Right now I’m having a hard time deciding whether I should apply early to Harvey Mudd College or to University of Chicago/Rice. On one hand, Harvey Mudd College might be easier to get in to (since there are very few ED applicants), and I’d really love going there; however, applying there doesn’t allow me to apply anywhere else early, and the decision is binding. On the other hand, applying to Chicago would allow me to apply early to Rice also. Unfortunately, Chicago and Rice are somewhat of reaches for me (imo). The fact that early action is non-binding is nice also, although I think I’d snatch up the chance to go to either school very quickly. 
As for my favorite of the three, I’d have to say that they’re all tied (I’m beating back the whole name prestige thing so it doesn’t affect my opinion of the schools).
If needed, my stats can be seen on my Chances thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=78224[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=78224</a>
What do you guys think? Thanks for any help 
<p>The standard advice is not to apply ED if you are also going to apply for financial aid. This is because you give up your ability to compare financial aid packages from different colleges, and also because you may be screwed when the college tells you that based on your family's finances, they are expected to pay $40K a year.</p>
<p>Your question is one that drives some people crazy because ED was never intended to be an admissions strategy.</p>
<p>Yikes, that's not good news. I'll be pretty much hoping for the largest amount of financial aid possible. I was really kind of leaning towards HMC too... :(</p>
<p>In that case, I'll give the long explanation. It applies only to ED and not EA.</p>
<p>When you apply ED, the college agrees that the decision is binding only if they make it financially possible for you to attend. Each college has a COA (Cost of Attendance). The COA includes tuition, room & board, books, and misc expenses. Applicants and their families fill out a government form called the FAFSA (and some colleges also require the College Board PROFILE). Based on the information on these forms, your EFC (Estimated Family Contribution) is calculated. This is the amount the college expects from you. The main input into the EFC are parents' income, your income, parents' savings, and your savings. Your savings increase the EFC much more than your parents. The family house and cars do not count as assets. There are other considerations such as the number of children in college and so on. Using the COA and EFC, your NEED is calculated as COA minus EFC. This is the amount of financial assistance that the ED college agrees to supply. The FA package is made up of grants (free money), loans and part-time jobs. One FA package may be $25K in grants and $5K in loans. Another FA package may be $15K in grants in $15K in loans. Both are worth $30K per year, but the first package is much better since the loans that you have to pay back are less. By applying ED, you have to take whatever they give you.</p>
<p>The problem with the utopia where your NEED is satisfied, is that the amount of the EFC can be a real shocker. For a two income family with a combined income of $70K per year, the EFC is probably around $15K. As the combined incomes goes over $100K per year and heads towards $120K, the EFC can increase to the point where NEED goes to zero.</p>
<p>You should know the amount of money that is in play. If the most FA that you expect is only $5K, then you can't get hurt too badly by applying ED. If you expect a big FA package, then you lose the ability to compare the grants/loans ratio between different FA packages when you apply ED. The worse case is if the ED college says that your EFC is $40K per year and that is a big surprise to you and your parents. There are free EFC estimators on the web at sites such as the College Board and CC. You want to have your parents run the numbers thru since the whole subject of FA involves confidentiality and some emotions.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info! I guess it's Chicago/Rice, then.</p>