<p>
</p>
<p>But the answer can’t really stop at that point in the continuum. Looking forward down the road, it’s an awful situation to be in because there’s no telling whether other schools – ones that weren’t worth applying ED to – will give more FA than Oberlin. So, you may be discarding your best card. You won’t know that until the springtime…but saying “no” to the Oberlin FA package means saying “no” to your favorite school…because you’re betting other schools will beat that amount. And if they don’t…? It’s not as if you can tell Oberlin that you’ve reconsidered and will accept the ED offer that you rejected. If you love a college so much that you’re willing to disregard all the rest if that college accepts you…would you want to enter into a decision-matrix in which there’s the possibility that you’ll discard that matriculation opportunity away so you can gamble for better FA from less desirable colleges?</p>
<p>I think, practically speaking, if you’re applying ED to the “dream” college and are seeking FA, you need to be prepared to take the family contribution number they lay on you, whatever it is…knowing that you won’t have other peer institutions’ calculations to help you make the case that Oberlin must have overlooked something or miscalculated. There is no “negotiating” room (for lack of a better term) and you’ll have to have faith that you just got the best possible FA award because, once you accept – and withdraw any other college applications – it will, in fact, be the best FA award you’ll see.</p>
<p>It’s sort of the Schrodinger’s Cat of college admissions. If you apply ED seeking FA and you get accepted to your most favorite college, you need to do so on the assumption that, regardless of what the FA package says, you’ll still proceed to matriculation, foregoing your right to withdraw due to inadequate aid. At the same time, the only people who – I think – can afford to make that sort of gamble are people who may not need financial aid. You need FA…and, at the same time, you don’t need FA – or maybe that college really isn’t the top choice anyway.</p>
<p>I think if your ability truly hinges on the FA award – then, as a practical matter, you need to bow out of the ED pool. I don’t think the right to reject an offer of acceptance if the aid package isn’t sufficient is a desirable fallback position for your clear favorite college. It’s better to go through the RD process, I think, and then – if your favorite college doesn’t give you enough aid, you might have other FA decisions that you can use to make the case that you ought to get something more.</p>
<p>In any case, imagine how awful it would be to turn down an ED acceptance, go through the RD process, and not have any FA awards that matched or bettered the ED award amount from the awesome college that you refused to attend a few months ago? That’s one nasty outcome that you could face if you go into the ED round thinking, “No worries! I can always refuse the offer if the FA award isn’t enough!”</p>