Hey question about the FAFSA here! Just wondering if anyone knows if you can access the form after it was submitted to add additional schools, and how one would go about doing that?
Yes, intuitively that makes sense and was my original thought. The extra effort of the follow up text piqued my interest
ok, a lot has happened in the past week, most of which being our entire family have been sick as dogs with the flu but weâre finally coming out of it todayâŠD24 is now signed up for her & us parents to attend U of Aâs admitted students day on 4/6. D24 said (and this made me laugh), âDaddy can come as long as he doesnât go on and on with them about âblah blah scholarships, blah blah money, blah blah annoying questions.ââ 
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Why apply EA anywhere if it isnât your favorite? My take: 1) because you donât have a favorite college as of Nov 1, but you still want the security of knowing that you have an admission somewhere. Or 2) so that you can reduce the number of RD applications becuase the youâll be lucky enough to know before Jan 1 if theyâve been admitted to at least one affordable college. I would think the reasoning behind any non-binding early application (rolling, EA or REA) is pretty much the same and the reasoning doesnât require having a favorite. Are you saying that if a senior doesnât have a favorite, they just shouldnât apply early anywhere at all? Why should they wait for RD just because they arenât sure yet? It seems to me if you can apply early somewhere that you like, you might as well.
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One downside to these important interviews at home is when you know it starts at 6:35pm and you hear them flushing the toilet at 6:33pm. Get in your seat!!
Agree. If those SCEA or REA schools wanted students to have to commit if applying early, theyâd switch to an ED process. I donât see anything wrong with a student applying SCEA or REA, applying widely during the RD round and not committing anywhere until May 1st.
Each applicant should be concerned with their own process and not try to second guess anyone elseâs. The student getting accepted SCEA and REA are usually the most competitive, most wanted students. Why should they feel any need to prematurely stop the college admission process if they donât have a clear number one school?
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S24 also did 5 apps. We spent a LOT of time discussing exactly what he did and didnât want (academic/social/physical) and he did visits and a summer program to help him confirm those likes and dislikes. In the end the 5 programs he is applying to are very similar and he would be happy at any of them. 2 are high reaches, 1 is a target and 2 are safeties. He has acceptances at the 2 safeties and is waiting on the rest.
I actually think his process was made a little easier because he does not have the stats for T20 or top LACs. Everyone I know in this same boat (strong academics, but not at the top of his class, SATs in the 1300s, not 1500s) has found AMAZING options at schools with higher admission rates. Because the reality is there maybe 40 or 50 schools with really low admission rates, and from there the admission rates go up really fast (and the SAT scores drop pretty fast, too). S24 will never second-guess himself ⊠gee, should I have put in an app to Brown!? OMG noânever gonna happen!
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So it is true they might admit 5000 RD to yield 1000. But then if 1 withdraws early, they could still admit 1 more, precisely because that 1 more admit might not yield. Basically, you went from a 20% chance to a 0% chance, which is in fact information.
It is also true if only 1 person did that, they probably would do nothing. But if 500 did, they very well might. My understanding is these days many colleges track EA enrollments and withdrawals in a dynamic yield model. If they are tracking high, fewer people are admitted RD. If they are tracking low, more people are admitted RD.
Of course sometimes they finish high, and overenroll. But sometimes they finish low, in which case in retrospect more people could have been given the opportunity to choose them.
So this is a type of collective action problem where if everyone follows this sort of rule, then it might well help more people optimize their college choice.
Edit: same point was made by another poster, I note.
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D24 did 4 apps - 3 EA likelies and 1 ED reach. She was accepted to the ED and withdrew her other 3 apps. She is in the minority in this way at her school (8 of 80 kids in her class were accepted and will be attending their ED choice, not sure how many of the 80 applied to an ED/REA but my guess is a high number) and here on CC.
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Because REA/SCEA restrict what else you can do, unlike regular EA, the kids we knew only did that if an REA/SCEA was their top choice.
That doesnât mean it is inconceivable you would do it in other circumstances. Like, if the only early applications you would consider were all either ED or SCEA/REA, you might choose one of the SCEA/REA schools even if some other school was preferred, but it did not have an early option. Or perhaps your preferred school was ED, and you did not want to commit. And so on.
Again I donât know of any cases in our real life circles like that, but I definitely would not suggest that means it never happens.
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If she hadnât been accepted by her ED would she have been OK with just the EAâs or did you have a RD plan?
Based on this hypothetical scenario (where everyone declines at the earliest they can), then perhaps colleges might operate differently. But thatâs not how it works currently.
For colleges with ED, they have a good handle on what their enrollment looks like by the RD decision date. Colleges with REA/SCEA generally have very high yield so they too know pretty well how many RD seats need to be filled. At all other colleges that offer regular EA, itâs very rare for students to commit in the 2-3 months between EA and RD decision dates, so RD seats arenât driven by a live count of commitments.
The yield models have become very sophisticated, driven by complex computational models using dozens of data points. But youâre right that itâs not going to be 100% on target. So most schools aim to slightly under-enroll. Then if theyâve undershot too much, they start filling the rest of their capacity off the waitlist.
(Waitlist management is a whole different topic for another day 
)
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I have a different understanding of what is happening between EA offers and RD offers these days, but Iâll just leave it at that.
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She was happy with the EA schools but had 5 more schools she was planning to apply to, they would have mostly been matches with a couple reaches thrown in. I realize now it was actually 2 EAs and 1 RD that she withdrew.
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Iâm betting a large chunk never decline. They just let May 1 come and go with no action.
Yes, that is in fact what happens in the vast majority of cases.
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I guess that I donât fully understand what the restriction has to do with deciding to apply early or not. My oldest kid actually did have a favorite in the fall but it was an ED school, and she couldnât apply there because it seemed likely to be over budget. My current senior didnât have a favorite at all in the fall (still doesnât). For both kids, there were three factors that they took into account in selecting where to apply early: had to be someplace that they liked enough to imagine themselves there (narrowed the list somewhat), had to be a place that I deemed affordable (knocked off a lot of places), strongly preferred a decision by late December if possible so that a positive decision could potentially lighten the load of RD applications (winnowed the number of possible schools even more).
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So if you want to apply to any other place binding, or to any other US private early at all, you cannot REA/SCEA at School X. But I agreed some people might not meet those conditions.
By applying REA/SCEA, youâre giving up the option to apply early to other private schools that may also be of interest, especially those that fill a huge chunk of their class through (and strongly prefer) ED.
So youâd want to give up this option only if the REA/SCEA school is a top choice, above the ED school.
(ETA: message crossed with @NiceUnparticularMan)
Yes, you can definitely negotiate merit awards, though I doubt they would increase it if youâve already been offered their highest amount. D21 was able to get a few increased by $2K-$5K per year by showing the award letters from peer institutions.
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