<p>My daughter’s friend wants to apply to a school that is needblind and guarantees to meet demonstrated need. Since she loves the school, and she really needs the boost of ED (her math and science stats are not great; she’s a talented artist), she wants to apply ED. Her dad has been on disability for years and her mom is a preschool teacher, so I think their EFC would be pretty minimal (although, of course, I don’t know). Her guidance counselor has told her parents (she’s first-generation, so they’re pretty intimidated by the whole thing) that, if she applies ED and must decline for financial reasons, <em>she will have to wait a year before she can apply anywhere but a community college.</em> </p>
<p>Can this be true? Can’t she apply RD, having turned down her acceptance, assuming that she’s got her RD applications ready to go, as she would need to anyway, since she can’t know the results of her ED ap until Dec. 15? The contract for ED on the Common Ap says only that in the case of not enough FA the student would be released from the commitment to attend, but it also says that “Institutions will clearly articulate their specific policies in their Early Decision agreement.” The web site for the college says only that “Early Decision candidates are making a binding commitment to attend [college] if admitted.” No acknowledgment of FA questions, at all.</p>
<p>I don’t see why she would need to wait a year to attend, unless the GC is worried that her FA packages from other schools would be less because she may have missed cutoffs for the best financial aid.</p>
<p>It’s my understanding that if you apply ED to college X and are denied or accepted but you decline for whatever reason, that you cannot apply to college X until the next year.</p>
<p>She can still apply RD to other colleges as long as she meets their deadlines.</p>
<p>The friend should contact the registrar’s office at the particular college and ask them this question and also ask where it’s stated on their website (for confirmation). That’ll eliminate conjecture.</p>
<p>I suspect that the counselor is mixing up several different things. Or the parents are intimidated and misunderstood what the counselor was saying. </p>
<p>In general, if you’re accepted ED (and are OK with the finances), you’re done with applications. The ED agreement is supposed to make students take this seriously. That’s to make sure that a student doesn’t apply ED to, say, Columbia, and then continue on with RD applications to, say, Yale. A student who tried that would likely end up finding that Columbia was rescinding the ED offer, and that Yale was rejecting even considering their application. The student would still be able to apply to schools that don’t care about the entire ED business. That would include community colleges, and their in-state public university, among others. </p>
<p>If a student is accepted ED but doesn’t get offered enough financial aid to make the ED school affordable, then the Common App allows the student to withdraw from the ED acceptance with no penalty. </p>
<p>Exhibit 2345 for the “My GC is clueless” dossier.</p>
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<p>There is no reason for the applicant to fear this. The RD and finaid applications are sent when needed. All the ED does is to give an early option to either accept or decline the financial aid package. There are NO possibilities to compare packages. You are in or out in early January.</p>
<p>She will not have to wait a year to apply anywhere. If she’s offered acceptance by the school and declines, she’ll have to wait a year to apply to that school. What she needs to do is turn in the ED application and then immediately begin working on her RD applications as back ups. she may not have time to put together RD applications after the ED decisions come out, so they need to be ready to go in advance so she can send them as soon as she knows what her answer is going to be. She may even want to submit her RD applications before she hears back from her ED school. If she takes the ED offer, she just then has to contact the other schools and withdraw her application.</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses. I thought the guidance counselor was wrong or was being misunderstood, but I wanted to be sure before I said anything. I will suggest that they check with the college.</p>