<p>How do you think the financial crisis will affect the EA & ED applications. From what I am reading on this board, it appears that financial aid offers don't come with the EA /ED decision (is this true). If that is the case, do you think this would affect the number of students willing to apply early?</p>
<p>Financial aid offers come with ED, and at least the EA offers that I have personal knowledge of also came with aid offers. I have read here that Yale SCEA offers come in the spring, not sure how uniform that practice is with other EAs.</p>
<p>Since this is the absolute peak in the number of high school graduates, why would early apps go down? </p>
<p>Concur with 'rent: ED offers must be followed quickly with a finaid offer so the applicant can accept or reject.</p>
<p>I don’t think apps will go down, but enrollments may. I looked back to see what happened after the 1929 market collapse. There was a overall 4% decrease in enrollment the first year and 8% the second year so there could be a bit of a lag this time, too. </p>
<p>Oh yeah, my son got merit aid offers with his EA acceptances. In order to qualify for merit aid, we were then required to fill out the FAFSA.</p>
<p>Is this year the peak, or was last year? I thought it was last year.</p>
<p>I read somewhere that it was this year, too.</p>
<p>I guess I was under the impression that financial aid offers didn’t come with acceptances. Thats good to know. I read in wall street journal this was the peak year of applicants.</p>
<p>Financial aid offers do come with acceptances. The tricky part is that sometimes the aid is not sufficient, and then some schools might not want to release the student from the ED binding contract. But that is not that difficult to do, either. The wisdom is that if financial aid is a huge concern, which it is probably going to be more and more these days, then don’t apply ED. But you definitely will get FA offers with ED and EA.</p>
<p>It has always been the rule not to apply ED if you need fin aid. To do so is taking some risks. EA is still a good deal since it can SAVE you money. If accepted EA, a student can eliminate a number of apps.</p>
<p>It is a tough call this year, apps should be up because numbers are up, but the financial side may make folks want to know first limiting ED. In the end it is a guess since they are arguing now about how long it will take to see the effects of the bailout package. The talking heads have timelines of a few months to a year to loosen up the credit markets. But as a guess, I am betting that number of applicants will rule and ED odds help you, so most will go ED and I will figure out how to pay for it later (which is a US tradition).</p>
<p>I find it so hard to believe that the schools can be totally needs blind. Do they really have enough endowment to enroll an entire freshman class with some sort of financial aid? This week has been brutal on investments including endowment funds. I can’t help but think that aid, loans and overall enrollment/applications will be affected by this.</p>
<p>My guess is that ED and EA to the schools with the most generous financial aid policies will actually go up. I think it may well go down everywhere else.</p>
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<p>As mini has pointed out (and with which I concur), there are no truly need-blind colleges. The number of students receiving finaid at an individual college doesn’t change over time (unless they change their finaid policies)…few kids at top prep schools are low income…many top public high schools which feed HYPSM et al are suburban in upper class 'hoods…powerful ECs beat a grocery bagger…fencing/golf/tennis and other country clubs sports require money…as do hockey/lacrosse and the like.</p>
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<p>That’s certainly the wisdom on CC. Unfortunately, that wisdom is not prevalent amongst HS seniors. I suspect ED apps will increase this year.</p>
<p>I might be grossly incorrect, but I think it depends on schools, really.
Bcs of the financial crisis, people will likely to try to decrease the number of applications they send out bcs of COST (17 vs. 3 for example) which will cause a decrease in general number of applications. </p>
<p>Lots of people will also want to go to state universities instead of private colleges, because they are cheaper –> decrease for private universities, but an influx if increase for state universities. </p>
<p>Smart people who care about F/A will obviously look more into schools that are known for offering nice satisfying financial aid packages… such as washu. or any other need-blind schools. Applications for those schools will definitely increase.</p>
<p>On the other hand, schools that are known for not giving enough $$$$$, students will most likely to shy away from them and not apply at all. </p>
<p>I think a majority of ED kids have always been sort of the wealthy ones who go to private school or whatnot. First, they know such things as Early decision exist, and they don’t need to compare F/A packages from varoius schools. and they are most likely to be legacies who know they definitely want to attend XYZ school, thus coming from wealthier families.</p>
<p>God, I wish the ED applications really decreased this year/</p>
<p>^^starbucks, you raise a good point about app fees. But, OTOH, perhaps apps will increase as families chase merit money to be able to compare more offers.</p>