A lot of what's wrong with the college application process comes from the fact that you often don't know what a school requires of you until you're accepted.
Even though the people who run colleges didn't create this flawed system, they aren't doing enough to fix it.
It's time to ask them to try harder. And early decision—where you agree to participate when you get in (but only if you can afford it)—is a wedge you can use to make the request.
Some of you have children who will soon be applying in the second round of pre-qualification, after receiving not so good news from the first round in the last few days. Others are already sitting with their high school students and thinking about next year.
You can all help by asking a few targeted questions. They vary based on income, but no one should sit through the early decision-making rounds without asking, even — especially — if money plays a big role in your decision.
High income families
If you can afford to pay list price and believe the value is there, apply early and take advantage of better acceptance rates if applicable. You may be supporting other families at schools that lack a particularly large endowment, so thank you.
You can do everyone else a favor by attending schools that offer merit aid, which often goes to above-average students regardless of income. Ask in a public forum whether schools provide similar amounts for both early decision applicants and late-entry students.
Tulane makes it clear on its website that early decision applicants should not expect to receive many merit scholarships. Many other schools don't, and if enough people ask out loud, those schools might simply respond on their own websites.
Lower income families
If your household income is less than $100,000, you may be put off by generally high list prices. Don't be. The most expensive early decision schools offer lots of aid to suit your financial needs, and you won't be able to get it if you don't at least apply.
However, early decision increases complexity. The difference between paying $1,000 and $8,000 a year may be so great for your family that you feel like you need to get many competing offers – and not the only one that would involve accepting the decision early.
Danny Tejada applied his early decision at Skidmore, getting in with a generous aid package and graduating debt-free. He is now an academic advisor at BASIS Independent Manhattan, a school in New York City.
His advice to low-income students is to look for schools that promise to meet the full need you demonstrate when filling out the FAFSA and the more detailed CSS Profile financial aid forms.
“Low-income people who get in tend to get great packages at these schools,” he said. Only two of the students he advised withdrew from early decision arrangements because support wasn't good enough, and both were middle income.
The confused middle
So they're more of a middle-income family, however you define that. The tuition discount system – whether need-based or performance-based – feels like a black box. And whatever your aid forms say about your ability to pay, you won't be able to write $100,000 checks to private colleges every year.
An early decision is not for you?
I don't know. Here's why: Early decision making is not a monolith, nor is need-based financial aid. A school can admit people regardless of whether they need help, but then fail to meet that need. Or the opposite may be true – it will meet the need, but will not be a so-called need-blind school, where the admissions department makes decisions without considering whether a student needs financial aid.
And think about financial aid formulas. Some schools look at how much equity you have in your home if you own one and have some and want a piece of it. Others may have different opinions about what a long-estranged parent should contribute or what a family business is worth. And then there's the question of merit aid: Do candidates who choose early decision get any? If so, how much on average?
You don't know either. But you can and should check with each college before applying for early decision.
Every school has a so-called net price calculator. This should give you an idea of what a college may require of you if you are accepted. Sometimes the calculators are inaccurate, but generally they are better than nothing.
They're also great for setting an agenda when it comes time to ask a college some questions.
When Suzanne Spencer's daughter was thinking about applying early to a small college in New England that both serves U.S. citizens and meets all applicants' needs, Ms. Spencer filled out the calculator and was thrilled with the results.
But she took another crucial step: She contacted the university to make sure she hadn't made any mistakes.
“I didn’t know if I used the right field on the right tax form,” said Ms. Spencer, who used only part of her last name here and didn’t want me to identify the college so she could protect her family’s financial privacy. “The financial aid officer and I went through the calculator results line by line.”
Her daughter got on board and the relief package was only $500, which is what the calculator had predicted.
As much as you may think admissions and financial aid officials are at odds with you, there are many people in the industry who see their job as helping families achieve their dreams.
“This is a profound feeling for us,” said Christy M. Pratt, a former director of undergraduate admissions at Notre Dame who is now an executive search consultant at WittKieffer. “People do this work because they love helping students find a good partner.”
Call them and ask them about need-based or merit-based help. This should reduce the likelihood of an unpleasant financial surprise.
An early decision is not binding
I've said it before (as has the National Association for College Admission Counseling), and I'll say it again: If you get early decision but the price is too high, you don't have to go to that school.
In October, my colleague Kailyn Rhone broke the news that Tulane was punishing students at four high schools because people in the previous class violated the early decision agreement without Tulane deeming there was sufficient cause.
Tulane's approach was harsh. But consider this: The school also said goodbye to about 10 percent of people who received early decision last year because they said they couldn't afford the price. And Tulane's message about exempting families from the early decision agreement they signed before applying was intriguing.
“We did this despite meeting their demonstrated financial need. Recognizing that meeting financial need is still insufficient for some families who need to compare financial aid offers, we have released these students from the early decision agreement without penalty or consequence,” Shawn Abbott, Tulane's vice president for enrollment, wrote in a memo to high school counselors sent following our article.
Again: an early decision is not binding. Colleges just don't like to talk about it, lest they lose the control that comes from admitting large numbers of people who think they have to leave when they get in.
Still, behave ethically. Fill out the net price calculator. Call the school of your choice and confirm the calculator results. Get a promise that the university will stand by these results if you make an early decision and are accepted.
If you do all of this, you may be able to reap the potential benefits of making an early decision, even if you don't have enough money to pay the full retail price.