My friend’s daughter has her heart set on a college and wants to apply ED. However, the mom is wondering if kids who are accepted ED ever get merit aid. She is worried about her daughter applying ED, because then there is no chance to compare offers. Her question is, if he daughter gets in ED without any merit aid, is she still obligated to accept? I understand that financial constraints are the only way to get out of ED acceptance.
There’s a difference between financial aid and merit aid. She won’t be able to get out of the ED agreement because she did not receive merit aid. She can only get out of the agreement if she had applied for financial aid, but did not receive enough financial aid.
Depending on the school, this is a reasonable worry, but there’s no easy answer. If her family’s financial situation is able to support her, and the school is really selective, then going for ED is down to her choice. If her family’s financial situation may not support her, then she must apply for financial aid in order to have a reason to get out of the ED agreement. If the school is not selective (compared to her grades and test scores), then it might be best to just not apply ED.
Thanks @Woandering . So it’s a crap shoot. If she appliesED and doesn’t get any merit aid, and the family doesn’t demonstrate financial aid, she will be committed. Out of curiosity, how is this enforced? Would the college sue you if you decided not to enroll?
Merit money is a recruiting tool to “incentivize” an applicant to choose the school over other schools. So why would a school need to offer u a bribe if you are bound to commit?
Good point. But how do they enforce this?
Some schools have used a written guarantee of merit money as an inducement to apply ED. A friend lives in a city that is generally lower income (though I don’t think he is). His child was guaranteed a full ride to a top LAC if the child applied ED. I guess they wanted to boost their numbers for inner city youth. It might have been a privately funded scholarship endowment that could only be awarded to inner city youth. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me but it happened and they took the cash.
I’ve seen stuff like that before where my kids weren’t allowed to participate in an event because of their address, because their address wasn’t a target of some donor group, and the non-profit organization didn’t want to anger their donors.