Rolling Schools/Safeties

robinsuesanders
Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:14:46 +0000

I believe that Illinois Wesleyan University still has rolling admissions. IWU would be an academic safety for your D, but it does attract bright kids who are top notch students. Classes are small and students sometimes find them intense. Faculty quality is top notch too. Your D would likely get merit aid from IWU and I think tha IWU is pretty decent with need-based aid for a school that doesn’t promise to meet full need. [IWU may practice preferential packaging in need-based aid, which with your D’s stats and an early rolling application would bode well.]

Some things to keep in mind, however, about the current plan to choose a place to apply ED to are the following:

1) You will NOT be able to compare need-based FA packages. The ED school will likely send an estimated FA package with or very shortly after deciding to admit your D, and while you can decide to turn the ED package down for an unacceptable aid package, there is paperwork involved and the ED school may be unwilling to release your D if the reason is “she has a better deal in hand.”

2) Some, but not all, rolling admissions schools will NOT send estimated FA packages until close to the April 1 deadline anyway. This is particularly true for FAFSA only schools. So you may well be forced into evaluating the need-based aid package from the ED school completely blind.

3) Applying ED to schools that do not promise to meet full need is very, very risky from a financial point of view. Even most of the schools that do meet full need will throw in maximum Stafford loans into the need-based aid package. Have you run a financial aid estimator to get an approximate idea of your FAFSA EFC? Can you afford your EFC? If you can’t afford your EFC and your D doesn’t automatically qualify for some really major merit money at the ED school, then you’ll wind up in a bind: She’ll be in at her ED school, the school may well have met your full need (so it’s difficult to get a release), and the school will still be a financial reach for your family. And if the ED school uses the Profile or their own form to determine financial need, the problem could be worse—you should be aware that the school’s determination of EFC may well be greater (possibly far greater) than the FAFSA EFC.