Is Early Decision Just Volunteering to Give Away All the Cash You Have?

[Anonymous]

we have a neighbor, their child wanted to go to a reasonably top-ish university. Got in early decision. Great!

Find out afterwards they end up being charged what I think seems like the max this couple can possibly pay with loans. Think like the above $70K ones you read about and then add on room and board, nickel and dime stuff, etc. YOW.

Is that what you get by going early decision? A trade off between admission and maximum payment, basically?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we have a neighbor, their child wanted to go to a reasonably top-ish university. Got in early decision. Great!

Find out afterwards they end up being charged what I think seems like the max this couple can possibly pay with loans. Think like the above $70K ones you read about and then add on room and board, nickel and dime stuff, etc. YOW.

Is that what you get by going early decision? A trade off between admission and maximum payment, basically?

you are supposed to make sure you can pay full amount before applying ED. this is on them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we have a neighbor, their child wanted to go to a reasonably top-ish university. Got in early decision. Great!

Find out afterwards they end up being charged what I think seems like the max this couple can possibly pay with loans. Think like the above $70K ones you read about and then add on room and board, nickel and dime stuff, etc. YOW.

Is that what you get by going early decision? A trade off between admission and maximum payment, basically?

What do you even mean? Of course you should be prepared to pay the full amount if you go ED.

[Anonymous]

sounds like you're answering "yes" and it is really good to have that confirmed.

[Anonymous]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that ED doesn't mean you won't get need-based aid. If you're making $10,000 and get into Harvard ED, you're not paying a cent.

But you won't be able to negotiate, and it may reduce the amount of merit aid.

[Anonymous]

OP, a lot of families price shop for college; but a decent proportion of us don't. Most schools that have ED don't give merit anyway, so at those schools you will be paying what the net price calculator determines you can pay whether you get in ED or RD. The only difference is the higher odds in ED.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, don’t let your kid apply ED if you can’t full pay.

I learned this in college when I got in a T20 but my parents were poor and I barely got Financial Aid at all. I ended up going full ride to a local college, and wrote a letter explaining the situation to the college. They didn’t bother coming after us for the $$ (there was none really anyway).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we have a neighbor, their child wanted to go to a reasonably top-ish university. Got in early decision. Great!

Find out afterwards they end up being charged what I think seems like the max this couple can possibly pay with loans. Think like the above $70K ones you read about and then add on room and board, nickel and dime stuff, etc. YOW.

Is that what you get by going early decision? A trade off between admission and maximum payment, basically?

Mind your business!

And putting your neighbors stuff on on DCUM. Claasy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, a lot of families price shop for college; but a decent proportion of us don't. Most schools that have ED don't give merit anyway, so at those schools you will be paying what the net price calculator determines you can pay whether you get in ED or RD. The only difference is the higher odds in ED.

Correct.

[Anonymous]

How many threads about this must we endure? If you don’t understand your financial aid situation, you have no business applying ED. As has been widely discussed in many recent threads, families have an opportunity to explore their ability to pay before making a decision to apply ED. Miss me with the affirmative action for the rich crap. No one is entitled to any school. This is just as bad as when Nova mom complains that Larlo didn’t get into the Ivy+ school of his choice with. 1500+ SAT. Certainly must have been an athlete, FGLI, or URM that stole their spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, a lot of families price shop for college; but a decent proportion of us don't. Most schools that have ED don't give merit anyway, so at those schools you will be paying what the net price calculator determines you can pay whether you get in ED or RD. The only difference is the higher odds in ED.

Exactly. I guess it wouldn't make sense to ED a school that has a reputation for giving a ton of merit aid. But most of the schools where people ED don't give out merit aid, and ED doesn't affect financial aid, so it doesn't make much of a difference. I have a few relatives that did ED at Brown, and are there on generous financial aid packages.

My kid also did EA some schools, and got a really good merit aid package from one school that she did EA. I think Pitt is another one that will give out merit aid for the EA applicants.

For us the nicest thing about ED was that she only did 3 applications rather than a LOT more -- it saved so much work and anxiety in December and January and into the spring.

[Anonymous]

You don’t have to attend if the school doesn’t offer you the aid it said it would provide by the NPC.

Not sure why there is a thread every other week touting the misinformation by OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that ED doesn't mean you won't get need-based aid. If you're making $10,000 and get into Harvard ED, you're not paying a cent.

But you won't be able to negotiate, and it may reduce the amount of merit aid.

Harvard offers no merit, like all ivies. Need based aid is offered regardless how you apply, if you financially qualify.

[Anonymous]

hey OP again - I'm not trying to crap on my neighbor and I don't obsessively read this forum.

Just trying to figure out what ED really means, when I'm paranoid that colleges will just take all the money we have and tell us to clap at graduation.

[Anonymous]

It is an agreement to pay up to what the NPC says. Whether it is "all the cash you have" depends on how much cash you have. For us, full freight is a very small fraction of the cash we have.