Anonymous
08/24/2025 15:34
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My unhooked got in ED2. Doesn't feel like a scam.
But did your kid have regrets when they saw where classmates got in RD? If already at college do they have regrets about binding in EDII now?
I ask as I know kids who definitely regret it, more in the EDII group than the EDI.
Zero regrets. He had been wanting that school for 2 years. He actually regretted not doing ED1 there and changed his EA to ED2. Very happy.
I don't understand kids who have ED regrets. They should not be playing games with ED, but rather choosing their top choice, or their top choice they still want to attend (knowing that HCY might not be a real chance). But if you would have regrets, then ED is not for you
+1
Anonymous
08/24/2025 15:29
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Early decision is a rich kid advantage. The rest of us can’t commit until we know what kind of scholarship or aid we’re offered.
If your kid is not receiving need based financial aid, they are a rich kid. Get out of your bubble!
I guess you think people raising kids on $200,000 a year in a high COL place have just as much disposable income as people making millions with millions of assets and investments and inheritance.
Your definition of rich is naive. And lumping them together is silly.
And you thinking ED is a scam is silly. It's a tool that anyone can use. Run the NPC and decide if you are able/willing to pay that for school X. If not, don't apply ED. Then again, why apply at all, because the NPC doesn't change for RD.
This. So many willfully obtuse posters on this thread.
They are just upset they have not chosen to save for $90K+/year college. Not saying they should, there are plenty outside of the T30 that give excellent merit and are great schools. Not sure why they feel entitled to get an acceptance to a school they still wont be able to pay for.
Anonymous
08/24/2025 15:28
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Early decision is a rich kid advantage. The rest of us can’t commit until we know what kind of scholarship or aid we’re offered.
Sure you can. You run the NPC. If you are able to pay what it says for college X, then you can apply ED. If not, then the numbers wont change for RD/EA.
If however, you mean, I can pay that but would prefer not to, well of course, then ED isn't for you. And you do EA/RD and get to compare offers. But dont' say you cannot ED. You simply don't want to
Anonymous
08/24/2025 13:17
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Early decision is a rich kid advantage. The rest of us can’t commit until we know what kind of scholarship or aid we’re offered.
If your kid is not receiving need based financial aid, they are a rich kid. Get out of your bubble!
I guess you think people raising kids on $200,000 a year in a high COL place have just as much disposable income as people making millions with millions of assets and investments and inheritance.
Your definition of rich is naive. And lumping them together is silly.
And you thinking ED is a scam is silly. It's a tool that anyone can use. Run the NPC and decide if you are able/willing to pay that for school X. If not, don't apply ED. Then again, why apply at all, because the NPC doesn't change for RD.
This. So many willfully obtuse posters on this thread.
Anonymous
08/24/2025 13:16
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Early decision is a rich kid advantage. The rest of us can’t commit until we know what kind of scholarship or aid we’re offered.
If your kid is not receiving need based financial aid, they are a rich kid. Get out of your bubble!
I guess you think people raising kids on $200,000 a year in a high COL place have just as much disposable income as people making millions with millions of assets and investments and inheritance.
Your definition of rich is naive. And lumping them together is silly.
And you thinking ED is a scam is silly. It's a tool that anyone can use. Run the NPC and decide if you are able/willing to pay that for school X. If not, don't apply ED. Then again, why apply at all, because the NPC doesn't change for RD.
It’s not a scam. It’s affirmative action for wealthy people.
Anonymous
08/24/2025 13:12
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Early decision is a rich kid advantage. The rest of us can’t commit until we know what kind of scholarship or aid we’re offered.
If your kid is not receiving need based financial aid, they are a rich kid. Get out of your bubble!
I guess you think people raising kids on $200,000 a year in a high COL place have just as much disposable income as people making millions with millions of assets and investments and inheritance.
Your definition of rich is naive. And lumping them together is silly.
And you thinking ED is a scam is silly. It's a tool that anyone can use. Run the NPC and decide if you are able/willing to pay that for school X. If not, don't apply ED. Then again, why apply at all, because the NPC doesn't change for RD.
Anonymous
08/24/2025 13:10
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Early decision is a rich kid advantage. The rest of us can’t commit until we know what kind of scholarship or aid we’re offered.
If your kid is not receiving need based financial aid, they are a rich kid. Get out of your bubble!
And at schools where ED actually matters, most kids are not going to get any merit aid. So there is no difference between ED and RD financially, you still wont be able to afford the school in RD if you couldn't in ED.
ED is not for anyone who wants to chase merit.
Anonymous
08/24/2025 12:41
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Early decision is a rich kid advantage. The rest of us can’t commit until we know what kind of scholarship or aid we’re offered.
If your kid is not receiving need based financial aid, they are a rich kid. Get out of your bubble!
I guess you think people raising kids on $200,000 a year in a high COL place have just as much disposable income as people making millions with millions of assets and investments and inheritance.
Your definition of rich is naive. And lumping them together is silly.
Anonymous
08/24/2025 12:37
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Early decision is a rich kid advantage. The rest of us can’t commit until we know what kind of scholarship or aid we’re offered.
If your kid is not receiving need based financial aid, they are a rich kid. Get out of your bubble!
Anonymous
08/24/2025 12:28
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Early decision is a rich kid advantage. The rest of us can’t commit until we know what kind of scholarship or aid we’re offered.
Anonymous
08/24/2025 01:41
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:ED is for colleges, recruited athletes, and suckers.
And for kids who know exactly what they want.
+1
Every school should have ED so there is no doubt about who will actually enroll if accepted. This would save SO MUCH time and effort on both the students' and the colleges' part.
Except it makes it impossible to comparison shop based on merit aid. If it were up to me colleges wouldn’t be able to have binding ED and maintain their nonprofit status. I say this as someone who can afford the full cost of a private university for my kids so they’ll likely benefit from ED.
But nobody is entitled to merit aid. ED matches and the resulting probable guaranteed tuition revenue allows the schools to offer more merit etc later. I think those who are put off by ED are people who try to use ED to game the system themselves like EDing at a high reach or to allay self-imposed anxiety by having a sure thing in the fall rather than a range of choices in the spring. That was not the purpose of ED.
Maybe I just have a different perspective because it worked out well for my dc. He EDed to basically a target school and it was his first choice by far and we could pay. Boom done.
And? How is that relevant?
The point is that candidates who may otherwise be admitted cannot try because ED'ing means taking the risk of committing to a school they can't afford.
No one is entitled to admission, either.
NPCs are accurate and you can back out if the offer is less than suggested by the NPC. Nobody should be surprised by the cost when applying ED.
NCs are not always accurate and in any case, you can't back out because you didn't get the merit aid you need in order to attend.
Yes you can.
No, you can't. If you don't get the expected FA, then yes, you can't back out.* But if you don't apply for FA but need merit aid, and don't get it? You are stuck.
I see, well then don't apply.
That's right.
Affirmative action for the rich.
*should say, "If you don't get the expected FA, then yes, you can back out.
The school is going to accept a certain number of full pay students no matter when they apply. Their budgets rely on it.
Absolutely correct. The full pays in effect subsidize those who are not.
Subsidize? This is false. FA comes from endowment, not from your full pay tuition.
You might want to take a class on budgeting before you pop off again.
Anonymous
08/23/2025 19:01
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Not a scam at all. My child is not applying ED. We weighed the choices, and decided we want to keep options open and select a school with price tag in mind.
See how that works? The power is in the hands of the consumer. We have a plethora of choices. We weigh decisions with readily available information in hand.
It’s really the opposite of a scam.
Not really. I can’t afford $85-95k in tuition so we are not considering schools where ED plays prominently. I suspect the OP who is claiming “scam” cannot also. They ought to focus on schools that are a good fit, and stop with the sour grapes.
It puts your kid a a disadvantage if you do early decision or if you don’t. Just look at the numbers.
But you still won't be able to afford the 85-90k school in RD or Ea because they don't give much merit. So there is no way your kid will attend, so it doesn't matter when they apply if you cannot pay that much
Anonymous
08/23/2025 18:59
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:ED is for colleges, recruited athletes, and suckers.
And for kids who know exactly what they want.
+1
Every school should have ED so there is no doubt about who will actually enroll if accepted. This would save SO MUCH time and effort on both the students' and the colleges' part.
Except it makes it impossible to comparison shop based on merit aid. If it were up to me colleges wouldn’t be able to have binding ED and maintain their nonprofit status. I say this as someone who can afford the full cost of a private university for my kids so they’ll likely benefit from ED.
But nobody is entitled to merit aid. ED matches and the resulting probable guaranteed tuition revenue allows the schools to offer more merit etc later. I think those who are put off by ED are people who try to use ED to game the system themselves like EDing at a high reach or to allay self-imposed anxiety by having a sure thing in the fall rather than a range of choices in the spring. That was not the purpose of ED.
Maybe I just have a different perspective because it worked out well for my dc. He EDed to basically a target school and it was his first choice by far and we could pay. Boom done.
And? How is that relevant?
The point is that candidates who may otherwise be admitted cannot try because ED'ing means taking the risk of committing to a school they can't afford.
No one is entitled to admission, either.
NPCs are accurate and you can back out if the offer is less than suggested by the NPC. Nobody should be surprised by the cost when applying ED.
NCs are not always accurate and in any case, you can't back out because you didn't get the merit aid you need in order to attend.
Yes you can.
No, you can't. If you don't get the expected FA, then yes, you can't back out.* But if you don't apply for FA but need merit aid, and don't get it? You are stuck.
I see, well then don't apply.
That's right.
Affirmative action for the rich.
*should say, "If you don't get the expected FA, then yes, you can back out.
The school is going to accept a certain number of full pay students no matter when they apply. Their budgets rely on it.
Absolutely correct. The full pays in effect subsidize those who are not.
Subsidize? This is false. FA comes from endowment, not from your full pay tuition.
The school plans to use the endowment for a specific amount each year. That means they expect a certain percentage of kids to be full pay. Thereby ensuring your kid has more financial aid. So indirectly yes a full pay kid subsidizes a kid on fa. The school is not going to accept 100-% who need merit aid (anything the school provides).
Anonymous
08/23/2025 18:49
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Not a scam at all. My child is not applying ED. We weighed the choices, and decided we want to keep options open and select a school with price tag in mind.
See how that works? The power is in the hands of the consumer. We have a plethora of choices. We weigh decisions with readily available information in hand.
It’s really the opposite of a scam.
Not really. I can’t afford $85-95k in tuition so we are not considering schools where ED plays prominently. I suspect the OP who is claiming “scam” cannot also. They ought to focus on schools that are a good fit, and stop with the sour grapes.
It puts your kid a a disadvantage if you do early decision or if you don’t. Just look at the numbers.
We keep telling posters to run the NPCs, and they simply ignore. For elite schools, the financial offer will be the same whether ED or RD. The lower you go down in the rankings, the more you can expect tuition discounts (aka "merit"), again whether ED or RD.
Anonymous
08/23/2025 18:39
Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Not a scam at all. My child is not applying ED. We weighed the choices, and decided we want to keep options open and select a school with price tag in mind.
See how that works? The power is in the hands of the consumer. We have a plethora of choices. We weigh decisions with readily available information in hand.
It’s really the opposite of a scam.
Not really. I can’t afford $85-95k in tuition so we are not considering schools where ED plays prominently. I suspect the OP who is claiming “scam” cannot also. They ought to focus on schools that are a good fit, and stop with the sour grapes.
It puts your kid a a disadvantage if you do early decision or if you don’t. Just look at the numbers.