Early Decision, engineering, and Scholarship

KandKsmom
Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:01:28 +0000

Rhoerle,

The way our family viewed applying ED was we needed to be sure going in that should our child receive acceptance, we could afford to pay the costs W/O hoping for or receiving merit/FA afterward. Although you have worked very hard and have wonderful credentials, no one is assured of merit aid and at a state public school I think it is even harder to get. If you do not qualify for much need-based aid, the chances are even more slim; many of the merit scholarships have the need factor attached.

If your parents are willing to/can afford to pay full OOS costs and you know that VT is where you want to go, then applying ED wouldn’t be a bad decision, especially since you want to go into engineering. But, I would be very wary of making any application decision dependent upon receiving money. Best of luck to you!