I’m kind of confused about what ED is. If I get in, it’s binding. Can I still apply EA/RD to other schools? I’m looking at my flagship and Indiana, both of which have RD only, and another OOS school, which is EA. I want to submit all of my apps ASAP, just so I don’t have to stress about them. Will I still be able to do that, or will I have to wait until I hear back from Tulane?
My next question is financial aid. Hypothetically, if I were to get accepted to Tulane ED, and I did not receive any aid, making Tulane possibly unaffordable, would I be able to break that contract or request some form of aid?
Different schools have different rules as to what they say you can do with regard to applying to other schools. Frankly, and I might take a lot of heat for this, I wouldn’t care what the school says, except that it clearly would be a conflict to apply ED to any other school, and almost no school counselor, who has to sign the form, would allow it anyway. Beyond that, why would a school care if you applied EA everywhere else? It is non-binding and so if you get in at the ED school, it matters not a whit where else you applied or how. If you don’t get in, then you are ahead of the game by having applied EA to some other schools, and why would the ED school that turned you down care about that?
However, to answer your question some schools do instruct you to not apply in very particular ways to other schools. Tulane hasn’t said yet what approach they are taking. All schools let you apply RD to any other school, and most make exceptions for things like rolling admission schools, scholarships that require you to apply EA, etc. In the end, unless someone can point me to a good reason for any other policy, the only moral policy is to just say “no applying to any other schools ED” and leave it at that.
As far as financial aid, that is widely recognized as the only acceptable reason to break an ED agreement, excepting emergencies. No one has ever been sued to enforce an ED contract, and no school could ever claim damages. But to break it for anything other than the above stated reasons would be highly unethical and, some think, might hurt others from that high school that apply ED in the future. Now that last I would doubt unless the reason for breaking it traced back to the school and the GC, such as they allowed two or more ED applications by the same person. But anyway, I think that answers your question.
Who decides if the school is affordable? What if Tulane or any other school thinks, I can afford the full price, but I only want to pay say 40,000 or less a year? Can the student/parent break the contract? Do they require tax returns when you apply ED? I want this to be like priceline lol.
LOL, I don’t know about Priceline, but yes every family has to decide for itself what it affordable. Let’s take Tulane out of the sentence because this is universal. We first have to assume that everyone is dealing in good faith. If the student/family has changed their mind about the ED school in the meantime and is saying that they cannot afford even $10,000 a year when clearly their EFC is at least $35,000 a year in the least generous calculation, then they are using “financial considerations” as a very poor fig leaf to try and cover an unethical move. I mean it is tough because you never want to make a student go someplace they don’t want to, and they might change their mind for any number of reasons, good or bad in our minds but always good in theirs. And frankly if that student called the school and said “Look, I just had this change of heart for X,Y,Z reasons and I am truly sorry but…” I cannot imagine a school that, while expressing displeasure, not saying OK we hope you do well somewhere else.
But assuming good faith on the part of the family and the school, then yes you can break the contract. For example, if the EFC is reasonably $35,000 but that family truly believes that amount will be a hardship and the school won’t budge on FA, then they part ways. No university has the authority to tell you how to spend your money short of paying the bill they can rightfully send you for services rendered and down payments agreed to. ED is not a down payment agreement, even if it seems like it in some ways.
But again, the dealings really need to be ethical. Not only because it is right, but also because there are consequences in many cases. Most kids brag about where they applied ED and got in. If it then comes out the agreement was broken and the reason is less than credible, there is a certain shame that will come to that kid and family, especially at that school the rest of senior year, not to mention if there are younger kids from that family at the school.
All to say take ED very seriously and be sure that Tulane is truly the top choice if you apply ED there, or that X school is the top choice if you apply ED there instead. The odds are very good that Tulane will work hard to make itself affordable for an ED accepted student.
One more question. If I break an ED contract, will it look bad to other colleges? Say I get no aid at ED school X, but I get a full ride at school Y, and I break my contract at X to attend Y, then will school X contact school Y and say “So and so broke the ED contract”? And is there a chance that my acceptance/scholarship at school Y will get rescinded?
This may seem like a brainless question, but I’m really sorry. I want to apply ED to Tulane, but I just want to know what I’m getting myself into
I realize these are hypotheticals, but now you might be edging into where it is easy to be asking “permission” to do something unethical. But the problem is that the parameters of your hypothetical are incomplete. It depends on your actual financial situation. So if the reason you got no aid at Tulane is because the numbers show your family can afford the full cost of attendance AND the student did not qualify for merit scholarships, then it would still be highly unethical to apply and get in ED and break the agreement because School Y came along with a full tuition or full ride offer. Bottom line: If the idea of attending a school for free is that attractive to you, presumably a much less competitive school than Tulane if they are offering a full ride when Tulane offered nothing, then applying ED is not the option to take. I think it is fine to use the financial calculators and other knowledge to reasonably predict what you are likely to receive and to use that to say that would make Tulane the choice no matter what any other school offers. In that case ED is perfect for you. But applying ED to Tulane to get an edge getting in if the plan all along is to abandon Tulane if a full ride offer comes in, no matter your financial circumstances, would just be wrong.
I am just expounding on that hypothetical, not saying that you are contemplating any of this. It is just that the incompleteness of your question leaves a lot of possibilities open. Too many really. Applying ED to any school means you should attend there if accepted except under the most extraordinary of circumstances.
As to your last questions, it is possible but unlikely a school you broke an ED agreement with would even know where else you got in, but even if they did I am not sure they are allowed to contact them with the kind of information you are talking about. But it should be totally moot and not worth discussing, because (and I know I am repeating myself but it is that important) unless you truly cannot afford the ED school, then there is no reason to consider School Y’s offer at all, no matter how tempting. This should be totally thought through before applying ED anywhere. If you know you need $X to afford Tulane or another school ED, then you should do your homework as to how likely you are to receive that amount before pulling the ED trigger. If you did and then that money doesn’t materialize, you are morally in the clear. But it can’t be just a made up number that Tulane never was likely to give you. It has to be based on facts.
@fallenchemist okay, thank you! I can basically guarantee that I won’t get a full ride anywhere, and that hypothetical did not apply to me. Just a general to help me to better understand. Again, thanks so much for all of your help!
I don’t like ED in general and wish Tulane wouldn’t have made the change. Of course everyone deals with change ut one more new item for Class of 2017 (new SAT). D will apply EA. We got the letter from Tulane announcing the change. Interestingly, the headline was “by popular demand.” I haven’t seen a groundswell on CC asking for more schools to go ED. I think EA or SCEA are much better options.
I’d think this will be a pretty minor change in the shorter term. ED just replacing the odd duck SCEA.
Tulane’s current model relies heavily on using merit money to poach high stat kids that are shooting at Vandy, Duke, WUSTL, Rice, Ivies, etc. You’d think those type of kids are going to be using their one ED silver bullet at those other schools rather than for Tulane.
Longer term, Tulane does aspire to more closely resemble the schools it now poaches from. So eventually (but perhaps still several decades away) TU would presumably like to get out of the big merit money business and also have a brand strong enough so that it can fill up half its class through ED (many of whom will be full payors).
That’s how Duke, Vandy etc. roll. Because it helps drive up yield, drive down the acceptance rate, and drive down the amount of aid/scholarships required to fill the seats.
I’ve got kid #3 applying EA to Tulane in the fall, so I guess I will find out how TU admissions circa 2016 compare to TU admissions circa 2011 (when my recent TU grad applied).
I agree, @northwesty, that it’s perhaps a way to increase yield. Am guessing it’s the students who might be less likely to be candidates for the bigger automatic scholarship $ that wil apply ED. Maybe they will give the smaller $ to the ED acceptances, or maybe no $ to those who look to be capable of full pay. JMO.
@jym626 It could be the opposite too! I think those with high scores often had trouble proving that Tulane was indeed their first choice. ED makes your first choice abundantly clear.
@northwesty
I agree ED can help the optics of any school’s numbers. Especially if they take a large percentage of their class ED.
You are also correct that many students use ED aspirationally.
You expressed that Tulane wants to resemble Vandy, Duke, WUSTL, Rice, and the Ivies.
My question for you:
How does Tulane elevate the stats of its incoming freshman and “get out of the big merit money business” simultaneously?
06-01-2016 at 11:23 am edited June 1
I’d think this will be a pretty minor change in the shorter term. ED just replacing the odd duck SCEA.
Tulane’s current model relies heavily on using merit money to poach high stat kids that are shooting at Vandy, Duke, WUSTL, Rice, Ivies, etc. You’d think those type of kids are going to be using their one ED silver bullet at those other schools rather than for Tulane.
Longer term, Tulane does aspire to more closely resemble the schools it now poaches from. So eventually (but perhaps still several decades away) TU would presumably like to get out of the big merit money business and also have a brand strong enough so that it can fill up half its class through ED (many of whom will be full payors).
That’s how Duke, Vandy etc. roll. Because it helps drive up yield, drive down the acceptance rate, and drive down the amount of aid/scholarships required to fill the seats.
I’ve got kid #3 applying EA to Tulane in the fall, so I guess I will find out how TU admissions circa 2016 compare to TU admissions circa 2011 (when my recent TU grad applied).
E
