ED/EA and fin aid, what to do?

[electronblue]

My daughter, an athletic musician with high stats tilted towards math, is attempting to figure out her best course of action. She's a wonderful, responsible, all-around great kid, but hasn't done anything extraordinary that would make her stand out from the pack. She attends a mediocre urban public school that sends very few kids to top schools. She's white but her school is majority black and she would prefer to attend a diverse college. She's interested in studying math, perhaps computer science or economics, or a combination thereof.

She'd love to go to MIT but that's obviously very difficult to get into, they don't offer ED, and it seems they don't offer a lot of financial aid to upper middle income students. Her other favorite school after visiting is Williams. Also hard to get into, but they do have ED, and their financial aid calculator indicates an award which would be very doable for our family. Can the calculator be trusted? Not necessarily down to the penny, but say within a couple or few thousand? We have a very straightforward financial situation, not a lot of assets, and have modest home equity.

It's really tough to look at the admission rates and not ED if a school offers it. I know the adage is if money is an issue at all then you shouldn't ED, but what if their calculator indicates money would not be an issue?

And don't worry, we're spending a lot of time on safeties too.

[garland]

Williams is a full-needs school with a lot of money; I have heard no evidence that they would meet the need with an abundance of loans. As I said in the discussion on the FA board, all experiences I've heard indicate that full-needs schools are pretty predictable--I guessed very closely what aid my S would get from his school, and was correct.

The other issue, though, is does she want to prematurely lose the opportunity to go to MIT? If it is truly her first choice, then applying ED elsewhere might lead to a lot of second guessing later on.

[electronblue]

That is the rub garland. She said "I could always go there for grad school". I'm concerned that she would be admitted and we would be unable to pay for it. They don't have an MIT specific FA calculator but from reading it seems they are less generous with the upper middle class. Williams has eliminated loans. I can see aspects of both schools as good fits for her.

[Keilexandra]

If your daughter is truly willing to make Williams her first choice (i.e. she won't have regrets about MIT), the financial situation shouldn't be a problem. Williams has a flush endowment and is known for being generous; their calculator should be reasonably accurate, as long as YOUR numbers are accurate.