Early decision seems like a scam

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP has a very odd obsession. What a strange way to spend your time.

Here’s some serious, honest life advice:

Spend your time either 1) earning more money to afford a better school or 2) applying for scholarships.

Don’t waste your mental efforts and time on moaning about how you are a victim. Help your child out in productive ways.

Good luck OP!

Not OP is it’s ok to be frustrating with being in the middle where you have “too much” to get any kind of help and “not enough” to get any kind of help. Like taxes and government, no one cares about the middle.

You're not "middle"

The whole system over the price of college that has been built in this country is ridiculous. Why does your price even vary based on your ability to pay? I can't buy a house, a car, a pair of jeans or a plane ticket for less money than someone else just because I may make less money. There's nothing wrong with the government (state or federal) providing grants or loans to help out the less fortunate with respect to paying for a college education, but the schools themselves shouldn't be charging different prices based on ability to pay. The cost of tuition would be dramatically lower across the board if we didn't have this screwy system.

Yes, they are. A family that makes $150,000 a year is expected to pay full tuition just like a family that makes $2 million a year is expected to pay full tuition. But $100,000? Many schools give you a free ride.

Once you get to about $150, you’re lumped in with people making $800,000 and $2 million and $5million a year. You’re too privileged for help and not privileged enough to buy your way in with fancy boarding schools, private coaching, elite travel sports, and big donations.

Also at $150k (and higher), how is it possible to spend $80k on tuition? It's just not. So to consider a private school, merit is necessary in order to achieve actual affordability meaning ED is not an option because the school very well may consider the offer of full tuition or close "affordable". So if ED has a higher acceptance rate, some kids dont have that option.

(Similarly, for many, a private school is not an option period ED or not. Its public or bust).

I dont actually know why I responded to this....this has all been done before...now people will jump in about salaries and saving money...Cue the angry response in 10, 9, 8...

Why can't you run the NPC, and if the school is affordable apply ED? If it is unaffordable ED it will remain so RD.

/not angry, just confused.

Because the NPC is just the first offer, not the final word, and applying ED removes your ability to bargain.

Almost all schools will make a better FA offer if you can show that you have gotten a better FA offer from a peer school.

So it plays out like this.

You can afford $50k/year for college but $40k would be a lot better. (Yes, $10k may be pocket change to you but it is real money to some people.)

Your number one choice is Smith. You run the NPC, it says $50k, you apply ED and get in. Done. You’re going to Smith for $50k.

Or, you apply RD to Bryn Mawr and Smith. Smith says you can afford $50k, Bryn Mawr says $40k. You show the Bryn Mawr offer to Smith. Smith comes back to you with a package that has you paying $40k. Done. You’re going to Smith for $40k.

OR

Smith says, we’re sorry but we can’t do better than $45k, and you go to your second-favorite school, Bryn Mawr, for $40k.

The thing is, Smith is going to need to see Bryn Mawr’s actual offer. They’re not going to negotiate over a number spit out of Bryn Mawr’s NPC. ED means you can only get a FA offer from one school, and thus eliminates your ability to bargain, thus raising the final price you pay for college.

So ED is a major advantage for people rich enough to treat $10k a year, more or less, as pocket change. People to whom $10k represents real money cannot afford to relinquish their bargaining power, even if they have a clear first-choice school and even if that school is arguably affordable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP has a very odd obsession. What a strange way to spend your time.

Here’s some serious, honest life advice:

Spend your time either 1) earning more money to afford a better school or 2) applying for scholarships.

Don’t waste your mental efforts and time on moaning about how you are a victim. Help your child out in productive ways.

Good luck OP!

Not OP is it’s ok to be frustrating with being in the middle where you have “too much” to get any kind of help and “not enough” to get any kind of help. Like taxes and government, no one cares about the middle.

You're not "middle"

Yes, they are. A family that makes $150,000 a year is expected to pay full tuition just like a family that makes $2 million a year is expected to pay full tuition. But $100,000? Many schools give you a free ride.

Once you get to about $150, you’re lumped in with people making $800,000 and $2 million and $5million a year. You’re too privileged for help and not privileged enough to buy your way in with fancy boarding schools, private coaching, elite travel sports, and big donations.

Also at $150k (and higher), how is it possible to spend $80k on tuition? It's just not. So to consider a private school, merit is necessary in order to achieve actual affordability meaning ED is not an option because the school very well may consider the offer of full tuition or close "affordable". So if ED has a higher acceptance rate, some kids dont have that option.

(Similarly, for many, a private school is not an option period ED or not. Its public or bust).

I dont actually know why I responded to this....this has all been done before...now people will jump in about salaries and saving money...Cue the angry response in 10, 9, 8...

Why can't you run the NPC, and if the school is affordable apply ED? If it is unaffordable ED it will remain so RD.

/not angry, just confused.

Because the NPC is just the first offer, not the final word, and applying ED removes your ability to bargain.

This is FALSE, and guess what? If it isn't, you can get out of your ED commitment. So your point is moot.

Almost all schools will make a better FA offer if you can show that you have gotten a better FA offer from a peer school.

So it plays out like this.

You can afford $50k/year for college but $40k would be a lot better. (Yes, $10k may be pocket change to you but it is real money to some people.)

Your number one choice is Smith. You run the NPC, it says $50k, you apply ED and get in. Done. You’re going to Smith for $50k.

Or, you apply RD to Bryn Mawr and Smith. Smith says you can afford $50k, Bryn Mawr says $40k. You show the Bryn Mawr offer to Smith. Smith comes back to you with a package that has you paying $40k. Done. You’re going to Smith for $40k.

OR

Smith says, we’re sorry but we can’t do better than $45k, and you go to your second-favorite school, Bryn Mawr, for $40k.

The thing is, Smith is going to need to see Bryn Mawr’s actual offer. They’re not going to negotiate over a number spit out of Bryn Mawr’s NPC. ED means you can only get a FA offer from one school, and thus eliminates your ability to bargain, thus raising the final price you pay for college.

So ED is a major advantage for people rich enough to treat $10k a year, more or less, as pocket change. People to whom $10k represents real money cannot afford to relinquish their bargaining power, even if they have a clear first-choice school and even if that school is arguably affordable.

If you have the leverage to negotiate like that, you do not need the benefit from ED, rendering your second point moot as well,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's literally a scam in an anti-trust way:

https://www.highereddive.com/news/32-colleges-accused-of-using-early-decision-to-drive-up-costs/757337/

Zero chance of this suit succeeding.

+1 ED does nto 'reduce competition" -- they are absolutely competing with each other to get those ED applicants just as much as they are competing to get the strongest RD applicants. And the argument that they use ED to reduce FA makes zero sense, since you can get out of ED if they fail to meet your FA needs.

They literally agree to keep their "hands off" kids who have been offered admission in ED by one of their supposed competitors. I can't imagine a clearer agreement not to compete/reduction in competition. (You seem to think any agreement that doesn't eliminate ALL competition is fine, but that's not how it works.)

I don't understand. You are saying college A should be fighting for a student even though that student has fully indicated they prefer college B and has agreed to attend if admitted? I mean why would college A care? They have plenty of other students who want them. Sounds like a toxic relationship.

Right, that would be like Comcast offering you a better price for broadband after you'd already signed up for FiOS. Crazy. Nobody wants that.

/sarc

Telecommunications companies and universities do not have the same business models or objectives but go off.

And yet, they're both subject to the antitrust laws. If Verizon's CEO and Comcast's CEO got together and agreed not to make offers to each other's customers, you'd think they both should go to jail--and you'd be right.