Does Early Decision limit chances for merit aid

[Anonymous]

Columbia has ED

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not quite true that you have to withdraw your applications once you get in ED. You have to withdraw after you get in ED and you get your financial aid package.

No one seems to say that if you get in ED, you won't get merit aid and the schools by and large deny it. It would be one thing is a school said - look, we don't give merit aid for ED candidates. But they don't, to my knowledge. So taking the chance on a merit award certainly does not seem irrational, particularly where a student genuinely (1) has a first choice and (2) has some chance of merit aid based on grades/test scores. If the merit aid does not come through and the student can't afford it, then that's the reason the escape clause exists. The student doesn't get to go, has to apply to other schools, and hope for the best, And the school is not really hurt in any significant sense, as these cases are going to be comparatively rare,

Not getting hoped for merit aid does not constitute a reasonable decline of ED. They specifically advise you: if you can't afford the number the NPC gives you, don't apply ED. You would still experience the consequences of breaking the ED contract.

While some school may make such a statement, many schools do not. Typical contractual language is that you are realeased if you do not received "sufficient finanical aid to make attendance possible."

Yes, that's often the contractual language--but you're expected to do due diligence on whether the school is likely to meet what you deem your financial ability without merit aid--and the clause is more about financial changes in your situation. But, you're right, no one's going to arrest you if you break your contract. But your counselor and other ED schools will know about it. And if it's a school that's known to fund to full demonstrated need, that's a negative mark on your application to the other schools. Also if you're hoping for merit aid, 1) look at the stats on merit offers and ED for most schools. Not good if you take out recruited athletes. Going ED is shooting yourself in the foot as far as your chances for merit--what's their incentive to offer it? And if financial aid is really important to you, it's way better to be able to compare packages because schools calculate demonstrated need differently, give different balances of grants and loans. Essentially by taking this gamble with your #1 school ED, you're lessening your chance of merit aid and just have to give a yes/no on the financial aid package. If it's no, it's out of the running and you're left with having to choose among what your less favored other RD schools offered. It just doesn't make sense to me. But it's your choice.

The quoted language is not "more about" anything - it says what it says. And what stats on merit aid and ED are you talking about? Surely that would be a better way of making a point than saying something is "more about" something other than what it says. Plus I question the harm. Obviously, if you get in and get merit aid, no problem. If you don't and then reluctantly have to opt out, how are you worse off? You are limited to the same schools you could otherwise afford without merit aid. Your answer seems predicated on the notion that the school will not give merit aid or will give less merit aid because you applied ED. Maybe that is true, but seems like it is just your say-so on that point. Seems equally likely that schools see certain candidates as worthy of merit aid without necessarily being wrapped up in whether the candidate is ED.

NP: A lot of the critiques of ED I see are based on this issue of not being able to compare merit aid packages. Many schools don't make most of their merit aid decisions until they see the whole pool of candidates--the number of ED applicants is tiny compared to the overall application pool. So basically if you're ED, get accepted, you have to say yes or no to the financial aid package without knowing if you will qualify for a merit award. If you say no, you lose your shot at your top school. If you say yes and don't get the merit aid come spring, it's too late to apply to other schools if you truly can't afford it--since accepting the ED offer required that you withdraw all other applications. Some schools do have earlier application requirements for merit awards, but I don't think they are early enough to have everybody gone through in time to inform ED financial awards. Also, I agree that merit awards--unless they are based on a grid such a x GPA plus y SAT = z award or top 10% of the applicants-- are often used as incentives to lure applicants who may not otherwise attend and so they are less likely to be given to applicants who are already in a binding agreement to attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Columbia has ED

Columbia doesn’t have merit aid—none of the Ivies, by agreement, do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You keep writing and writing and writing jibberish to justify the fact that you limited your kids’ college choices so that you can fund your manipulative extended family. Are your kids angry at you or are you afraid that they are angry at you? Sounds like it.

My kid got into an ivy ED- picked out of the 38k kids- and did receive aid. Another friends kid got into Princeton ED and also received a good chunk of aid , despite being middle class. But yes, neither of us have any idea what we are doing.

I'm glad it worked for you. And the aid you're talking about then is financial aid which is not limited in ED if the net price calculator estimated that you qualified and the college is a college that claims to meet full need--as all the Ivy league schools tend to do. But the OP asked about merit aid and extended the concept of the financial release clause in ways that it doesn't apply. I'm not worried for my kid--we are happy with his chosen application strategies-- but I think it's important for families to fully understand the risks of ED--there's a lot of misconceptions out there.

No Ivy has ED so either you are lying. a poseur or just don't understand what we are trying to tell you. And the only financial aid you will bet at the ivies is if you have a HHI of less than @ $70-85.

U Penn
U Chicago
Brown
Duke
Dartmouth
Cornell

& many others. Northwestern, Hopkins, Vandy.

Huh? Dartmouth has Early Decision and it is most certainly in the Ivy League. https://admissions.dartmouth.edu/glossary-term/early-decision.

And it charges no tuition to families with incomes of less than $100k, not $75 to $85k. https://financialaid.dartmouth.edu/how-aid-works/how-much-help-will-i-get

Don't opine if you can't get basic facts correct.

[Anonymous]

And don’t post on something that has already been noted at length

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You keep writing and writing and writing jibberish to justify the fact that you limited your kids’ college choices so that you can fund your manipulative extended family. Are your kids angry at you or are you afraid that they are angry at you? Sounds like it.

My kid got into an ivy ED- picked out of the 38k kids- and did receive aid. Another friends kid got into Princeton ED and also received a good chunk of aid , despite being middle class. But yes, neither of us have any idea what we are doing.

I'm glad it worked for you. And the aid you're talking about then is financial aid which is not limited in ED if the net price calculator estimated that you qualified and the college is a college that claims to meet full need--as all the Ivy league schools tend to do. But the OP asked about merit aid and extended the concept of the financial release clause in ways that it doesn't apply. I'm not worried for my kid--we are happy with his chosen application strategies-- but I think it's important for families to fully understand the risks of ED--there's a lot of misconceptions out there.

No Ivy has ED so either you are lying. a poseur or just don't understand what we are trying to tell you. And the only financial aid you will bet at the ivies is if you have a HHI of less than @ $70-85.

U Penn
U Chicago
Brown
Duke
Dartmouth
Cornell

& many others. Northwestern, Hopkins, Vandy.

Huh? Dartmouth has Early Decision and it is most certainly in the Ivy League. https://admissions.dartmouth.edu/glossary-term/early-decision.

And it charges no tuition to families with incomes of less than $100k, not $75 to $85k. https://financialaid.dartmouth.edu/how-aid-works/how-much-help-will-i-get


Is this a Dartmouth only thread?

Live in ignorance and spread it around, feel free. It seems to be what goes these days.
Don't opine if you can't get basic facts correct.

[Anonymous]

Your reading comp just isn't up to snuff.