<p>Toujours - goodtimes is providing information about schools that are not need blind. Such schools have limited FA budgets and when they get to the last 10-20% of students that they accept, need awareness starts to creep in as these schools exhaust their budgets. HOWEVER, Duke is one of about 60 schools that are need blind in admissions AND guarantee to meet 100% of demonstrated need. Here is a list of these schools: ([Which</a> Colleges Claim to Meet Students’ Full Financial Need? - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2011/02/16/which-colleges-claim-to-meet-students-full-financial-need]Which”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2011/02/16/which-colleges-claim-to-meet-students-full-financial-need))</p>
<p>So, worry not about having your admissions chances put in jeopardy in any way by the fact that you are applying for financial aid. I can assure you of that. With that being said, your other concern is probably what “meeting 100% of financial need” means. If you haven’t already, you should run your family’s financial information through Duke’s net price calculator:
<a href=“Net Price Calculator”>Net Price Calculator;
<p>Assuming your family has fairly straightforward income and assets (which is sounds like is the case), the NPC for Duke should give you a very accurate idea of what to expect for financial aid. Like most of its peer institutions, Duke will package financial aid for you first with about $2000 in work study and a $1000-5000 Stafford loan (capped at different income levels). The rest of your demonstrated need will be a Duke scholarship grant. Keep in mind that even if your family EFC is low, or even zero, you will an expected student contribution (EFC) of about $2100, which the school expects students to earn during the summer.</p>
<p>So, by applying ED to Duke, you can rest assured that the FA package that they offer you will be identical to what you would be offered if you applied RD and were accepted. Duke does not “run out” of FA money. The one big downside of ED in terms of FA is that you lose the chance to compare, evaluate, and negotiate a better offer from another school. It’s possibe that another school could determine a different amount of need. That, you will never know by applying ED.</p>
<p>Take a look at this page on the Duke FA site. It actually models an FA situation for a family with income of $55K:
[Duke</a> Financial Aid: Award Statistics](<a href=“http://www.finaid.duke.edu/undergraduate/stats/index.html#FAI]Duke”>http://www.finaid.duke.edu/undergraduate/stats/index.html#FAI)</p>
<p>I hope this helps, and good luck with ED!</p>