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Any reason not to apply EA or rolling admission?


yvonne
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One consideration is SAT/ACT.  We have applied to both schools that will change merit-aid if scores improve before the regular app deadline, and schools that only accept the ones received by the EA.

 

EA's greatest benefit, to me, is having everything behind you when the holidays come around!

 
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A few schools do have certain restrictions when it comes to their EA applications. The decision itself is not binding, but there may be rules, so you will want to read those carefully. One of my daughter's early schools did not permit other EA applications to private schools, for example.

Yeah, some schools use a "single-choice" early action, which is similar to Early Decision in that you cannot apply early action to any other school, but it is non-binding.  We have only run into a couple of schools that use this hybrid.  

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Stanford is Restricted Early Action. HYP are Single Choice Early Action. Same thing with different names. I do not know of any others that have this hybrid, but it's been a few years for us. Typically (but verify for yourself) these schools allow applying to any public school, any non-binding rolling admissions schools, any foreign universities, and any scholarships/programs that require an early application but are non-binding if accepted.

 

Here is a link to Stanford's REA page:

 

http://admission.stanford.edu/apply/decision_process/restrictive.html

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For us, when to apply us dependent on when the last ACT score comes in. With DD1, she applied a local safeties early but held off on the selective schools until after the last ACT score (October test date) came in except for the one school which had a scholarship date which was prior to getting the test scores back. For DD2, we will be even more conscious of the timing of the ACT and due dates.

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I'm still a few years away from this, but how can a person apply to a college early decision if where they decide to go depends on the financial aid they receive?  Is financial aid doled out that early?  Does early decision open you up to paying whatever the college charges you?  Also, if you agree to early decision and then your circumstances change for whatever reason and you can not attend there (finances, illness, change in other family circumstances), what repercussions are there?

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I'm still a few years away from this, but how can a person apply to a college early decision if where they decide to go depends on the financial aid they receive? Is financial aid doled out that early? Does early decision open you up to paying whatever the college charges you? Also, if you agree to early decision and then your circumstances change for whatever reason and you can not attend there (finances, illness, change in other family circumstances), what repercussions are there?

Early admission is not binding.

Early decision is.

If you need to wait on financial aid offers to compare,then you don't apply ED.

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So with ED you can't take financial aid into account then?  What happens if circumstances change and you can't keep your commitment to the college to attend there?

Early admission is not binding.
Early decision is.
If you need to wait on financial aid offers to compare,then you don't apply ED.

 

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I'm not sure about that part. Ds us applying EA but not ED so we didn't look that closely into that. Sorry, someone else can probably explain.

 

Where we did look, if you were accepted ED, you had to withdraw your other applications or not apply anywhere else.. You were only to apply to a single school ED.

 

They can't make you attend anywhere, of course.

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I think for ED there are a few situations in which you can get out of the 'contract' but they are serious like death of a parent, parent losing their job etc.

if you need financial aid, it is not a good idea to apply ED because when you apply ED you are saying - given my present circumstances, if accepted, I will pay whatever the cost is. Students that need FA should apply regular decision.

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I think for ED there are a few situations in which you can get out of the 'contract' but they are serious like death of a parent, parent losing their job etc.

if you need financial aid, it is not a good idea to apply ED because when you apply ED you are saying - given my present circumstances, if accepted, I will pay whatever the cost is. Students that need FA should apply regular decision.

 

Or EA.  With EA, you can wait till the normal time to accept and be able to take financial aid and packages at competing schools into account.

 

I don't get ED.  I think only rich people can afford to apply ED (which is mostly at expensive private schools, not more-affordable state schools).

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Or EA. With EA, you can wait till the normal time to accept and be able to take financial aid and packages at competing schools into account.

 

I don't get ED. I think only rich people can afford to apply ED (which is mostly at expensive private schools, not more-affordable state schools).

I have known students on opposite ends of the financial spectrum apply ED. If you know ahead of time you will be full-pay AND can afford it AND are certain about your choice, it's a fine thing to do. However, I also have a friend who was widowed young with four children. Few financial resources. Running the NPC, one of the daughters determined she would get tons of need-based aid so applied and was accepted ED to Dartmouth. For those in the "donut-hole" on finances, it is definitley ill-advised to use ED.

 

Several schools that use ED take 40% (sometimes more!) of their incoming class in that round. I think people in the know use that statistic to their advantage. Most low-income/low resource families, however, are likely unaware that such schools are within their financial reach IF they can obtain admission. The young woman I mentioned was herself savvy and had a knowledgeable GC at her school.

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It's certainly not impossible to apply ED and still need lots of financial aid - my son did.

 

ED schools have counseled us to look very carefully at the finances BEFORE applying ED. IF you are full pay, then you probably can see what it will cost you, but you won't be able to compare it to scholarships elsewhere. You are committing to pay the cost upfront if accepted ED. You might still get a merit scholarship, but rumor has it that more merit scholarships are given to regular decision applicants to try to lure them to the school.

 

If you need financial aid (like us!) then the school we were looking at said to run their net price calculator and/or talk to financial aid office before applying ED. While you can't get you exact numbers, this school said that their NPC is very close to accurate if you input real numbers. I played around with their net price calculator, changing our income and how many students I had in college as well as my student's income. It gave me a realistic idea of what to expect. Ultimately we got more than the NPC said we'd get. 

 

My son applied Early Decision (binding) and we got his financial aid award with the decision. It did come with the ability to turn down the offer if the financial aid did not meet what you needed to go to school there. Ultimately, they gave him an additional merit scholarship on top of his need-based grant they initially told him about. 

 

Early decision was a very good decision for my son. He had a clear favorite school and IF admitted it looked like they would give us a large amount of need based money so the finances looked reasonable. It also gave my son a decision in December (rather than April). This was important as he didn't have a clear second choice school or even several he liked. If he was turned down at his top choice, it would give him several months to consider others schools - most of which he had already applied to. I felt comfortable with this school being a good fit academically, socially, and financially. If my mom instincts said otherwise, I would not have allowed him to apply ED. 

 

Edited by Julie of KY
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Stanford is Restricted Early Action. HYP are Single Choice Early Action. Same thing with different names. I do not know of any others that have this hybrid, but it's been a few years for us. 

 

We had several schools with single choice/restricted Early Action. Definitely Harvard and Princeton, possibly others (too lazy to go look them up now)

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We had several schools with single choice/restricted Early Action. Definitely Harvard and Princeton, possibly others (too lazy to go look them up now)

 

HYP = Harvard, Yale, Princeton. Sorry if unclear; I let the CC lingo sneak in on me.

 

 

It appears that there are some schools (Georegtown, Boston College) that allow other EA applications but not any ED apps.

 

Other prestigious schools allow multiple EA apps - MIT and UChicago come to mind. But, things may have changed. I'm probably too far removed to be giving any reliable advice. Always best to check the policy of each individual school if one is exploring any type of EA or ED scenario.

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What are the enforcement penalties for changing your mind for whatever reason?  For example, applying to a school that you promise to go to, and then changing your mind and applying to one with rolling admissions that has space after March.

 

ETA:  I am *not* planning on doing this, LOL, but am just curious about this stuff.

Edited by reefgazer
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