t an issue and you’re comfortable with how your relationship with your mom will change if you don’t go to UT then I’d say you should apply ED.
JHU is a great school but with hard work you can do amazing things with a degree from most American universities. We are blessed in the U.S. with a phenomenal collegiate system, and I’m confident that you’ll get a stellar education at UT Knox as long as you work hard and take advantage of the opportuntites offered (which is true for JHU as well). If financials are a strain and you risk creating a rift with your mother I would reconsider. Learn if her argument is more financials or more with you leaving home. If it is financials (and it definitely sounds like it at least partly is) then you really should be applying regular decision. ED is not something you can easily back out of (and definitely look at the fine print before signing anything!) and honestly the advantage of applying ED is probably not as significant as it appears once you consider all the athletes and recruited students who apply ED. I would apply regular (or at least do your HW on ED in advance before applying ED) and see if you even get accepted. If you do, then see how much FA they offer. If there is a negligible difference in cost then of course consider JHU, but otherwise going 100,00s of dollars in debt simply isn’t worth it. I’m sure there is also an emotional aspect to this with your passed father having gone to the school, but make sure you are still logical about this when it comes to potentially spending decades of your life just paying off undergrad debt (let alone graduate programs if you’re going that route). I would also consider what is best for your family as well in terms of your father’s passing and your mom possibly wanting you to stay closer to home for her own support and comfort. I’m sorry you have to deal with this stress on top of an already stressful time in every high school student’s life, but that’s just how life is sometimes. Best of luck and stay strong!