<p>I think that a lot of students are applying Early to colleges especially to ones that offer merit aid like Emory and don’t require you to apply ED. For the kids whose parents don’t qualify for a lot of financial aid who thought that they would be able to pay full price or more, they are also hurting financially like everyone else. I know of kids who applied Early Action to colleges that offer merit aid (Boston College, Emory, Duke for example) so that they can see if they get merit $$. Then, they applied RD to other highly competitive schools and they’ll look at where they got in and if it’s truly worth them paying $200M for an Ivy versus getting 2/3 or full merit at a competitive college. Just a thought…It’s an extremely competitive class (height of the Baby Boomers) and a rough year economically for everyone! Go figure!</p>