Why or Why Not to Apply ED

calmom
Sat, 03 Sep 2011 15:05:48 +0000

I’m not exactly sure how to explain my family’s situation, but there was just an incident, and we’re slowly building ourselves back up to our regular state.

Life is like that. There might be another “incident” next March, and/or the building back up may go a lot more “slowly” than expected. I wouldn’t count on anything in the current economy.



I think I have decided to apply RD



Good choice, I am glad you have come around to that decision.



I am still willing to pay loans back for the rest of my life for a good education.

“rest of my life” reflects a short-sighted view – you might have a very different perspective when your “life” involves a partner, children, the desire to buy a home. The federal student loan system is built around a 10-year pay off. Of course some people take longer than that to pay off their loans, but I don’t think anyone should sign on for the loan unless they have a reasonable expectation of paying it off within that period. Because, as noted, life happens. Your needs and expenses at age 32 are going to be very different – you shouldn’t be saddled with student loan debt for an undergraduate degree when you are in your mid-30’s.

You can get an excellent education at many colleges.



I’d rather go to Barnard on a low financial aid package rather than a safety school with a full scholarship. There’s just way too much of a difference on the education factor for me to pass up, and my parents agree with me.



There is a cost differential involved, and you can’t know what that is until you have seen all your options. I was willing to pay roughly +$10-$15K a year for my daughter to attend Barnard over and above the cost of our state university; I would not have been willing to pay $25K-$30K a year. I couldn’t know what the cost differential was until we had all options in front of us.

I’d note that my life has taken a few unexpected turns after my daughter graduated. I paid off all my loans within a year after she graduated, and I am glad that I did, because I’m currently facing new expenses that I had not thought about or anticipated.

Meanwhile my daughter is looking at funding sources for grad school, because I am in no position to finance that next step, and my daughter can’t get anywhere with her current career aspirations without a graduate degree. She’s got a great job right now, but it just a stepping stone.

Your statement reflects blanket, black & white thinking and overvaluing an abstract concept (“good education”). Barnard is going to expect you to be capable of analytical and nuanced thinking, so you might as well start now. It is not “good education” vs. “bad education” – nor is it an all or nothing proposition on the finances.

The other fallacy is the idea that ED is some sort of magic ticket to acceptance. I’ve run the math before, I’m not going to do it again, but roughly 80-85% of all students accepted to Barnard receive their notices during the RD round. Roughly 2/3 of those students end up turning Barnard down, which is why the much smaller segment of ED admits make up a larger proportion of the entering class.

It certainly makes sense for you to apply to Barnard – as well as to an array of other schools that can offer a strong education. Apply to a couple of safeties and then, in addition to Barnard, look for other schools that have a reputation for offering a rigorous education, if that is what you want. Don’t limit yourself to schools that are ranked highly on US News or have a lot of prestige – look for the hidden gems as well. The BEST way to guarantee that you will be able to attend a college that offers an excellent education is to set yourself up with a good array of choices, especially among match or likely schools.

Whether you apply RD or ED, the odds are that you will be turned down from Barnard, as they are with just about any other student. That is, Barnard turns away many more qualified students than it accepts, as is true with most other highly selective colleges. So you can’t really talk about costs and the value of a good education when you don’t know what your options are. The best way to increase your odds of getting into a college that offers the type of education you are looking for is to expand your options and apply to a broader range of excellent colleges where you have a reasonable chance of acceptance.

I will say that my daughter had safeties and reach schools, and I don’t think there was a “bad” school among her choices. Your “safeties” may be different than hers, but my point is that when my daughter accepted her spot at Barnard, she turned down 8 other spots at other colleges that also had the potential of offering a good education. Some would have cost more to attend, some would have cost less. But the point is, she had a good array of choices. If it had not been Barnard, it would have been another college she would have been proud to attend.