Financial Aid for Northwestern

Zavalon
Sun, 29 Mar 2015 01:55:57 +0000

Hello, I am a high school junior planning to apply to Northwestern University for Early Decision. I realize that Early Decision is binding but NU is my first college choice and I want to take advantage of the higher acceptance rate of Early Decision candidates.

My parents’ income is about $35,000/year (combined) and I am going to fill out the CSS profile and the FAFSA if I do get accepted to NU. But I’ve read a few stories online where the accepted student had to give up going to NU because the financial aid from the school wasn’t enough to fully meet their needs because of the weird algorithm CSS profile uses.

What I’m worried about is that if I do get accepted to NU for Early Decision, I have to withdraw all other college applications. If I don’t receive the financial aid from NU that I need to attend the school, what happens to my Early Decision contract? And since I would’ve had to withdraw all college applications from other schools, will I not be allowed to attend any other college? I’m very confused on how this process works.

I realize that this might not necessarily be a “financial aid” question, but I felt like because this problem would be caused by a financial aid issue, I figured the financial aid forum would be the best place to post this.

Any type of responses will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.