<p>What? No bumper sticker to put on the car? :):p</p>
<p>congrats on becoming a member, dstark
at least one of us is benefiting from my situation :D</p>
<p>Dstark, for the smiley face, just type the usual shortcut : + ) … it should translate into 
-no plus sign between the symbols. If not, you may have the smiley tool disabled in your user panel.</p>
<p>As Carolyn said, we have had more than a few threads on ED in the past. Take a look at the one from October 2004. I know that I read some in 2003 and found out about the reasons why I could NOT apply ED. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?70/44013[/url]”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?70/44013</a></p>
<p>I understand that the decision for Valdez is not that easy. However, there is an option that have not seen discussed here. If the difference is only $4,000 a year, he could take a gap year after obtaining deferral from Princeton and earn sufficient money to finance the financial gap during the four years. This could give him ample time to say goodbye to his dog, break up with his girlfriend, sell his truck, and realize he wants to move away from home. Sounds like a bad Country-Western song. Well, the last part was in jest!</p>
<p>PS I hope I never reach 300 posts on CC!</p>
<p>Jamimom, I haven’t had to resort to any sorts of austerity measures with a child in college! To put myself through college, yes, I did. Now, I’m just smack dab in the middle class. I feel really fortunate that Princeton doesn’t have loans for college, BUT in checking out financial aid at many colleges, I was prepared for loans had there not been a Princeton acceptance. If we wanted free, there were offers for free rides. I’m not saying this is the cheapest alternative, but for us it’s wonderful because it is a good education and affordable. I most certainly don’t consider that I am making any noble sacrifices and in fact our need is met as it would be at most colleges, only without loans. I hope that everyone else out in CC land will carefully check out their own financial aid options.<br>
Patuxent, I have been told that no college tuition actually covers the true cost of a college education but that the college’s endowment subsidizes it. And that is all I know on that subject.</p>
<p>For financial aid packages, Princeton is a tough one to beat. Though Texas A&M is not bad in providing financial aid along with merit aid (about 70% get need fully met, 89% of it with grants), many of these schools that are eager to pay for merit, really do not do well in meeting need even defined by FAFSA. I know many families where they simply cannot come up with the money for college, and since the kids are not eligible for merit aid, they end up with loans that they really cannot afford. I would not call Princeton a “rip off” school as most kids who go there do truly feel it was worth every cent to go there, and they tend to do well. There are some schools out there that I really cast a jaudiced eye when I hear of famiies really breaking the bank to send their children there. </p>
<p>I do also want to mention to Valdez and to those who “game” the system that the world of upper academia is small indeed, and I have seen some amazing coincidences occur. It really does not pay to pee in one’s soup, as the expression goes. If you become a superstar that can flaunt all the rules, that’s fine. But most of us have to rely on our reputations and cannot always choose our opportunities when and where we want them. We have found ourselves crossing paths with people who did not feel that way when they were young, wishing that they were wiser then. Makes funny social hour talk, but really not pleasant. As you enter adulthood, you are shaping who you are going to be, and other people’s perceptions of you. It really can add up to a lot in time.</p>
<p>No, but your mom gets one. “I’m the proud parent of a man who knows how to do smilies!”</p>
<p>xiggi: rottsa ruck.</p>
<p>lol, that melodramatic comment of mine has come back to haunt me again!
dont got a truck…but I did talk to my gf yesterday and asked her. she said “you know what I would choose for you (she obviously wants me to stay here), but God has brought you to this…he’s gonna take you through it”
she’s such a keeper</p>
<p>As I said earlier, Cricket, you have great financial management skills. And in my book that is more valuable than great wealth in term of $$$$ and material things. You can never have enough money if you cannot manage it properly. It’s what you have left that really counts. I have seen families truly strapped who have luxerious homes and things. They have made such a commitment in expensive things that they are as squeezed financially as anyone who can’t make ends meet. Many are operating at a deficit, and when the piper comes to collect his pay, it can get pretty ugly. Many resort to desperate, illegal things, they are so addicted to the high flying life and they just cannot bear to lose it. So if you can teach your children to live within their means, all of us, actually, it is a more valuable lesson that setting them up for a high income life. Though money can certainly make a positive difference in life, learning to manage it can make for a far more positive life. Something I am still working on mastering.</p>
<p>Everybody has been told that college tuition doesn’t cover the cost of a college education cricket but that is a statement that is unprovable and unknowable and in any event meaningless. It like saying ticket sales don’t cover the cost of the New York Yankees. If Princeton were only in the business of confering undergraduate degrees and only had one source of revenue that might be true but Princeton is in a much more complex business and can no more isolate the cost of an undergraduate degree than George Steinbrenner can isolate the costs of producing valuable broadcast rights. With no crowds in the stands cheering the team on then there is no broadcast interest, no ads sold etc. So how much to charge for tickets? What does a seat at the game “cost” the Yankees? Similarly college administrators define the “cost” of education as the sum of anything they feel like buying.</p>
<p>In any event the cost is not my concern. The price is and that should be determined by the market and not by a cartel.</p>
<p>This thread jumps from legal to economic analysis but I still find little reason to agree with Patuxent!</p>
<p>“In any event the cost is not my concern. The price is and that should be determined by the market and not by a cartel.”</p>
<p>If the price was indeed set by a cartel, they ought to fire its advisers for underestimating the price they could charge. </p>
<p>Patuxent, don’t you think that an analysis of the the relative elasticity of the current supply and demand curves would show that the market would accept higher -if not MUCH higher- prices? It does not take a Rhodes scholar to plug in the current demand represented by the total applications, the current supply as the number of seats available, and use the yield to establish some variables. </p>
<p>Given a single digit acceptance ratio, the price could be set a LOT higher before eroding the number of applications. At what price level would the model break? A surprisingly high number is the answer … So much for market analysis!</p>
<p>Patuxent, if you don’t like the ED rules, don’t play the game. If you don’t like the process for a given college, choose a different one. That’s the market for you. Some conditions will be pretty near pervasive but then some folks are outraged by the Law of Gravity, too.</p>
<p>“some folks are outraged by the Law of Gravity, too.” </p>
<p>Everytime I look in the mirror.</p>
<p>A moderator steps in to LOL! I know how you feel.</p>
<p>I have to agree with you TheDad. Neither of my sons opted for ED, although it would have been nice to have an early reply and a boost from more “demonstrated interest” (real or imagined). We don’t have a crystal ball to anticipate any surprise aid, and it was necessary for our family to be able to compare financial aid packages in April. We also could not tell if what the college deemed our fair share was actually something we could pull off, particularly since it was our first time going through the process last year. </p>
<p>Whether we like the ED rules is not the issue, it is whether we should abide by them. (For the record, I don’t like them–am I the only stupid person taking them as the Gospel and accepting the ED contracts as written?) I thought when you received your ED acceptance you were to withdraw any other applications, which would then preclude any other offers from coming in? Did I miss something? So we are talking about 1)Not withdrawing applications in a timely manner and 2)breaking an ED contract.</p>
<p>
Just one note: I didn’t see this thread until after most of the Princeton ED “controversy” occurred, but I’d like to say that the Princeton CC board seemed (to me) to have done quite well. There were perhaps a couple of out-of-hand posts, but most of the responses were very thoughtful. I don’t recall any deferred people directly claiming spots, and only one poster said something about hoping Valdez enrolled at TA&M.
(See: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=26449[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=26449</a>)</p>
<p>Because you can afford what Princeton said was your contribution, you have no loans. What if you can’t?</p>
<p>Your EFC is going to roughly be the same amount of money (maybe even more at public universities) no matter where you attend. So what happens, if you don’t have your EFC, at any other school. In addition, you still have to fill out a FAFSA even if you apply ED. Therefore if you can’t afford the EFC which the federal government estimates that your family can afford, you still have the option of withdrawing ED and being considered for RD.</p>
<p>“Jamimom, there are many reasons to send a kid to a very selective school. One reason is for a kid to be able to eventually get a good job. Then buy a great house. I find it ironic that people go deep into debt and risk their nice house so that someday, maybe, their own kid might be able to buy one.”</p>
<p>Ya know, this is a “values” thing, not a competent financial planning thing. We don’t have the nice house to risk: we’ve got the five and a half room, .07 acres, suspect school system, pipes-froze-last-night, handyman special. It makes saving a little easier, and school friends sure do open their eyes when they come by–you know they’re thinking, “why do you live like this if you don’t get financial aid” and the reason could be – we’re living like this because we don’t get FA (which is true), but it really is: this is enough, we don’t need anything more. So if we my kids parlay their educations into bigger houses than they grew up in, fine, but we don’t expect them to, and that’s not the reason we scrimp to pay for their schools.</p>
<p>Leave it to Xiggi to be on target. It is just silly to have turned this arguement into one of pricing and the honor of schools. And that old familiar subject about how unfair colleges are to not make themselves eqyally available to all. Is there any other private industry that even contemplates equality?</p>
<p>Sybbie, very good points about the EFC. </p>
<p>I smiled to think that I might be a good financial manager; had I much money to manage, that might be proven! I think my financial skills have not much place in this discussion though. I only meant to strongly disagree that there is anything wrong with Princeton’s aid. It’s great, and I doubt Valdez meant to portray otherwise. I think Texastaximom is right with her assessment, points 1 and 2.<br>
Valdez, I know you came here for help and I’m not sure how much you’ve gotten. I would probably tell my own kid, were he in such a situation, “unfortunately you can’t go back and undo things, you just have to do your best to do it right from this point foreward.” You’ve got some thinking to do. Do you have a college counselor or guidance counselor at your school? Does he/she have an opinion on this matter? In any case, do some soul searching and see where that puts you.</p>
<p>Will we find out what happened to this guy?</p>