Reply to Does Early Decision limit chances for merit aid

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Does Early Decision limit chances for merit aid"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No tthe point at all and your over-statement makes you hard to take seriously. Schools offer ED and with a potential out if you cannot afford to attend once you are admitted. Many factors ultimately play into that calculus and a hoped for merit award may be one of them (as could be losing a job or not getting an expected bonus). If you can afford to go once admitted, great. If you can't, that's unfortunate but they DC goes to regular decision somewhere else they can afford. But that is simply not breaking a contract. Multiple ED applications, on the other hand, are not permitted.

She’s back! The one poster hoping merit aid will save her butt in an ED contract. Good luck with that strategy.

Actually there are more than one of us. If you read her post accurately you'll see that merit aid is only one factor she is talking about. For those of us without buckets of money, we're trying to put together money from a variety of sources including need based FA, possibly merit aid, maybe help from family (not hoping someone dies as another person so snarkily wrote) etc.

Her point about a job and/or bonus is that sometimes people experience unexpected financial set backs. Bottom line: this is why there is a clause that allows people to be released from ED contracts.

[b]There is one poster who seems extremely intent[/b] on telling people not to apply ED unless they've got the money in hand. It sounds like she is discouraging anyone who is applying for need based financial aid from applying ED. Because anyone who is applying for need based FA is not guarantee the money and therefore may have to be released from the contract (which is of course the point of the release clause).[/quote]

[b]DP: No, there's more than one of us.  Withdrawing from the ED isn't quite as easy as you are promoting.  Yes, they can't force you to go to the school.  But by applying ED you are saying that with the current info from the NPC and your knowledge of your financial situation you can afford the school and plan to attend.  IF something unexpected comes up, you are not tied to it--but wishing for merit aid isn't part of that.  So, 1, you are entering into a binding contract and not being honest about that if it's the case.  But to the more practical point, once your child has accepted ED, all other applications are to be withdrawn and all other colleges and your HS counselor are notified of the binding agreement.  If you don't accept the ED offer due to finances, it can really impact your other applications--gumming up the process and creating a ding on your kids' record.  So I would not encourage anyone to do this blithely.  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.[/b][/quote]

+100[/quote]

+100  Personally if I had made the mistake of selecting ED without fully understanding the contract and couldn't actually afford the school without merit aid, I would right now before final admission decisions are made talk to my kid's HS counselor about whether or not they should withdraw the ED application and switch it to RD.  It's a tough choice, but that's a high risk game with your kid's college application process.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics