Agree with comment #18 and will add another wrinkle…everyone is assuming ED2 has a higher acceptance rate than RD, which I don’t think is actually known. To my knowledge, not many (if any) schools breakout ED numbers by ED1 and ED2 anymore (Hamilton used to). Some AOs and other admin suggest that ED2 admission rates can be the lowest of all (again no hard data, just anecdotes)
NPC is likely inaccurate. Let’s not forget that. Yes. Wait to see what the offer is. And yes, you should look into FA for the current student, now that two costs need to be covered.
Does the older sibling attend a college that meets full need for all? If so, yes, you probably will see some need based aid for older sibling. If the college does NOT guarantee to meet full need for all…then there is no guarantee you will get a dime of need based aid beyond the Direct Loan.
Will the business downturn show up in last year’s tax return? If so, I’d focus on getting those business and personal returns completed ASAP so you can demonstrate a change in circumstance to both FA offices. Personally, I would wait to contact the ED school until admitted.
It’s true that NPCs can be inaccurate for business owners but I haven’t found them to be nearly as inaccurate as one would think from reading CC. If you’ve looked through your business tax return for items that might be treated as income, and if you’ve accurately entered your business value, it’s possible the NPC is close. Now, if your business is on the more complicated side, with inventories, ownership of property or multiple other entities, etc., it can be hard to know how different items will be treated. I have had luck in the past calling FA offices anonymously, telling them we’re putting together a college list and want to be sure the NPC is roughly accurate for us, and asking what I should be looking for in the business tax return that might throw off the NPC. That may not work everywhere. But it might work at your older child’s school and they might even offer to do a pre read for you.
@mommdc , there will be two in college for two years.
@Mwfan1921 , the ED2 school publishes their admissions rates , so that’s how we know. It’s the difference between an approximately 6 percent RD admission rate versus an approximately 20 percent ED admission rate (this is from memory and may be a little off, but it was something like that) as published by them and also stated during college tour when someone asked. Someone also asked on the tour re: ED1 versus ED2 and the response was the admissions rate is approx the same at that college for ED1 versus ED2 (although I am not sure if we can believe that).
@thumper1 , the older sibling’s college allegedly meets 100 percent of need. But I won’t know till May 1 what they calculate that out to be! (Actually, this younger kid also applied to sibling’s college -RD- and I as a parent think sibling’s college is the best place for this kid too and feel like it’s a better college and more likely to give better finaid, so I wish my kid would have done the ED2 at the sibling’s college; but it’s not high on my kid’s list from my kid’s perspective unfortunately. I knew/know that not letting this kid have a choice and forcing my choice would backfire.)
Thanks @splokey It would be great if you could provide more details as ED2 acceptance rate data is hard to come by.
If you are referring to an overall ED admission rate (no breakout between ED1 and ED2) of 20%, you do have to back out hooked candidates (e.g., athletes, URM, first gen, legacies, development cases) to get a better comparison to the RD rate. At many schools the ED advantage is much lower than what it actually looks like, while at some schools there is not an advantage at all.
@Mwfan1921 , we “might” be mildly hooked. Latino. (Anyway, it’s too late for the application submission decisionmaking, LOL!)
@splokey Good luck and keep us updated!
ED2 school just today added something in the financial aid portal for my kid (where all other required documents have long ago been marked as “received”), a brand new category/brand new entry in the required documents list about (marked as “awaiting” ) stafford loan promissory note. um, can i assume my kid will be accepted , if they just added this ? yikes.
Sounds promising!!
No. Financial aid office most often works independently from admissions. They are just loaning things. You wouldn’t have to do the promissory note until this summer even if you are accepted. The don’t even announce the rate for the loans until July 1.
I totally get why you went ahead with the ED2. Makes sense. Backing out if the FA doesn’t work is appropriate and fair given that the colleges all state that is a reason to back out. Contacting them after getting the FA award and explaining circumstances to see if they can award more is fair and appropriate, if needed. Asking for an extension until getting a possibly revised FA award to make the decision on is fair and appropriate and just makes sense.
One thing that doesn’t at all make sense is wanting to extend the decision until other schools RD decisions/ FA is announced. Why? Either the ED2 is affordable or it isn’t. If you can’t do it financially, then it doesn’t matter whether other schools are even worse financially.
Have you tried contacting the college your first child is attending to get a preread on financials with two in college? If your current senior gets accepted ED I’d ask that college if they can give you an estimate of what your net cost would’ve been with just one in college
@Mom2girls , parents can borrow the entire cost if they choose to. what is affordable is subjective in that case. how much the parents need to borrow if, like us, no assets are liquid, is something that anyone faced with having to borrow would want to compare between different colleges. i dont understand why you would think there is some bright line for affiordable or not, in that situation. some might judge that if any parental borrowing is necessary, it is not affordable while others may judge it on the opposite extreme , in which case any amount is affordable because the parents can borrow even the full cost.
@austinmshauri , yes my other kid’s school was kind enough to do a preread but said they could only do it based on the 2017 income and that later when they consider the lower 2018 income upon the full financial aid decision it will be adjusted. so i have a kind of minimum but definitely inaccurate baseline from that, and it may be inaccurate by ( based on the income change) as much as 20,000-30,000 per year of grant aid , so there is still huge uncertainty for comparison purposes.
@twoinanddone , the ED2 school is needaware and i believe admissions works closely with the financial aid office since admissions decisions very much factor in financial need there.
@splokey because that’s not how ED and deciding financial viability works. Doing it that way is unethical and could potentially result in the admission being rescinded, from my understanding. I would be shocked if they don’t just say no to the extension, unless they are lied to about the reason for the request.
We had an unexpected change of circumstances (which we have documentation to show is true) that is not within our control and if the online calculators turn out to be very inaccurate, there was no way for us to have a realistic expectation re: what the financial aid amount would be. When the ED2 was filed, we did not know about this. @mom2collegekids , how would that be unethical? Why do they have it as part of the ED agreement that the commitment can be released for financial reasons, if not for a situation like this??? If a major source of income is a business, and things beyond your control happen that affect the business income, it’s a whole different situation than when you have a job with a set salary for which the online calculators are fairly dependable re: financial aid! Incidentally, at this point after exploring more, I don’t expect to get an extension; I expect to have some back and forth discussion with the financial aid office - if the financial aid award is much lower than the online calculators indicate - and only if that doesn’t result in something reasonable, then to consider asking to be released based on financial reasons.