@calmom while I understand your post and it makes good sense to me–I have a question. I have never looked at an ED agreement until I read the one from UChicago that was posted in this thread. That ED agreement refers to “financial aid” and does not distinguish between merit aid and need based aid. Since my understanding is that technically merit aid falls under the umbrella of financial aid, then I am unsure of where you see the rule that only need-based aid is a justification for backing out of an ED agreement. Wouldn’t you think that if that were the intent of the ED agreement, it would clearly state that not receiving merit aid is not a proper basis upon which to terminate an ED agreement? If this were an issue, one would think that the ED agreement would address this. Or maybe other ED agreements make this distinction?
Though it certainly may be fair to assert that backing out of an ED agreement due to not getting sufficient merit aid violates the spirit of the agreement, the actual terms of the agreement make no distinction between the two forms of aid (merit and need-based). I wonder why. Anyone have any idea? If there is a distinction as far as college policy goes, then why is that not addressed specifically? This issue has had to come up before, yet I wonder if any college has addressed it in its ED agreement. Or am I wrong in saying that merit aid comes under the umbrella of financial aid?