<p>Hi! I am 100% sure I want to go to Carleton next year, but the problem is that I will need a lot of financial aid. If I apply ED, will my financial aid package be the same as RD? Also, how close is Carleton’s financial aid award to the College Board estimator? Thanks, posit</p>
<p>Posit,
In theory, yes, your financial aid award should be the same as if you apply RD. That said, many people are shocked when they see their financial aid award. The EFC calculator can give you an idea of how much your family will be expected to pay, not counting how much you, as a student will be expected to take out in loans and pay through work-study. For our family, most financial aid awards came in within $1,000 of the EFC figure.</p>
<p>While applying ED may increase your odds of getting into Carleton, it takes away your ability to compare financial aid packages.</p>
<p>My son got accepted ED and got a very acceptable aid package. Actually, it was a little more than I expected from the estimators. His older brother applied to 10 of the very top schools in the country (Harvard, MIT, Penn, U of C, Swarthmore, etc. and got into all of them. Their aid packages weren’t all that different in terms of the money. Certainly, not enough to matter when one is spending $40K to $50K per year.</p>