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If you apply for ED and are accepted do you have the same opportunities to receive merit aid as others who applied regularly?

Also, do most ED applications require you to accept the admissions? (Is it binding?)

ED is usually binding. If you apply ED, you must attend that school, or not attend law school. Schools claim the applying ED does not affect merit aid. I don't believe them. It certainly affects your ability to negotiate aid, which can be very effective.

Many schools say that applying ED does not affect one's opportunity for merit aid. But that is hard to believe, since they have no motive whatsoever to give any aid of any sort to the ED'ers. But you'll only hear anecdotal evidence on this. I haven't seen any surveys. You might want to check out lawschoolnumbers to look into it further.

fish35 wrote:If you apply for ED and are accepted do you have the same opportunities to receive merit aid as others who applied regularly?

Also, do most ED applications require you to accept the admissions? (Is it binding?)

Almost all ED programs are binding. Cornell has a non-binding "early action" program, and Boston College does "Early Notification", but non-binding early action is rare. If you are accepted under binding ED you have to immediately withdraw all other applications, including acceptances, waitlists, and pending.

Also, merit aid for ED acceptances is less common, because the school already has you and doesn't need to entice you to attend.

fish35 wrote:If you apply for ED and are accepted do you have the same opportunities to receive merit aid as others who applied regularly?

Also, do most ED applications require you to accept the admissions? (Is it binding?)

You also have to keep in mind that those who apply ED are almost never above both of the school's target medians, which will often suggest that those applicants lack merit compared to other applicants.

Well, what reason does the school have for providing you with merit aid? You're already locked into the contract. And while extra cash would surely make you happy, their responsibility is to the school, not to you. So they'll take that merit aid and use it to attract other potential (non-ED) candidates.

In most situations, ED only makes sense when you have borderline numbers and you really, really want to attend that school.

Yes. It reduces your odds of receiving merit aid.

Though it seems that Columbia and Penn will still give need-based aid to ED applicants that have low numbers... this is based off anecdotes on LSN and on these boards.

This shouldn't matter since ED is for borderline applicants with no shot at money anyway.

Thank you everyone for the responses.

So people who have numbers in or above the median, is it best to just apply early but without early decision?

It would strike me as silly for anyone to apply ED to someplace that they have numbers at or above median, yes. You've hit the general consensus. In my cycle I applied ED to two schools (rejected at one before I applied for the other) that I was below the numbers for and wouldn't have dreamed about applying ED to a school that I had a good chance of getting into anyway - unless I really wanted to go to that school, and even then I would be ambivalent.

In short, I'm with im_blue on this.