<p>They did promise to let you graduate debt free. Well, you can graduate debt free, if your parents pay. You do have an option to graduate without taking in loans, you just (and understably so) are averse to it. It is an uncomfortable situation, and you recieve full sympathy for doing your best to attend your first choice college and acknowledging the fact that you might not make it.
All that sympathy is more than cancelled out by the callousness with which you are treating the ED agreement. What shocks me (and I think most people on this board) is not that you are considering A&M over Princeton. That is perfectly understable. It's that you are considering reneging on your binding Early Decision agreement and doing so without giving any thought - at all - to the fact that you pledged your honour to attend if they admitted you. If you found out about A&M before December, you should have asked Princeton to change your app to RD.</p>
<p>Jono: He knew, to within 4k, what he'd get from Princeton.</p>
<p>So 4k has made him change his mind about attending? That's not a huge change. Some people get bigger changes than that. Valdez. . . . can you earn the difference in some way? I think you should do that. You can make 4k and then some with earnings, including working and scholarships. Does Princeton do work-study?</p>
<p>thanks jono--im doing everything in my power :)</p>
<p>mr rod--first off, thanx for researching me on college board, it makes me feel all special inside :p
i certainly dont consider myself a wealthy person (unfortunatley) :(
as for my knowledge of fin. aid...i worked @ the fin. aid office @ Texas A&M...so i know a thing or two about financial aid at most institutions (unfortunately, not including princeton!)</p>
<p>Edit: the job was not like filing, picking up the phone and that jazz. i counseled students about how to manage their financial situation and gave several recruitment speeches. i also have learned how to work with irritated/sardonic people (who, perceiving your obvious youth, especially try to intimidate and harass), hence the primary reason for which i can truly say that i do not yet feel offended by anyone's comments :D</p>
<p>I feel for you, Valdez, but look at it this way - if I get into Princeton, the amount of financial aid I would receive would still leave my family with a huge burden (it's not like I'll get a full ride - we're anticipating absolutely no aid from schools). Especially since my parents own their own business, wherever I go will cause problems for my family's finances. Unless one has a massive trust fund, I don't think anyone escapes the college finance crunch. I think we all get the same size burden, relative to our finances.</p>
<p>However, what really irks me is that you applied ED without considering that you might be in this bind. If finances were truly this large of a concern, you should have applied somewhere with an EA policy and waited RD for Princeton. Going back on what is supposed to be a binding contract is incredibly unethical you could be the nicest person ever, but your thought process on this issue leaves me with quite a bitter taste in my mouth.</p>
<p>By the way, "im doing everything in my power :)" seems way too flippant, seeing as you have no legitimate power. You literally signed away all your power when signing the ED portion of the application last October.</p>
<p>Valdez, you keep making smiley faces to detract from the situation. Fact of the matter is, everyone is feeling for you because it seems like you have trouble paying. I'd totally agree with them if this was Early Action, but you signed a contract. The fact that you go back on it has lowered my respect for you considerably. What you essentially did was lie to a university. It was wrong, and there is no going around that. </p>
<p>This is not a flame war, but you asked (or prompted) our opinions.</p>
<p>"Edit: the job was not like filing, picking up the phone and that jazz. i counseled students about how to manage their financial situation and gave several recruitment speeches. i also have learned how to work with irritated/sardonic people (who, perceiving your obvious youth, especially try to intimidate and harass), hence the primary reason for which i can truly say that i do not yet feel offended by anyone's comments "</p>
<p>Your job might have been officework, but you still had access to all of the resources for financial aid. It was your incompetency that got you in this situation. You are taking advantage of the fact that Princeton cannot confront you with legal action. You are backing out of a contract because you did not research the situation thoroughly enough. You took a openly uncalculated risk (of not getting enough financial aid) and you lost. </p>
<p>I would feel bad for you if something happened in your family that made you poor. The fact that your finances have stayed the same throughout just makes you look ridiculously unethical.</p>
<p>yes, dan, the smileys are an attempt to detract from the situation so that people dont go around thinking that im melodramatic and the sort. i did sign a contract and consider myself a person of honor as well--meaning that, yes, i do want to honor that contract. i signed this contract with the idea that my family would be able to afford princeton which, as i have said numerous times, is the way they marketed themselves. as far as my job--do not hound me on my incompetence, b/c the provost for fin. aid offered me $5000 out of the dept. alone and wishes that i resume my post in the event that i enroll at Texas A&M. financial aid at a large public research institution is in no ways comparable with the finances of a small, private college (especially princeton). so no, dan im not an idiiot. princeton would have probably not accepted me if i was.</p>
<p>dan, you have overtly offended me by placing into question not only my professionalism, but also my practicality and diligence. i assure you you have no basis on which to judge me for these skills and advise you to keep your ill-intentioned criticisms to yourself.</p>
<p>Your family CAN afford Princeton. You CAN graduate debt free. That is exactly the what they promised. The Ivies are need-blind only. No merit money. You knew that, too, right?</p>
<p>I hope so too - we're obviously not getting anywhere, since Valdez seems to be unable to see why people are upset with him, and the rest of us are having some trouble understanding the situation as he sees it.</p>
<p>on the contrary, i understand where you guys are coming from...and i dont care if you see it my way. isnt that what discussion is for? sharing each others opinions. i agree there's no need to get rude about it, and thats why i havent</p>
<p>I hope so too, but only because people are now making personal attacks. That needs to stop, guys. It's far from classy. This could actually be turned into an intelligent, meaningful conversation...</p>
<p>I agree that it got extreme...but you have to see how serious this is to everyone else.</p>
<p>If you honestly didn't know what the ED contract signified (what the financial repercussions could be, in other words), then you can certainly call Princeton, explain the situation, and be let out of the agreement. I'd do so as quickly as possible so they don't think you've known about this for awhile. If you DID know that ED is supposed to be financially binding (barring an extremely low aid offer or a significant change in family finances), then backing out is unethical. There's no other way around it.</p>
<p>EDIT: Sorry! Did not know about Peace Treaty....:)</p>