Dozens of prominent colleges fill a third or more of their incoming classes through early-decision applications, which prevent comparison shopping for the best financial deal and make it more difficult to get in during the regular admissions cycle.
What’s new?
Nothing here is new for regular forum people. But it may be a surprise for high school juniors and parents new to the process.
A lot of schools will give you a read on FA if you ask early before applying, a good way to see if the school is affordable. And if you get in ED and it is not affordable, you can decline.
However, when one is admitted ED, one cannot compare.
For example, college X may be a student’s first choice, and the early read and NPC say $M which is affordable, but the budget would be tight. College Y may be the student’s second choice, but if the student gets enough competitive scholarship to make the net price $N or less (for some N < M), the student may be swayed to go to college Y instead of college X. A student in this situation may not want to apply ED to college X and forego the opportunity to see the offer from college Y, since his/her preference between colleges X and Y depend on their net prices (and non-automatic competitive scholarships are hard to predict).