Does applying early decision completely remove you from consideration for merit aid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. I worry about this, too, as DS has started talking about applying to a reach school ED. I asked about merit aid and ED on a recent visit to U of Chicago and the admissions counselor claimed to have no idea/no information about how merit aid varied by decision pool, or averages across ED/RD. Also, she said she had never heard of anyone having to turn down an ED offer because of cost. I think my eyes about rolled out of my head when she said that.
I feel like ED is something of a scam by schools to get as many kids in full pay as possible, making it easier to meet their lofty goals of meeting 100% of financial need. Anyway, no good answer for you, OP, but the very same question keeps me up at night.

yep. I discouraged from applying to a high priced school ED because IMO, it is not worth the full price for most families.

[Anonymous]

Of course the college has no incentive to offer merit aid to early decision applicants.
As an applicant in the early decision process, you are committed knowing that you will accept whatever financial aid package the college will offer. This is why ED is so advantageous to wealthy families and so unfair to students who need to compare financial aid awards from different colleges.

[Anonymous]

my kid - ED Brown. 100% merit aid. But his application was outstanding.

[Anonymous]

If applying ED to a school that 100% meets financial needs, will I still get the admit boost and same amount of FA as if applying RD?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my kid - ED Brown. 100% merit aid. But his application was outstanding.

Does Brown offer merit aid?

[Anonymous]

My DS applied ED (class of 2022). He got merit aid but my guess is that it was less than he would’ve gotten in RD IF he’d gotten in RD. RD had a less than 10% acceptance rate and we decided that ED was worth the risk since we could afford the school with less merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If applying ED to a school that 100% meets financial needs, will I still get the admit boost and same amount of FA as if applying RD?

Yes it will not make a difference if you qualify for needs based aid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my kid - ED Brown. 100% merit aid. But his application was outstanding.

Brown doesn't offer merit aid. Nice try, troll.

[Anonymous]

This is why my kids didn’t apply ED anywhere. We needed merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would a college give you merit aid if you are applying ED? What incentive do they have to lure with aid?

Great question, but you presume that the only purpose of awarding a merit based scholarship is to attract students.

I do not know for certain, but I imagine that retention of the top students may be a consideration. One would be less likely to transfer out if receiving a renewable merit scholarship.

Also, merit scholarship awards have parameters/qualifications. If a student falls within those standards, then he or she should be given fair consideration for such scholarship whether applying ED or RD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a college give you merit aid if you are applying ED? What incentive do they have to lure with aid?

So you're talking about schools where merit aid is handed out to students they like, not based on merit in any verifiable way?

That's what "merit" is. It's "market" price for a student who adds value to the school and is letting schools compete.

Except it's not capricious, the schools at least give lip service to how merit is awarded. If it's a formula based on stats, the details are published, and are applied to all applicants. If it's a competitive scholarship, they will still say all applicants are considered. Now do they use the ED round to find students who aren't competitive for scholarships? Possibly, that's certainly what families are hoping for when they say there's an admission boost with ED. And you are committing with or whether or not merit pans out. But it's still a step further to say ED applicants are precluded from merit. Are there examples of schools that explicitly state this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a college give you merit aid if you are applying ED? What incentive do they have to lure with aid?

So you're talking about schools where merit aid is handed out to students they like, not based on merit in any verifiable way?

That's what "merit" is. It's "market" price for a student who adds value to the school and is letting schools compete.

Except it's not capricious, the schools at least give lip service to how merit is awarded. If it's a formula based on stats, the details are published, and are applied to all applicants. If it's a competitive scholarship, they will still say all applicants are considered. Now do they use the ED round to find students who aren't competitive for scholarships? Possibly, that's certainly what families are hoping for when they say there's an admission boost with ED. And you are committing with or whether or not merit pans out. But it's still a step further to say ED applicants are precluded from merit. Are there examples of schools that explicitly state this?

My kid got a lot of merit but none was by explicit published formula, it was all by the schools’ invisible formulas. He did not apply ED but I think it’s well known there is no or little merit offered then (EA is different because it’s non binding).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why my kids didn’t apply ED anywhere. We needed merit aid.

+1

We technically can afford full pay, but I don’t believe any college is worth 80-90k a year. DS will go to OOS public or need to get merit aid for a private. We’re not letting him ED next year.

[Anonymous]

DC applied ED at a top 40 D3. Checked the ‘consider for merit aid’ box on the application even though we did not expect any. Merit aid was awarded at the second highest level of approximately $20K/year. DC had a strong application but we were stunned and grateful at the award.

We joke about checking that box being an $80K decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kid - ED Brown. 100% merit aid. But his application was outstanding.

Does Brown offer merit aid?

NO