Do any schools evaluate financial aid separately from Early Decision? Forum

[zoov]

Just wondering; I really want to go to Michigan and have a decent shot, but I kind of want to ED to make sure I get in. However, financial aid would be lessened? Or do some schools give aid as a separate consideration?

[WinterComing]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "separate consideration." There are a few schools where people admitted ED are automatically given big scholarships (full ride at Wash. U., 150k at Northwestern). At basically every other school, ED and financial aid are separate considerations in the sense that once you've been admitted ED, the school separately considers whether to give you a scholarship, realizes there is no reason to since you're already committed, then doesn't. That said, I have heard of some cases where ED admits still got scholarships. Not sure how common that might be, but my guess is not very.

ETA: And now that I'm thinking about it, in addition to schools where applying ED effectively eliminated you from scholarship consideration, there are some as I recall that explicitly eliminate ED admits from scholarship consideration. Not sure about Michigan though.

[zoov]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "separate consideration." There are a few schools where people admitted ED are automatically given big scholarships (full ride at Wash. U., 150k at Northwestern). At basically every other school, ED and financial aid are separate considerations in the sense that once you've been admitted ED, the school separately considers whether to give you a scholarship, realizes there is no reason to since you're already committed, then doesn't. That said, I have heard of some cases where ED admits still got scholarships. Not sure how common that might be, but my guess is not very.

ETA: And now that I'm thinking about it, in addition to schools where applying ED effectively eliminated you from scholarship consideration, there are some as I recall that explicitly eliminate ED admits from scholarship consideration. Not sure about Michigan though.

Thanks. Know how I could go about finding this information about Michigan? Can I email them?

Also, why do people say to avoid ED for financial aid reasons? Is it simply due to loss of negotiation power, or is it the risk of getting none? I would very much like ED but obviously don't want to risk not getting in to Michigan either.

EDIT: I see on Michigan's website the FA is a separate consideration. I guess negotiation power just drops. Thanks.

[cavalier1138]

EDIT: I see on Michigan's website the FA is a separate consideration. I guess negotiation power just drops. Thanks.

Just to clarify this (because there's a reason that ED is not recommended without an attached scholarship): your negotiating power disappears entirely. Your ability to negotiate scholarships with law schools is entirely predicated on you being able to take a better offer, and ED totally eliminates your ability to do that.

As mentioned above, if you apply ED to a school that doesn't attach an automatic scholarship to it, you will not get money. So unless you're willing to pay full price for Michigan, don't even think of applying ED.

[mornincounselor]

I think Michigan is one school which in the past has generally still awarded "some" scholarship money to their ED students. I believe you can find interviews conducted with the Dean there which goes in to why this is the case (as well as threads on this forum from Michigan ED kids who are pleased).

However, I do agree with everyone here that ED'ing does eliminate one's bargaining power. Even if a school does decide to give money to their already committed ED applicants, the student will still have no legitimate means of increasing that initial offer (again, I recall an anecdotal case of someone who ED'd to Michigan, than retook the LSAT and got a significantly higher scholarship offer -- this is clearly an exception).

Mike Spivey did an analysis a few years ago of the increase to one's admission chances ED'ing at different t14 schools. That would be useful to browse. For people at the margins applying at early decision (notably when they don't stand much of a chance of scholarship money in any event) can be smart thing to do.

[zoov]

Thanks for the input - some background: ~1 year at a corporate job, 3.87/165 (retaking though). I am just thinking about September and what I will do in the scenario that my score doesn't go up.

By some measures, I will be lucky to get in to any T14, by other measures, I should be in at many.

[WinterComing]

Thanks for the input - some background: ~1 year at a corporate job, 3.87/165 (retaking though). I am just thinking about September and what I will do in the scenario that my score doesn't go up.

By some measures, I will be lucky to get in to any T14, by other measures, I should be in at many.

Crush your retake. Then you won't need to worry about ED. Good luck.