College financial planner advised do not apply ED. Thoughts?

Tara108
Sat, 12 Nov 2016 07:08:56 +0000

My understanding is that the advantage of ED is:

for many colleges the admission rate is higher for this pool of applicants

the process is over early and therefore saves time, money and the hassle of waiting till the spring for an answer

Last year the son of a friend of mine did not apply ED because of the financial aid issue (if he was accepted he could not compare aid offers and they might not have been able to afford the school). He applied and was deferred EA at another school, then applied to schools with good merit aid in December. University of Rochester offered him a full ride through their scholar program and later I found out that quite a number of other colleges offer this kind of thing–an honors program within a decent but not outstanding university with great merit aid. The son of a friend received something similar at Colgate. These are fine programs. It is worth investigating.

One person above posted that ED is not binding if one cannot afford the fin aid package, but I think the assumption is that one will not apply ED if one cannot afford whatever the college might offer.

Best wishes!