Anonymous wrote:

If they offer admissions you are on the hook to accept,

What is the penalty if you break the deal and say "no, we're not attending"?

No penalty if the aid offered did not match what the NPC said.

If the aid offered did match the NPC, then the college will not trust your HS college counselor going forward (as he/she signed the ED agreement along with the parent/child). You also might have taken an ED acceptance at that school away from one of your HS classmates.

Anonymous wrote:

If they offer admissions you are on the hook to accept,

What is the penalty if you break the deal and say "no, we're not attending"?

Some universities do share the names of students who break the deal with peer institutions (similar institutions where students are likely to apply next) but there isn't a lot they can do to you.

Your student's high school and particularly your college counselor will get some blowback. The counselor is required to sign onto your ED contract and attest that they have briefed you on the terms of an ED agreement and they are not submitting your child's transcripts and recommendations to any other colleges.

You can be certain that the counselor will be somewhat less supportive of your applications in the RD round (this may or may not matter). If your child has younger siblings, your family's reputation will be negatively affected at your high school.

Anonymous wrote:

If they offer admissions you are on the hook to accept,

What is the penalty if you break the deal and say "no, we're not attending"?

They send your name out to other private colleges and your instates saying you backed out on the contract. None of those schools will accept you or will back out of any offers.

Just to make clear a couple of things in case anyone might be confused: the EFC from FAFSA is not the same as the net price from the Net Price Calculator (which is referred to above also as EFC). In addition, the Net Price Calculator's estimated financial aid package should describe the components, grants, loans, etc.

Here is the thing. Most schools don’t reach your EFC. They claim it can by giving your student unsubsidized and subsidized loan and add work study too. This can be between $5-10K of loans and work study added to get you within $5K of your EFC.

So say the college costs $70K
Your EFC is $30K
They give you A financial grant of 25K
A sub loan of $5K
A unsubscribes loan of $2500
A work study of $2500

Your total due to college is $35K

This means they came extremely close to your EFC, but.... that is with $7500 of yearly student loans (2500 starting interest immediately) and your kids is work for $2500 back working PT at school, and you still have to come up with $5K more. Not to mention your EFC is usually not realistic unless you have a lot of money saved up.

Our EFC is $33K and we only make $125K before taxes.

Also, you need to apply for FA each year and it will go down if you or your college student make more money. Co-ops don’t count IF you spend the money and not save it past 12 months. Meaning they want you to use it towards school costs. All other internships and summer jobs count against FA. Also, most colleges increase tuition yearly, but your FA remains the same. So plan on a $1-2 more each year.

RPI gave us a 4yr outlook on costs with acceptance and it is projected to be $78,500 her senior year

This is why it really only seems to help the rich. Or the poor (under $50-80K income depending on private college) who most schools won’t give student loans as form of payment and will cover to EFC with aid.

Middle class families are much better off looking for merit aid as it lasts for 8 semesters and if you or your student make more money, your merit remains the same. Most come with GPA requirements though. So be aware of that. For 99% of kids earning merit packages, this is not an issue.

Hope this helps some.

A couple of things that can trip you up:

1) Financial reward statement can include loans. Bottom line says you are receiving 20 K, but $5500 of that is in the form of a loan.

2) ED results come in around December 15th. If you are not happy with the financial aid, be prepared and forewarned that most schools application deadlines are Dec 31.

If they offer admissions you are on the hook to accept,

What is the penalty if you break the deal and say "no, we're not attending"?

The simplifier here, is schools that offer the most merit aid, usually don't do ED. Often those are the schools that have EA and fewer hurdles in the application--no fee, or no essay. They want to pick through a lot of applications and offer the best ones a deal before they've become attached somewhere else. The schools that do ED may have the most generous FA, like zero loans, but only one blockbuster scholarship, if that. There are exceptions every which way, but you can do a rough sort based on application type/deadline to get things started.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks PPs. So if the estimated aid on the school's website says you will have to pay $10K and the school is $40K, the school will give you the difference 100% of the time? Or do schools sometimes give less than the website says? If I know I can't pay more than $20K out of pocket per year and the calculator says they will only give me $10K, should I take that as gospel and steer clear of ED at that school?

Unless you have unusual financial circumstances (i.e. own a small business rather than receiving a regular income/W-2) the NPC will usually be accurate. If it says your EFC is $20K and you need to go somewhere where you will only pay $10k then don't waste your ED on that school. Find a school whose NPC says you will only pay $10K and apply there ED if your kid would be very happy to go there.

If that ED school does not come through with the amount indicated when you ran the NPC then at that point you are released from the ED agreement (although you might first show them the earlier NPC you ran and see if they can improve your aid package) and are free to apply ED II somewhere else, or apply to a bunch of places EA/RD and compare their various aid packages.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks PPs. So if the estimated aid on the school's website says you will have to pay $10K and the school is $40K, the school will give you the difference 100% of the time? Or do schools sometimes give less than the website says? If I know I can't pay more than $20K out of pocket per year and the calculator says they will only give me $10K, should I take that as gospel and steer clear of ED at that school?

Sometimes they offer less in financial aid because the information submitted on the full financial aid application is more complicated than what is asked for in the NPC: complex assets they decide you can sell. Occasionally they will provide more aid if there are extenuating circumstances such as large amounts being spent on a very disabled child or caring for an elderly relative (must be provable).

But yes, you should steer clear of ED at schools where they estimate you can pay more than you are willing to. If there is a school your child is interested in that falls into that category, you can call the financial aid office and try to gauge how closely they adhere to their estimates, but in most circumstances, it is very accurate.

The most important thing in applying to colleges IMO is to find schools that accept at least half, or nearly half of applicants that your child would be happy to attend AND you can afford. If you are looking for low cost or affordability, finding safeties you can get into with the ED edge is really important.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is just starting high school but I've started looking at this forum. Things certainly have changed since I was applying for college. If you apply to a college ED, are you essentially saying that you will definitely accept if they offer admissions? If so, you just have to take whatever FA they give you? So this is only for wealthy kids who can afford not to compare FA packages, right? How does the school's FA calculator come into play? Just trying to understand how this works.

Not exactly.

You can run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) on each schools website to determine your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). That will tell you how much need based financial aid you can expect from the school. Print out a copy of the NPC results.

If you are comfortable with paying the EFC after running the NPC then go ahead and apply ED. If your kid is accepted and the amount of your EFC and the amount of need based financial aid provided by the school differs significantly from the amount indicated by running the NPC before you applied -- then you are released from the ED commitment to attend the school.

You do not want to apply ED if you have an unusual financial situation (like a small business) as the NPC results may not accurately reflect the final need based financial aid offered.

You also do not want to apply ED if you are counting on merit-based scholarships that are not guaranteed for specific GPA/ACT/SAT stats. Backing out of an ED acceptance because you did not receive a merit scholarship is not an appropriate use of ED.

This is the best description of ED loopholes.

Thanks PPs. So if the estimated aid on the school's website says you will have to pay $10K and the school is $40K, the school will give you the difference 100% of the time? Or do schools sometimes give less than the website says? If I know I can't pay more than $20K out of pocket per year and the calculator says they will only give me $10K, should I take that as gospel and steer clear of ED at that school?

Anonymous wrote:My kid is just starting high school but I've started looking at this forum. Things certainly have changed since I was applying for college. If you apply to a college ED, are you essentially saying that you will definitely accept if they offer admissions? If so, you just have to take whatever FA they give you? So this is only for wealthy kids who can afford not to compare FA packages, right? How does the school's FA calculator come into play? Just trying to understand how this works.

Yes, the college application process has changed significantly in the past 10-15 years. Toss out most of what you knew, and start learning.

And your understanding of ED is correct. If they offer admissions you are on the hook to accept, unless they do not offer you enough financial aid to make it feasible. Exceptions would include something substantial changing from the time of application (e.g. parental death, job loss) or the aid package coming in far below what was predicted on the Net Price Calculator (NPC). You are expected to withdraw any other acceptances you have received (for example if you apply early action to another school, or to a rolling admissions school).

The calculators are pretty accurate; my child is going through the process now and while he did not apply ED (wanted to compare scholarship and financial aid packages) every college where he was offered at least, and in 1-2 cases slightly more, than each school's NPC predicted.

It is important to use BOTH the FAFSA calculator which estimates the amount of federal aid your child is eligible for and each school's NPC calculator. The results are often quite different.

In general, ED is risky if you need financial aid, less because the ED school is unlike to offer you what they predict, but because you may be forgoing an even better offer from another college and you would never know it.

Anonymous wrote:My kid is just starting high school but I've started looking at this forum. Things certainly have changed since I was applying for college. If you apply to a college ED, are you essentially saying that you will definitely accept if they offer admissions? If so, you just have to take whatever FA they give you? So this is only for wealthy kids who can afford not to compare FA packages, right? How does the school's FA calculator come into play? Just trying to understand how this works.

Not exactly.

You can run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) on each schools website to determine your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). That will tell you how much need based financial aid you can expect from the school. Print out a copy of the NPC results.

If you are comfortable with paying the EFC after running the NPC then go ahead and apply ED. If your kid is accepted and the amount of your EFC and the amount of need based financial aid provided by the school differs significantly from the amount indicated by running the NPC before you applied -- then you are released from the ED commitment to attend the school.

You do not want to apply ED if you have an unusual financial situation (like a small business) as the NPC results may not accurately reflect the final need based financial aid offered.

You also do not want to apply ED if you are counting on merit-based scholarships that are not guaranteed for specific GPA/ACT/SAT stats. Backing out of an ED acceptance because you did not receive a merit scholarship is not an appropriate use of ED.

My kid is just starting high school but I've started looking at this forum. Things certainly have changed since I was applying for college. If you apply to a college ED, are you essentially saying that you will definitely accept if they offer admissions? If so, you just have to take whatever FA they give you? So this is only for wealthy kids who can afford not to compare FA packages, right? How does the school's FA calculator come into play? Just trying to understand how this works.