<p>my3gr8boyz,</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind, many schools have early deadlines for applications if you want to be “fully considered for merit scholarships” or for scholarships that require separate applications. If you wait until you hear from ED before applying to your non-ed schools, you might miss the opportunity for some of the merit scholarships.</p>
<p>My son is a recruited athlete and our family is definitely in a high-need, low-EFC situation. Coach expects him to apply ED, and he will get the admissions boosts of both ED and athletic dept support. Of course there are no athletic scholarships in D3, and no merit aid available, so we will be very dependent upon the need-based grant aid. We hear the normal warnings regarding financial aid, and have read thru much of this thread. So it seems like a judgment call and quite dependent upon the specific’s school’s track record of generosity. Tufts claims to be a “meets 100% of need” school, though may require up to $5K in subsidized loans per year. Has anybody had any direct experience with ED and financial aid at Tufts? Thanks</p>
<p>firsttimeout, I’d ask on the Tufts forum.</p>
<p>Firsttimeout, run the numbers on Tufts NPC. For those schools that meet 100% need, it’s a pretty good indicator. </p>
<p>There has been much on this thread about the drawbacks, limitations, dangers of ED when you need financial aid, so if you read through them, you’ll get an idea of what the issuse are. For comparisions, sake run a NPC on a like school that guarantees to meet need.</p>
<p>noname87- yes, I have just recently been thinking about that, especially the part about some schools giving scholarships to NMSF/NMF’s only if they are named as the top school on the list. That makes it tricky. Timing is also tricky. These overlapping deadlines are stressing me out! Having to make decisions on one thing before knowing another… Do we even bother to keep Duke as the number one on the NMF list, as they don’t even bother with giving any money to NMF’s (but it really is his first choice school and he wants to be honest and is worried about other schools seeing that he applied there ED,so therefore how could THEIR school be his first choice?) and just switch to a school he’s interested in that DOES provide scholarships? But if the scholarship isn’t big enough, it can equal what we would’ve gotten in need-based aide anyway, and then it is all moot… (That would be WPI for example). So maybe Alabama? They have the best package for NMF, although I swear it used to be bigger, and they say you have to be admitted as a NMSF by Dec 1 to receive the package. Well, you can’t even know by Dec 1st if you make finalist status, so we would have to go on the NMSF status and apply ASAP without every having seen the school… certainly possible, unless that date is a binding ED date? Wasn’t clear to me… I’ll have to look again… I’m rambling… And now with the stupid hurricane, I’m expecting to be without internet for those precious days before Nov 1, so we have to get things finished this weekend… Deep breath…</p>
<p>catptofthehouse: thanks for your input about my sons stats. From our discussion with a Admissions officer (the one that covers our area and high school in fact) we learned that Pratt looks at stats at bit more specifically than Trinity (esp SAT scores), and the rate of admission for ED is about 31%, whereas Trinity’s is 25% (those are both ED stats from class of 2016) Pratt accepted 123 of 397 applications for the class of 2016. That percentage was 36% the prior year, or 128 of 354 apps for the class of 2015. My guess is that this year they will have about 450 apps, and still only accept 125 or so, which brings the acceptance percentage to about 28%. Rats. I hadn’t calculated that one yet… still working on those fallback schools, and on getting him to not see them as “fallbacks.”</p>
<p>my3gr8boyz, the National Merit forum (a subforum of the FA forum) has lots of advice about deadlines for declaring your number one school. Some schools do have an early deadline for declaring them as a top choice for getting money, but many others (most?) will let you specify them as first choice at the last possible minute. Those schools, after all, WANT all the possible NM Scholars they can get.</p>
<p>I’m a middle class applicant who has medium/high need (Dad’s been laid off multiple times, sister will be in college during my freshman year, other sister is still a dependent, we have a high income). I did ED and four other EAs in order to not put my eggs in one basket. I’ve tried to search this helpful thread for information about the middle class. Is ED for middle class still a bad idea if you’ll have other options? Even worse idea than those in a lower income bracket? Is there any additional information for ED middle class applicants, as well as explanations for why middle class applicants might be the worst prospective EDers? I’m hoping that if EA goes well and (by some miracle) ED accepts me, I can levy with the EA packages if ED aid does not come through.
However, although the EAs I applied to are of similar merit and esteem as my ED, and there is a chance I could receive insufficient aid to levy with.</p>
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<p>Theoretically, ED does not really leave you with many options. THe basic premise of ED is that in exchange for an early decision if admitted, you will attend, withdraw all outstanding applications and not make any new applications. ED is not intended for if it does not work out that you fall back on your EA school. </p>
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<p>For the most part, due to the fact that EA is non-binding, there will be nothing to leverage because you probably will not get any financial aid packages from you EA schools until April when the regular decisions come out. The scenario that you present is highly unlikely. One of the disadvantages of ED is that you don’t have the luxury of comparing packages. You will not know if the award package from the ED school is your best offer (you have until the end of december to take or leave the offer). If you feel that the money is going to be funky, ask that your ED application be converted to RD and then just work with your EA applications. IN addition make sure that you have a couple of financial safeties in the mix.</p>
<p>Maybe BC and Georgetown have it right when they state that you cannot apply EA to their schools if you have an ED application out there.</p>
<p>Thanks sybbie719 for the response!
ED definitely is supposed to reflect a first-choice mindset. I’ve talked to an admissions officer and she told me not to pull any applications for EA until I’ve settled financial aid with ED and I am certain I can attend. I don’t plan on withdrawing until the legal contract says I have to, which is once I agree to attend.</p>
<p>The EA schools I applied to require the CSS Profile. Even though I filled this out and submitted it to all my EAs and ED, I still won’t know how much I’m getting from the EAs until April? I figured I would get a package in December based on the Profile, even though FAFSA wouldn’t have started by then.</p>
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<p>There is no legal contact, it is a honor bound contract that you will do the right thing. When you, your parents and the counselor sign the firms, you state that you understand what the ED contract entails. When you decide to play fast and loose with the ED agreement, you end up screwing over your GC (burning bridges), and other students who will be applying either RD or next year.</p>
<p>It states
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<p>Once you receive notification of your award (not whether or not you like the award) you must withdraw all of the other applications.</p>
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<p>Your package will not be finalized until the school receives your FAFSA and the IRS data retrieval (in 2013 after your parents file their taxes).</p>
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<p>Hate to break it to you, but your dad’s work history is of no interest to financial aid officers. And a “high income” generally does not equate with “medium/high need.”</p>
<p>There is usually a very short time frame between when you get an ED award and when you have to confirm you will accept it and attend. It’s just 3 weeks or so usually – so the difference between when you get it and when you accept it is not going to make much difference. You need to review it, see if it meets your need, and then let them know. This doesn’t take very long, so unless an applicant is just trying to milk the time and extend the process in hopes of a better offer, it is a pretty simple matter.</p>
<p>If an applicant is trying to milk the time and extend the process, they should not have applied ED. It doesn’t work in that context and that is not the intention of it.</p>
<p>Mine is a middle class family that had a student apply ED and it worked out great for us, but we weren’t trying to weigh options for the “best deal” – my son had a clear first choice school, and if he was accepted and we could afford it, he fully intended to go there – and felt no interest in continuing the college app process beyond that point.</p>
<p>If that more or less describes your situation, then you’ll be fine. If you get accepted ED and the financial aid award works for your family, then you say yes and withdraw the other apps. If it doesn’t, you decline the offer and wait until spring to weigh your offers from other schools and make a decision then.</p>
<p>Sybbie, I’m aware of the policy. I am required to withdraw my applications once I say yes to my ED school, and I plan on doing so. I am still allowed to receive notifications from my EA schools after receiving a notification from my ED. It wouldn’t make sense for my ED to allow other EA applications if I wouldn’t be allowed to receive an acceptance/rejection/waitlist from them. If I am accepted AND accept, I must withdraw. I’ve talked to a guidance counselor who advised me not to pull my applications until I have accepted. Also, ED is indeed a legal contract that required my signature. </p>
<p>I understand my package will not be final by the time I receive it because FAFSA will not be included by then. However, I will receive a package I could levy with, thanks to the CSS Profile (which is extremely detailed and more arduous to complete than the FAFSA), yes? My ED package would also be based on the Profile. </p>
<p>@bluebayou, I don’t mind the bluntness. I’m here for answers, thank you for providing them. And you’re right, high income and high need don’t tend to equate, but woe is the middle class- too rich too be poor and too poor to be rich.</p>
<p>Just read BlueBayou’s post – yes, not knowing what you mean by “high income” it’s hard to say, but it doesn’t sound like you’ll get a lot of need-based aid. You say you are “middle class” but people often use that to describe family incomes in the $90,000 – $150,000 dollar range. Maybe it’s culturally middle-class, but not economically. You’ll just have to see what offer your ED school makes you (assuming you’re accepted, of course) and make a decision with your parents.</p>
<p>Here’s the tricky part, there is always the potential that although you find the award insufficient and turn it down, you won’t know until later if it’s the best one you were going to get. The way around this is to have a public in-state university option where you’d be happy to attend and can afford. That kind of fall-back is worth its weight in gold.</p>
<p>'rentof2, I am on the same page with you. I’m not trying to ‘milk the process’ at all and my decision to do ED does reflect that it is my first choice school. I will also receive notice of my EAs about three to four days after I’m notified of my ED, so I won’t be “waiting around to see” by any means, and will probably immediately launch into talking with financial aid if the money isn’t substantial. Again, as soon as I say yes to ED, I will be pulling all applications (why wouldn’t I? If I say yes, that means I can afford it, so why wait around for a school I want to go to less?)
For my school, I’d have to accept or decline by Jan. 15, which is a month after I find out. I’m praying that my ED works out and will end the process once my family decides we can afford to go.</p>
<p>Also, thank you all for the quick replies and helpful information. It’s extremely valuable to me and I do appreciate all input, whether it’s what I want to hear or not.</p>
<p>Good luck, tawarren. I hope you get news you want, but I’m sure you’ll end up going off to a wonderful college experience wherever your choose.</p>
<p>About leveraging one FA aid package against another, this isn’t a reliable strategy in Regular Decision (although sometimes a competitor-but-slightly-lower-ranked college will take it under consideration), but as Sybbie said, it’s not useful in ED because even with EA options it’s unlikely you’ll have aid awards from those schools until the spring.</p>
<p>An ED school will, if you ask, review your initial aid award if they feel there are circumstances that were not fully considered or understood. I knew a student whose family had a second home, but after explaining to the ED school why they did (work-related) the school changed the net effect that second home had on the student’s FA award in favor of the family.</p>
<p>Those are the kinds of things they will review. Not a competing award from another school – that goes against the basic principle of ED.</p>
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<p>Actually, I think you’re required to withdraw applications when the ED school says yes to you.</p>
<p>'rentof2 would I receive a package from EA in December, even if it’s not a finalized merit award? What is the point of the CSS Profile (which is required for my EAs) by the EA deadline then? I guess I’m surprised, since the admissions officer said it is possible to bring it to the attention of the office of aid that school x gave me this much, not in the sense of “If you don’t give me this much or more, I will go to them.” but more in the sense of “They saw my need better than you did, can you reconsider?” Perhaps it depends on the school what they will review?
And after reading through the helpful information, I probably will not use other packages to levy unless perhaps the package between my ED and an EA are night and day. Even then, probably not.</p>