@USdncrUSSRsoul dont know what college you were talking to, but if you get your FA package and you (not anyone else), deem it to be unaffordable you simply turn down the offer of admission.
@CaliDad2020 pretty sure most ED schools allow applications to state schools even when applying ED, after all applying ED is no guarantee of acceptance.
@homerdog it is a game, as you’re trying to get the best education for the lowest amount of money. That is what makes it a game, you could just apply and pay the tuition as published. No gaming there.
There are presumably some students who need FA to afford the school, but if the FA offer produces a net price at their outer limit, they would prefer to be able to compare FA offers with those of other schools rather than having to decide before seeing the FA offers from other schools. Hence these students needing FA would not want to apply ED due to these financial limitations.
@CU123 Re: post #40. I don’t think that’s true. You can’t just get accepted ED and then decide it’s not affordable. That would be interesting, though, to hear the story of someone who went ED, was accepted, and then didn’t get the money they needed to attend. So many people have EFCs that they can’t afford without mortgaging their house. A school is going to say it’s “affordable” as long as they make up the difference between someone’s EFC and the published cost of the school.
Or, maybe, families just don’t go ED if they’ve done the calculator and their EFC is not possible for them.
Read the ED agreement, and it’s absolutely true. Consider this, what are they going to do if you tell them that it’s still unaffordable with the FA they sent?
But if you’re going to have ED at a top school, do it like Columbia and exclude state schools (that at least returns a bit of negotiating power to student, though, technically if a school is full-need they shouldn’t really be negotiating - the need number should be the need number… but life ain’t exactly like that.)
While Columbia does allow EAs (it doesn’t specify public or private), since ED is binding they still have to withdraw their applications if they get in.
The best way to do ED is EA like MIT and Georgetown or SCEA since it’s not binding.
I could be wrong, but my guess is that there aren’t that many people who are accepted ED who aren’t in a position to pay. I would guess that unless a school is need blind they are more likely to offer spots in the first round to people who they know will have no reason to reject the offer. Tell me if I’m wrong, because I’m just speculating.
Imagine in the limit where the top schools admitted all their applicants ED/EA. Then, it becomes extremely important for your ED/EA school to be a match(both from an admissions standpoint and a financial aid standpoint) before you apply. That’s something of a straw man. However, with some schools admitting over half their class ED/EA, it’s still a useful way to think about the issue.
“Tell me if I’m wrong, because I’m just speculating.”
I think you’re wrong. 
Plenty get accepted. Some colleges will give you a read on FA ahead of time. Think of all the athletes that need aid that get accepted ED, as well as other students that are desirable. Some schools participating in Questbridge and Posse programs are taking kids early at or very near full FA. It behooves the college to give you a fair shake if they really want you and they wouldn’t accept you if they didn’t want you.
I agree with @doschicos here. Even for selective need-aware schools, they can choose who they really want in the ED rounds, whether athletes, URMs, legacies, etc. Most of all, really smart kids. Because the school has enough money to pay for EDs that may comprise 30, 40, 50% of freshmen, on the range from full-pay to near full subsidy. It is in the RD round that ability to pay can come into play for some of the remaining spots.
@cu123 yeah, I was not clear. I thought Columbia specifically allowed ED applicants out of their ED commitment if they selected a state school instead. At least that was what I remembered from the presentation a few years ago, but looking at the web site, it doesn’t look like they specify that in the agreement, (but since a student can back out of ED for financial reasons, it would be hard for Columbia to complain unless Columbia was giving very close to full aid.)
But I had though it was stated in the agreement. Unless the wording has changed in the past couple of years, I was wrong.
The place I think you’re mistaken in post #45 is a student would have trouble backing out of Columbia, for instance, for a similar full need school, as it is unlikely the financial offereing would be that different.
Yes, you can bail on an ED acceptance, even for non-financial reasons.
But other colleges may rescind their acceptances if you do that, too—and there are some moves toward information-sharing in higher ed that would make that more likely to happen in the future.
Plus, it could really screw over future kids at your high school. Backing out of ED should be for only very rare instances.
@dfbdfb yes you would raise a red flag if you bailed on Columbia (applied ED) to attend Harvard ( applied RD), that would be a clear and unequivocal violation of the agreement. However if you bailed on Columbia to attend UCB, they wouldn’t bat an eyelash about that especially if you’re from CA.
ED is really a method for peer or near peer schools to compete for top students. They really don’t care if you elect to attend a state university so they won’t make it an issue if you do. That’s pretty clear when they allow you to apply early to state schools if they have any type of early admission.
ED schools typically do not care if you apply EA anywhere else (but no ED anywhere else). These typical ED rules do not distinguish between public and private schools.
Not all schools with ED are super selective ones.
It is important not to confuse permission to APPLY to a state school with permission to select one over another school to which you have been accepted ED.
Single choice early action and early decision schools (almost?) always allow you to apply to state schools, even if you are not allowed by the college’s specific rules to apply to other private schools.* The reason for this is that a lot of public universities admit people on a rolling basis, and still others give honors college or merit aid preferences to early applicants. So Columbia and its ilk don’t want to block an applicant from still having these opportunities if you are rejected from Columbia! So they let you apply to state schools.
But if you are ACCEPTED at an ED school, the only legitimate reason not to attend is an inadequate financial aid package. NOT, “my state school gave me something better beyond my need,” but rather, “No matter what my family does, we can’t swing tuition and room and board with what you have offered me.”
- A lot of ED and EA schools do not restrict you from applying to other schools EA. But you cannot apply to more than one school ED. Read each of your prospective EA or ED schools’ individual ED or EA agreements carefully in order to be sure of the rules for that particular college.
@ucbalumnus that brings up an interesting point, depending on merit aid you could get out of going to a school that meets full financial need (e.g. Columbia) to go to either a private or public school if Columbia cannot match the total cost (most ED agreements ask for you to consult with the FA office before rejecting the offer). However it seems much more likely to get a combination of merit aid and in state tuition that will preclude Columbia or any other super selective school from matching vs a private school (and that private school probably will not be in the super selective category).
I question this claim.