<p>I’ve heard somewhere in CC that the ED process is self-selective? What exactly is self-selective? Are there any other disadvantages of applying ED? (like much more competitive applicant pool?)</p>
<p>self-selective means that the people applying generally have grades and scores that are higher and therefore in colleges’ upper ranges or higher. also, the ed pool tends to contain legacies and recruited athletes as well. however, even though the ed pool may seem more competitive, if you would be in the running for the regular decision pool, you should simply be deferred.</p>
<p>Also, you will probably get less financial aid if you apply, and are accepted, ED, since the school doesnt have to lure you in with financial aid packages.</p>
<p>The main disadvantages are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you get in and change your mind, you are stuck. One’s perspective about a good college fit can change a lot by April of senior year.</p></li>
<li><p>If you get in and then learn that your parents can’t afford it or won’t pay the costs, you are stuck being very disappointed and may also have great difficulty being released from your ED commitment. Your GC also may be ticked at you and may not advocate strongly for you with other schools.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>what if I love college X but I’m not an athlete or URM or have legacies? Also, what if my grades aren’t very stellar? Is it better to apply regular? But again, what if I am just crazy to go to college X? Do I just take the risk and try applying ED?</p>
<p>no. its always better to apply ED.</p>
<p>I’m making an assumption here, but Stanford’s SCEA…</p>
<p>Nice one quirkily. It’s Stanford SCEA.</p>
<p>northstarmom makes a very important point. Your family should run one of the online FAFSA calculators and make sure they can/will pay the EFC before applying ED.</p>
<p>wait but isnt stanford scea non-binding?</p>
<p>Yes, Stanford SCEA is non binding, but ED is binding. </p>
<p>One of the major disadvantages to ED is that you do not get to compare packages (this in and of it self can cost you thousands of dollars because all need based financial aid is not created equally). You have no idea as to what someone else will offer and you give up the opportunity to see where else you would have been accepted because your are suppose to withdraw all of your applicaitons.</p>
<p>Something to keep in mind…you should be using the FAFSA thingy for both ED and RD, because the thing is: the amount isn’t going to change much from December to April.</p>
<p>So the choices you apply for are still going to be the same price, no matter if you apply ED or not.</p>
<p>Read the financial aid requirements for each school you are considering. Schools that only offer need based FA : the ivies, MIT, Stanford (not including athletic scholarhsips),etc. will require the CSS profile in addition to the FAFSA (which only determines your eligiblity for federal aid; pell/seog grants,stafford and perkins loans). </p>
<p>Keep in mind that schools that use the federal methodology and schools that use the institutional methodology look at different numbers in determining your aid, so there will be a big difference between the EFC you get from the FAFSA and the EFC you get once you file the CSS profile or a schools institutional aid forms.</p>
<p>I would suggest running your numbers through the college board’s website using both methodologies.</p>
<p>Northstarmom’s second point doesn’t apply here, I don’t think, since Stanford is SCEA, not ED. If the OP gets in SCEA, and doesn’t like his/her financial aid package, he can negotiate it just as if he applied RD (assuming he submits RD apps as well). There shouldn’t be any reason why aid for SCEA would be significantly worse than aid RD.</p>
<p>Just make sure you absolutely want to go there and wouldn’t change your mind in a thousand years. A classmate of mine got in ED, was happy, and then almost ate her app when she got into a 10x better school RD. =S</p>
<p>My first choice is Stanford, but I’m not applying for FA.</p>
<p>melli, your friend should have withdrawn all RD admissions after being accepted to an ED school. not doing so is violating the ED policy. However I do agree with your point. Many people choose ED because of the appearant higher acceptance rate. I know some of my friends chose their ED schools w/o even knowing which city the school was in. Its hard to reject the enticing acceptance rate of ED, but people really need to think about what happens after being accepted. will this school really be the best choice I can make?</p>
<p>you get ED acceptees complaining about their ED choices after being accepted every year, enough complains to raise the question: why did you choose this school in the first place?</p>
<p>lynda:</p>
<p>Hmm. True, I’d never thought of that. And those are some awful ED reasons. I never knew that people would apply without knowing what city it’s in. O_O</p>