<p>Bottom Line – I’ve never heard of a school making someone go.</p>
<p>However, if the financial aid calculator says you will get no financial aid, you should assume that you will, in fact get little or no financial aid. If that means you cannot attend Cornell, you would, in all likliehood be wasting your ED application on this school.</p>
<p>In addition, I believe that a student posted last year that after declining an ED acceptance from Cornell for financial reasons, another Ivy that had issued a ‘likely letter’ ended up rejecting him (essentially saying that their financial aid package wouldn’t be any better than Cornell’s). This suggests that the Ivies share information and that you would hurt your chances at other schools. </p>
<p>Bottom line – based on your situation, I would strongly recommend against applying ED.</p>