<p>Well like I said, the calculator showed exactly what the school did; perhaps we were just lucky.</p>
<p>I have probably read most of the recent ED Finaid woe threads. I am sorry for these families. But, mind you, these parents *don’t * write, “I did my research, I learned this or that, I ran the calculators, spoke with FA, had back-up ideas. My kid understood what we could afford- and that we couldn’t know the aid until the offer was received.”</p>
<p>NO, these people wrote [let me generalize,] “Buuut, I thought I’d only have to pay the Fafsa EFC. What do you mean my house equity counts? But, I have prep school tuition to cover.” Whatever. AND, as those threads progressed, the OPs admitted they didn’t know reality, going in. In effect, they got as far as “meets 100% of need” and stopped worrying. They assumed. And, they let their kids dream based on those assumptions.
Sorry.</p>
<p>LF - there is a learning curve in this process. The fact that we all agree ED/FA woes happen repeatedly speaks to the process being somewhat confusing and that it has changed tremendously since our generation attended college. I personally feel that colleges do NOT do enough to warn families that ED and FA need may not be a good mix. One exception to this - Wake Forest University - which sent out letters to ED applicants last year who had also applied for FA warning them that this was very likely a bad idea and encouraging them to switch their app to RD. I would rather see colleges do this than string people along with misleading stmts like “meets 100% of need”. I understand the loopholes in that phrase - you understand the loopholes in that phrase - but many people - especially if this is their first child’s process - do not.</p>
<p>Our son got into his top choice ED, and graduated this past Spring. As others have noted, it was a huge burden off his mind and it allowed him to move on through the rest of his HS Senior year without worries, while many of his friends fretted about applications and checked mailboxes twice a day. On the other hand, it may also have helped contribute to a mild case of “Senioritis”.</p>
<p>As for the Financial Aid piece, I will never be able to say whether or not we would have received a better offer through RD admittance. It looked like we were offered something only slightly lower than what our FAFSA predicted, in terms of our family commitment. It wasn’t a lot, but we knew that we were not eligible for a lot. Our son also received a small merit scholarship, so the whole package helped enough that we managed to get through 4 years without owing a ton of money.</p>
<p>It would have all been good if he was an only child, but his sister is now a Sophomore and she did not get the merit or need-based aid that our son did; so things are a little tight right now.</p>
<p>Sally Rubenstone;</p>
<p>My S was definitely not one of those kids that had to apply ED because of a weak profile.</p>
<p>His stats were excellent, his ec’s excellent and he could have gone to any tippy top college. He chose a “lower ranked” school (TUFTS) because he fell in love with it and it’s location near Boston. His friend with lesser stats got into Dartmouth…my S doesn’t care! He is thrilled about going to his top choice school this coming fall!</p>
<p>He went with fit and feel over rank. He refused to apply to UPenn and Brown. He would have applied to Cornell but didn’t like the location or the huge size of the school. Northwestern was too far away. He’s thrilled with his choice. He knew the college would accept him ED and also wanted to avoid the crush of so much more competition even from our own h.s. in the RD round.</p>
<p><<<his stats=“” were=“” excellent,=“” his=“” ec’s=“” excellent=“” and=“” he=“” could=“” have=“” gone=“” to=“” any=“” tippy=“” top=“” college.=“” chose=“” a=“” “lower=”" ranked"=“” school=“” (tufts)=“” because=“” fell=“” in=“” love=“” with=“” it=“” it’s=“” location=“” near=“” boston.=“” friend=“” lesser=“” got=“” into=“” dartmouth…my=“” s=“” doesn’t=“” care!=“” is=“” thrilled=“” about=“” going=“” choice=“” this=“” coming=“” fall!=“”>>></his></p>
<p>He went with fit and feel over rank. He refused to apply to UPenn and Brown. He would have applied to Cornell but didn’t like the location or the huge size of the school. Northwestern was too far away. He’s thrilled with his choice. He knew the college would accept him ED and also wanted to avoid the crush of so much more competition even from our own h.s. in the RD round.>>></p>
<p>My daughter’s scenario, exactly, with her ED motivation for Tufts–excellent stats, superlative teacher recs, and a very singular EC, among some more typical ECs (e.g. sports, music, etc.) that stood out. So, no “gaming” the system here, either. Just a kid who took great personal and college inventory to insure a match in the ways that counted to her–not the insecure parent/student dynamic of aiming for the highest-ranked, USNWR college, which seems the flimsiest of reasons, frankly.</p>
<p>N.B. As an aside, this year at my daughter’s high school, 6 highly-qualified students applied, ED, to Tufts. One got in, and the other 5 are very bright to brilliant and all were accomplished, simultaneously, in disparate areas. All broke 2250 on the SAT. All had long CVs with things like national science awards and amazing community service. 3 are National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists. These are kids with very interesting stories attached to them–one is being nagged by Stanford for recruitment for a particular sport, and the other is being courted by an Ivy league school for yet another sport. One of the rejected seems to have a very similar profile as the Morehead-Cain scholar ( UNC @ Chapel Hill) from my d’s high school, from last year, and was rejected or deferred by Tufts. So, I’m not particularly convinced that ED is a leg-up vis-a-vis the consideration of the less-endowed applicant. In some ways, it may be catering, mostly (after taking legacies and recruited athletes out of the mix), to the applicants who, by Fall semester of senior year have an enormously strong application, who don’t need to boost their “appeal” with yet another semester of grades/accomplishments.</p>
<p>EXACTLY, SWHarborfan…exactly.</p>
<p>Was it your D that I read that did the Gap year and will also enter Tufts as a freshman? Very cool.</p>
<p>I have to admit my S is even more mature than I am…I did have a twinge of why not go for the top? His reply was spot on: He loved Tufts, the school, the people, the location and plans to go to Harvard for his graduate work…well, let’s hope he realizes his own dream…if not, I’m sure he’ll do okay wherever he goes. :)</p>
<p><<i have=“” to=“” admit=“” my=“” s=“” is=“” even=“” more=“” mature=“” than=“” i=“” am…i=“” did=“” a=“” twinge=“” of=“” why=“” not=“” go=“” for=“” the=“” top?=“”>>> </i></p><i have=“” to=“” admit=“” my=“” s=“” is=“” even=“” more=“” mature=“” than=“” i=“” am…i=“” did=“” a=“” twinge=“” of=“” why=“” not=“” go=“” for=“” the=“” top?=“”>
<p>Clearly, your son is your greatest teacher. 
</p>
<p>My daughter would aver that Tufts is the “top” for her, esp., in her case–there were specific things about Tufts that no other school had, combinedly: e.g. high Jew count (and a mix of secular and observant Jews, she learned from talking to Chabad) and campus support for Israel (no firestorms, please, CCers; I’m merely recounting the criteria my d used for choosing Tufts, ED), a developed foreign language curriculum and study abroad options (she is currently started a 3rd foreign language during her Gap year), her politics seemed supported at Tufts (based on her inventory of the posters on campus and talking and talking to Tufts students she encountered, when she visited. For example, she encountered more than a handful of current students who had done “election protection” during the pres. election, as had she). The size was perfect after a lifetime of small, incestuous, albeit very fine, private, secondary schools, the proximity to Boston was perfect for her, the “early assurance” medical school option was really appealing, and her subjective list goes on and on. Oh, yes, she was struck by Tufts’, with the exception of the Experimental college, only having full profs.’ teaching. She also said that she appreciated that the admissions committee were very intimate with life (academic and otherwise) on campus and could answer, meaningfully, questions that were anything but conventional. She considered the Tufts admission committee to be trustworthy as far as picking a/her class. She did not have such confidence upon visiting other schools.</p>
<p>I did not mean to make this a treatise about my kid or Tufts, per se, merely that ED isn’t always an insurance policy of admission and was not used as such by my daughter or your son. </p>
<p>Again, I think it’s the right option for some applicants and inappropriate for others.</p>
<p>And sometimes the “top” can be consummate disasters–I know a lot of kids, from our neck of the woods (and two from Eastern Europe) who were miserable (and transferred) from Cornell and MIT. And, yet, those two schools are the “top” by a lot of objective and subjective standards. End of sermon.</p>
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<p>Yep. And at least 3 posters on this thread needed finaid, applied ED, and were happy with the results. Neither of these data points sway my judgement at all. i stand by the statement:</p>
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<p>I’m not saying there’s zero risk, I’m saying the risk is far less than a handful of threads on CC might lead you to believe. Literally 10,000s of students (maybe more?) are accepted each year via ED across the country and virtually all of them attend. I can’t say for sure the cause and effect. I’ve never seen “% ED accepts receiving finaid” statistics. Maybe you’re right, most don’t need finaid, and I (and others on this thread) were just lucky. Just saying that given so many people have had positive experiences, i wouldn’t let a handful of bad experiences influence one’s course of action.</p>
<p>^^ I agree, little risk if one applies to a school that promises to meet 100% of need (and you use the calculator tools). Friends whose kids applied RD received awards that were all over the place, but from schools that “gap.”</p>
<p>When D1 visited a top LAC that does not promise to meet 100% of need, the adcom encouraged her (as they do all atheletic recruits) to apply ED. I responded that, although the school was one of D’s favorites, ED was out of the question b/c of the finaid. Why would I encourage D’s committment to a school where the one thing I knew about the aid package was that it would likely be less than our family’s need - - even as calculated by the school’s institutional formula?</p>
<p>goru - you make a very good point in that if you look at the common data set or institutional fact book for most any school - you can easily see that the majority of those accepted ED do attend. But I wonder if most of those students are from wealthier families who did not apply for FA? Or, did they apply for FA and just took whatever they rcvd - with no way to know if it was a good package or not.</p>
<p>You are right that the ED/FA horror stories grab our attention - but they might really be a very small percentage of the actual ED admitted pool.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the LAC/uni in question. At D’s day school, most of the class applied ED; students receiving finaid were advised to apply to full-need schools, most (if not all) of which were LACs/unis where other finaid students from the day school had received generous awards (the day school kept it’s own records which, I assume, included comparing college awards to its own awards). Guess what - - none of these finaid students was disappointed in the award and they all enrolled at their respective ED schools. Some of the finaid students were first-gen and from families with very limted resources, but others were solidly middle-class.</p>
<p>If there is a clear and far away favorite college, then perhaps it is OK to apply ED.</p>
<p>But otherwise, I think most applicants should apply RD.</p>
<p>Reason: It is better to choose in April from among a bunch of colleges than to choose one in October, get accepted, and then have buyer’s remorse later.</p>
<p>I was looking at a college website today and they stated that all ED applicants would have 100% of demonstrated need met. They specifically stated that this guarantee did not apply to RD applicants.</p>
<p>The problem with that is that it is the college who defines the dollar amount of demonstrated need - and it might differ from your opinion. They may guarantee 100% - but it is 100% of the figure they come up with.</p>
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There may be a good reason why colleges opt to refrain from posting such statistics.</p>
<p>Just one data point, but among D1 and D2’s classmates, the family need (and the resulting award) did not vary by more than a couple thousand among the full-need school (and couple thousand above FAFSA EFC). One difference was whether schools capped loans at the federal level ($18K over 4 years for D1) or lower (some schools capped at $15K over 4 years), but this info was on the web sited or discussed at on-campus info sessions, so an interested family could run the numbers and get a sense of how they would fare at one school vs another. Still, not an exact science and you don’t really know what the package will be until you have it in hand.</p>
<p>^^^^^^ Exactly. The process lacks transparency.</p>
<p>Again and again, we are reminded that ED only makes sense when you have a very strong preference, you can use the extra admissions edge, and you have no concern about finances. Quite a parlay.</p>
<p>Alternate data point. My d., RD, 2 schools, both promising to meet 100% need - from 2006:</p>
<p>Comparision: Big Name U vs. Low Endowment LAC</p>
<p>COA $49,000 – $48,000
Grant Aid: $18,000 – $30,000
Loans: $5200 – $2600
Balance owed: $25,800 vs. $15,400</p>
<p>Now it is possible that the U. would have improved its offer through a review process, particularly with the LAC offer n hand for comparison - so I am not posting this to bash the university. The U’s offer was consistent with an offer received from a less selective but highly regarded LAC that offered merit aid. </p>
<p>My point is to simply illustrate how 2 colleges might perceive the same family in terms of “need”. You can see from the above that there is more than a $10K difference in out of pocket costs, and – that if loans are not considered - a $13K difference. </p>
<p>The problem with ED is that the student admitted to one college doesn’t know whether they will be admitted to others, or what they might offer in financial aid. They have to make the same choice that was a source of so much entertainment on “Let’s Make a Deal” – do they hang onto the prize they have, or trade it for a chance at Door #2? </p>
<p>I once asked my d. what she would have done if she had not been admitted to the LAC, and she said she would have gone to the U. despite their weak financial aid, taking on whatever loans she needed. At least, that’s what she said at age 19.</p>
<p>Now my daughter is out of school, working, and she has a somewhat different perspective on her loan debt. It’s one thing when contemplating borrowing, quite another after you’ve set up the automatic withdrawals from the checking account and bumping up against the reality of paycheck deductions and withholding.</p>
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<p>Hmmm . . . My intuition would be that buyer’s remorse is just as likely among those who choose in April as among those who choose in October. </p>
<p>My D1 was an October chooser; she had pretty much all the information she needed about the schools on her list, and based on that a clear first choice emerged. She applied ED, was accepted, and never looked back. I’ve asked her several times whether she’s ever had buyer’s remorse. Not a bit. In her case at least, waiting until April would not have made for a better-informed decision, only a more stressful winter and spring.</p>