<p>Vanderbilt, and all schools, know the historic acceptance rates of their ED financial aid offers; it is not 100% and they don’t count on 100%. The reason the final decision is left solely to families, without question, is to encourage needy top students to apply ED to their number one choice schools. </p>
<p>A student who turns down an ED offer is taking a chance that RD offers may be no higher, especially considering that the ED school may want the student more than RD schools do. Such students are not prized for the money the school locks in at ED time!</p>