I work at the college I attend and Early Decision can really get you when it comes to financial aid; particularly scholarships. If a student applies as Early Decision it means that if they are accepted they already agree to attend this school. So if they have agreed to come the school sees no reason to give them scholarships. Also, a lot of students think they have to respond to the school and say they are coming as soon as they are accepted. This is not true for the same reason. If a student has said they will attend the school then the school is a lot less likely to consider them for scholarships. Usually schools will tell you if you got scholarships around March or April. Generally you have to say you are coming to the school by May 1. If I were you I’d just send in a regular application without doing an Early Decision or Early Action plan. That’s what I did and it worked out great. I had my application in by the middle of October and knew I was accepted within a month.

You should still be able to get financial aid with early decision. However, you may not know if you get the financial aid until much later in the year, after you decide to go to that school. You can write into the financial aid office and ask them if they have an estimate for how much aid you can get. I would go to the college and ask for a personal meeting with an admissions counselor, who will tell you more about the difference between early and regular decisions and should know more about financial aid that you can get.

Early Decision helps you get into a school a bit more, but it can kill your ability to recieve financial aid.

If you know you’ll be accepted apply regular, this will help you get better financial aid.