ED and Financial Aid

Financial Aid & Scholarships
#1

<p>I've heard many reasons why applying Early Decision while seeking financial aid is a good thing (fresh funds, financial aid is the only way the ED contract can be broken, etc.) and a bad thing (no other schools to compare financial offers with, less leniency with negotiations b/c no other comparisons, "they've already got you," etc.).</p>

<p>Does anyone have nightmarish stories about being offered completely terrible financial aid packages after being accepted ED? Or, likewise, any fantastic fairytales?</p>

#2

<p>No matter what stories people share, unless you have the same financial situation, YMMV. In short, their experience may not necessarily be your experience. Your best bet would be to do your due diligence, including talking to your parents to see if ED is a finanically feasible option for your family.</p>

#3

<p>Sybbie is right. Your experience could easily vary from anyone else's. In our case, my son applied ED, we had used the college's online financial aid calendar to get an estimate of aid ahead of time, the award he ultimately got was pretty much exactly to the dollar of the estimate.</p>

<p>Some things to consider though: We have only income, no investments, no property other than our primary home, no small business, no assets aside from a (very) small savings account, we are not beneficiaries of any trusts, we do not have any extraordinary expenses or debt other than our mortgage, our combined family income was approx. 60K at the time. We are married and there is no non-custodial parent's income and assets to consider.</p>

<p>So for us, it worked great, but we have about as simple and straight-forward family finances as you can get.</p>