<p>Vossron, isn’t 99%. Very few students who truly are financially needy are stupid enough to apply ED to a college like Barnard, unless they can be very sure that their FAFSA EFC will be determinative. I would think that most potential applicants to Barnard are too smart to cut off their options that way. Only a small fraction of ED applicants are also applying for financial aid & expecting/needing a significant amount. (I’m not talking about upper middle class families who are hoping to get a small discount over the COA - I’m talking about the kids who really need a lot of financial help to attend a private college). </p>
<p>I have gotten a lot of PM’s from Barnard admittees who were unhappy with their aid, and a significant number of students admitted in the spring end up going elsewhere for financial reasons. Barnard is probably as generous as they can be, but the school does not have a large endowment, so they do use the CSS Profile, they do go over tax returns carefully, they do look at assets and income that are not considered for FAFSA, and they expect their students to contribute a substantial amount through earnings and to take out the maximum available Stafford loans. </p>
<p>You don’t have any direct experience with Barnard or their financial aid office… and yet you are going to come into this thread and encourage potentially needy students to apply ED. To me, that is irresponsible – because you have no clue as to what a Barnard’s financial aid awards look like or what their policies are. (This is a Barnard-specific thread – so whatever your experience may have been with any other school, it doesn’t apply here. Some of your comments, such as your reference to “FA funds can run out at RD time” - just show that you are clueless as to Barnard’s financial aid process. (Barnard is very formulaic – that can work for or against a student, depending on circumstances). Maybe there are other schools that are more generous to ED applicants - I don’t know, but Barnard isn’t one of them.</p>