yes, if a student is not offered sufficient FA the contract is not binding, but it’s wasting that ED priority shot since the odds of getting sufficient FA at a university that doesn’t meet need are low, since they don’t need to do anything to incentivize the student to attend (it’s the opposite at a meet-need university).
Without the HEOP help, it’d be too risky to apply to Syracuse ED.
Can you email them to check that HEOP is not possible for students in this student’s GPA range? HEOP implies lower income circumstanes thus a “contextual offer” with slighly below median stats, often up to 1 grade below, but this is up to 2 letter grade below average (average GPA is close to A-, with 45% at the 3.75 mark or above, so I find “C-to B” quite an unusual drop for HEOP).
wrt to thread being shut down: only the child’s parent or the student can open a thread. If you’re not “a quote unquote friend” (you know, “asking for a friend”) but the actual parent, it stays open but if you’re a neighbor or cousin, it’ll get shut down.