College sticker shock

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid applied ED to a top college and the cost is 80K. (And if you are not eligible according to FAFSA. Late in filing CSS.). Will they care to offer you any merit scholarsship at all or you have pretty much sealed your fate with the ED checkbox?

Where does your kid stand in their disclosure of top 25% SATs and GPA? And is the school ranked below 50 if it is a university?

Near top for SAT, GPA, rigor, ECs. No other hook. School is top school for sought after STEM major. University is T30.

How do you even know where they stand with regards to rigor and ECs? That’s not readily available at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait until they send our merit scholarship letters first before you withdraw.

OK. Thank you.

This will be too late. The merit scholarship notifications typically come with the offer of admission. Once they offer you admission, it will be binding.

A contract is only as binding to the extent the parties will enforce it. Has anyone every heard of a university ever going to court over an binding acceptance?

[Anonymous]

Happened to me 25 years ago -- college promised me (basically) a merit scholarship and then didn't give it to me on my ED acceptance.

I told them sorry, can't do it and got a full ride to a state school. It was on their administration for promising something they didn't deliver.

but you should have known the price before applying ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Happened to me 25 years ago -- college promised me (basically) a merit scholarship and then didn't give it to me on my ED acceptance.

I told them sorry, can't do it and got a full ride to a state school. It was on their administration for promising something they didn't deliver.

but you should have known the price before applying ED.

How do colleges promise a merit scholarship before acceptance? I am confused.

[Anonymous]

How did you allow your child to apply ED to a school you knew you couldn't afford?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you applied binding early decision, did not seek financial aid, and can't afford it, an acceptance will be binding. In addition, other schools will know that you reneged and will not accept you. If you can't afford to attend without aid, you should not be applying early decision, but should ask to be moved to the regular decision pool.

Is this true? I've heard it, but what do they do, put your name on an email blast?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you applied binding early decision, did not seek financial aid, and can't afford it, an acceptance will be binding. In addition, other schools will know that you reneged and will not accept you. If you can't afford to attend without aid, you should not be applying early decision, but should ask to be moved to the regular decision pool.

Is this true? I've heard it, but what do they do, put your name on an email blast?

Not true. If you can't afford it, there's no negative for breaking an ED admissions offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you applied binding early decision, did not seek financial aid, and can't afford it, an acceptance will be binding. In addition, other schools will know that you reneged and will not accept you. If you can't afford to attend without aid, you should not be applying early decision, but should ask to be moved to the regular decision pool.

Is this true? I've heard it, but what do they do, put your name on an email blast?

Not true. If you can't afford it, there's no negative for breaking an ED admissions offer.

Personal experience here. In the early 2000's, accepted at Northwestern ED, parents got divorced my senior year, my finances were a shit show from a financial aid perspective (it looked like I had money but my father refused to pay and my parents spent ten years battling in divorce). Ended up at UVA, which was fine and they accepted me and my grandparents bailed me out along with loans and waiting tables/bartending.

So, yeah, it happens.

[Anonymous]

I would contact admissions or financial aid and explain the situation. Is there any way you can still submit CSS? Does this school even have merit? Many top schools don't. Did you do a financial calculator? If so, you can explain that the amount on that was much lower. The idea of ED is that you are fine w/ full pay or have done cost calculator and are committing to going by applying. But, I think they would let you out if you just can't pay.

[Anonymous]

Do any schools promise merit aid before applying ED? I’d love for DC to apply ED to a school that does give merit but only if we know it will be awarded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do any schools promise merit aid before applying ED? I’d love for DC to apply ED to a school that does give merit but only if we know it will be awarded.

Some large universities base it on stats and are very clear on who gets what

https://scholarships.ua.edu/freshman/out-of-state/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I asked in the other thread if applying ED meant you were agreeing to go to that school, if accepted, without aid.

No. If you can't pay, you can't pay. They can not force you to attend and pay full freight.

But whether or not they offer you money is a different conversation.

If you do not apply for FA and apply ED, it is assumed (and reasonably so) that you will go if you are admitted.

OP, did you not look at the costs before your DC submitted the ED application? How strange.

I thought the entire point of ED was the agreement that if admitted, that's where the student will go.

[Anonymous]

What happens if the school goes virtual. Can you then refuse the ED admission?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do any schools promise merit aid before applying ED? I’d love for DC to apply ED to a school that does give merit but only if we know it will be awarded.

Run the NPC for the school. Many will indicate that the student is eligible for merit. Then screen shot it. If you apply ED, get in, and the merit doesn’t come through, then you can withdraw and not be held accountable. But if they offer you the merit and you still can’t afford it OR if they don’t indicate that the student will get merit and you apply ED anyway, then you’re stuck.

Obviously, this isn’t the deal for tippy top schools but many at or below T50 will let you know about merit through the NPC.

To the OP- if you allowed your student to apply ED without any sense of what merit might be coming, you were naive and your student may be held accountable when he/she turns down an acceptance. I think the schools do flag their common app in these cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happens if the school goes virtual. Can you then refuse the ED admission?

No. You won’t know if they’re virtual before your kid matriculates. You can’t withdraw because of virtual learning happening before you even get there.