<p>ntek511,</p>
<p>I believe that you were admitted to Trinity (congratulations). </p>
<p>If you are attending Trinity in CT, the school states that they meet 100% of your demonstrated need. A school that meets your demonstrated need determines what that need is based on their asssessment of the income and assets of you and your family. </p>
<p>For most families there is a disconnect between what the school thinks and what the family thinks that they can afford to pay.</p>
<p>Based on their assessment of your financial situation, the college met your need. If you have had some major issues that have come up since your submitted your FA paperwork or something that you think the school did not look at (parent lost a job, family is paying major medical expenses, etc) then you need to contact the FA office and send them documented proof of your situation. Also contact the FA office if you need clarification of how your package was put together.</p>
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Once again, does their aid mean that they have met my demonstrated need? I can't say because of the loans they gave me and they haven't included summer living costs.
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<p>This would not be a sufficient reason, because you would be expected to work over the summer to earn money to cover your expenses. </p>
<p>As far a loans are concerned, almost every school that meets demonstrated need has a loan component because they believe that students need to be active participants in the financing of their education (the exception is probably HYP, and a few of the other ivies/elite LACs that have provisions as part of their FA policy to reduce/eliminate loans for certain low income students)</p>
<p>Being an international student backing out of your ED commitment will put you in a sticky situation. </p>
<p>First of all I think that you self very fortunate to have been admitted into a school that met 100% of your demonstrated need es an international student especially because there are only a handful of schools that do this for international students, so you have a large pool of applicants applying for these very few opportunites. </p>
<p>Trinity would not have admitted you if they did not think they met your needs because they know that you would not be able to get a visa to come to the U.S. with out documented proof that your education for the school year would be covered.</p>
<p>One of the caveats of applying ED is that if you are admitted you commit to attend the ED school and withdraw all of your other applications. This is the major reason that you see parents/student writing on these boards over and over again; if money is a factor or you need to compare packages do not apply ED otherwise you are basically stating that willing to live and die with the package they are giving you. </p>
<p>You are essentially on the down side of this power dynamic becasue
most students who are released from their ED agreements are released to attend their more affordable local university. </p>
<p>As an international student, this is probably not your situation and you will not get a visa unless enrolled. If you try to circumvent the system Trinty can make your life difficult by contacting other schools to say that you did not commit to your ED agreement (it would not be hard to find you).</p>
<p>Because colleges share ED information (and as in international you will stick out like a sore thumb) I don't think another school will touch you in the process. In addition, Trinty will be responsible for sending out your An I-20 (required for application for the F-1 student visa) which will only be issued to admitted, enrolling students. Because you are also applying for a visa, the information wil be shared amongst a number of agencies. </p>
<p>In the end it will be up to you to decide what is best in your situation. If you decline admissions to Trinity you will most likely not be part of the admissions process this year and would have to wait until next year and start all over again.</p>