Does Early Decision limit chances for merit aid

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

Are you saying that you and your friend ran your respective schools' net price calculators, it said neither of your families qualified for need based aid, but both kids applied ED got in and low and behold received "a good chunk of need based aid?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There really isn't that much advantage to ED acceptances (most indicate a 1-2% chance advantage at best--people don't know how to interpret admission rates properly) to make it worth the risk.


Unfortunately there is a big advantage to applying ED. Some private high schools have graduating classes where the majority of the class applies ED somewhere. Many colleges get approx 50% of their freshman class from ED. For example, one school that has a 28% admit rate for RD, has a 40% admit rate for ED. Another has a 25% admit ED and about a 10% for ED. There have been many articles written about how ED is a tool for the wealthy and how unfair it is to the non wealthy. A few years ago several schools eliminated it for that very reason.

Our DD went to a private school that had a lot of kids apply ED. I was amazed at the schools that the girls were admitted to. There seemed to be certain schools that were ‘feeder schools’ that accepted multiple girls each year. These are very good schools with low admittance rates and many girls are admitted. Then there were other schools that the girls wanted to go to that seemed to be ‘rationed’. It’s like they only expected to possibly get 1 girl in each of these schools so they seemed to subtly steer these girls to different schools and then highly recommended them and supported their application at that one school if that makes sense. If they had 5 girls wanting to go to school X but only thought they could get one in, they seemed to support one girl at school X and encouraged the other girls to choose another school. Sometimes they had to choose another school when they were rejected ED.

Also - ED happens very quickly in November. It’s possible that your child hasn’t applied to other schools before they receive their ED decision. My DD had no other apps in to cancel.

And as for ED being a rich people thing, if that’s true and there are many full pay ED kids that should mean that their is aid left for your not rich kid, which is often the case. I wouldn’t apply ED to a school that is known to be stingy with aid, but there are some that are not.

This doesn't mean that declining an ED acceptance wouldn't affect her upcoming applications. Your counselor and other schools that offer will see that you broke your ED contract. There's no official policy on what they will do with that information, but I can't imagine that it would be benign.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There really isn't that much advantage to ED acceptances (most indicate a 1-2% chance advantage at best--people don't know how to interpret admission rates properly) to make it worth the risk.


Unfortunately there is a big advantage to applying ED. Some private high schools have graduating classes where the majority of the class applies ED somewhere. Many colleges get approx 50% of their freshman class from ED. For example, one school that has a 28% admit rate for RD, has a 40% admit rate for ED. Another has a 25% admit ED and about a 10% for ED. There have been many articles written about how ED is a tool for the wealthy and how unfair it is to the non wealthy. A few years ago several schools eliminated it for that very reason.

Our DD went to a private school that had a lot of kids apply ED. I was amazed at the schools that the girls were admitted to. There seemed to be certain schools that were ‘feeder schools’ that accepted multiple girls each year. These are very good schools with low admittance rates and many girls are admitted. Then there were other schools that the girls wanted to go to that seemed to be ‘rationed’. It’s like they only expected to possibly get 1 girl in each of these schools so they seemed to subtly steer these girls to different schools and then highly recommended them and supported their application at that one school if that makes sense. If they had 5 girls wanting to go to school X but only thought they could get one in, they seemed to support one girl at school X and encouraged the other girls to choose another school. Sometimes they had to choose another school when they were rejected ED.

Also - ED happens very quickly in November. It’s possible that your child hasn’t applied to other schools before they receive their ED decision. My DD had no other apps in to cancel.

And as for ED being a rich people thing, if that’s true and there are many full pay ED kids that should mean that their is aid left for your not rich kid, which is often the case. I wouldn’t apply ED to a school that is known to be stingy with aid, but there are some that are not.

This doesn't mean that declining an ED acceptance wouldn't affect her upcoming applications. Your counselor and other schools that offer ED will see that you broke your ED contract. There's no official policy on what they will do with that information, but I can't imagine that it would be benign.

(*edited because I missed a word--I know that other schools that offer ED have access to the info, not sure about schools that don't)

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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[b] 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.

[/b]

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.

We’re talking about merit aid, which the Ivies don’t give out. The fact that you don’t know the difference is concerning.

[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[b] 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.

[/b]

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.

We’re talking about merit aid, which the Ivies don’t give out. The fact that you don’t know the difference is concerning.

Not true. Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth and Penn all have ED. Not sure about Columbia.

[Anonymous]

+! - Agree very concerning poster who is very concerned is so unaware of basic facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+! - Agree very concerning poster who is very concerned is so unaware of basic facts.

NP: what are you all talking about? Wasn’t the OP talking about MERIT AID and ED?

If you are experts, then what did your MERIT AID look like with an early decision acceptance?

This is not loans, work study, etc., but non-need based aid.

[Anonymous]

Talkiang about the fact that some Ivy schools do have ED.

[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[b] 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.

[/b]

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.

HHI of 150K and received a ton of need-based aid from Cornell.

We’re talking about merit aid, which the Ivies don’t give out. The fact that you don’t know the difference is concerning.

[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[b] 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.

[/b]

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.

HHI of 150K and received a ton of need-based aid from Cornell.

We’re talking about merit aid, which the Ivies don’t give out. The fact that you don’t know the difference is concerning.

That’s is still not merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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[b] 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.

[/b]

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.

HHI of 150K and received a ton of need-based aid from Cornell.

We’re talking about merit aid, which the Ivies don’t give out. The fact that you don’t know the difference is concerning.

That’s is still not merit aid.

There are two points: 1) Merit aid is different than need based financial aid. 2) The need-based aid should be comparable to what the net price calculator estimated you would get assuming you entered your financial information in correctly.

If you don't get roughly what the Net price calculator estimated you should get or the ED contract can be broken without consequence. Nobody is saying if you go ED you don't get the financial aid you qualify for. What people are saying is that if the net price calculator gives you a number that you can't afford based on what the college estimates your financial need is, then you should not do early decision. And if you go ahead and do ED under those conditions, are accepted and don't get the financial aid you wished for beyond the estimate of the NPC, there are consequences to breaking your ED contract. They are also saying merit aid (which is different than need-based aid) is less likely in ED because that's often used by colleges as a draw for students who may not attend otherwise--by doing early decision you are showing your hand that you plan to attend regardless. None of these points are controversial--it's how it works. That someone gets into Cornell ED and gets financial aid doesn't dispute any of these things in the least. That they get it with a 150 HHI just speaks to the price of the school and potentially other financial issues in the family (e.g. limited assets, older parents, multiple children in college, extensive medical expenses, cost of living of parents) that the varied financial aid formulas used by institutions take into account in their net price calculations. Different institutions do these calculations differently-- For instance our NPC estimates for various schools have ranged from 40K to 68K. We personally feel we can afford 40-45K so we only considered doing ED at schools in that range.

[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[b] 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.

[/b]

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.

We’re talking about merit aid, which the Ivies don’t give out. The fact that you don’t know the difference is concerning.


I do know this difference. I'm a college counselor. I'm also the one saying that Ivies don't give out merit aid, unless athletes. This thread is about MERIT AID. Look at the title. Anyone who spouts off that her kid got into an ivy ED and got "a lot of aid" does not seem to understand the difference between merit and financial aid which someone who had gone through the process would know. This thread this about MERIT AID and ED. Some of us are truly trying to help parents who might not understand the difference even between EA and ED and SCEA that you don't want to apply to an ED school if you haven't done the calculator and aren't sure the family can afford it. You don't want to break that contract. And yes you can apply to other schools when you apply ED but you must withdraw (and your school counselor will tell you this) should you get into the ED school. And if you apply SCEA you can concurrently apply to public schools but don't have to withdraw. And so on. I just don't want some parent dangling an ED school in front of a kid and then later have to say "Oh, we can't afford $70K a year because we thought the school was going to give us more money" and the child is crushed and yes the schools DO talk about who breaks ED contracts as well as the college counselors. PLEASE talk to the school first before applying ED. They will lay it all out for you and will tell you if there is any concern in your own mind about affordabilty not to do it because the last thing they or your own high school counselor wants is an ED pick and then the parents have to bail out. Then the process has to start all over again for RD and that's not good for your child, the family and the high school

[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[b] 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.

[/b]

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.

We’re talking about merit aid, which the Ivies don’t give out. The fact that you don’t know the difference is concerning.

I do know this difference. I'm a college counselor. I'm also the one saying that Ivies don't give out merit aid, unless athletes. This thread is about MERIT AID. Look at the title. Anyone who spouts off that her kid got into an ivy ED and got "a lot of aid" does not seem to understand the difference between merit and financial aid which someone who had gone through the process would know. This thread this about MERIT AID and ED. Some of us are truly trying to help parents who might not understand the difference even between EA and ED and SCEA that you don't want to apply to an ED school if you haven't done the calculator and aren't sure the family can afford it. You don't want to break that contract. And yes you can apply to other schools when you apply ED but you must withdraw (and your school counselor will tell you this) should you get into the ED school. And if you apply SCEA you can concurrently apply to public schools but don't have to withdraw. And so on. I just don't want some parent dangling an ED school in front of a kid and then later have to say "Oh, we can't afford $70K a year because we thought the school was going to give us more money" and the child is crushed and yes the schools DO talk about who breaks ED contracts as well as the college counselors. PLEASE talk to the school first before applying ED. They will lay it all out for you and will tell you if there is any concern in your own mind about affordabilty not to do it because the last thing they or your own high school counselor wants is an ED pick and then the parents have to bail out. Then the process has to start all over again for RD and that's not good for your child, the family and the high school


+1. Please read this. https://blog.ingeniusprep.com/early-decision-agreement/