Two weeks to November 1, and the Early Decision question is on a lot of kitchen tables. Last October I wrote about the different kinds of early. This is about the one that binds.
What ED buys
A real, if often overstated, improvement in admit odds at many selective colleges. Colleges like ED because it fills the class with students who will definitely come; they reward that certainty. For a student with a clear first choice whose application is ready, it can be the right call.
What ED costs
The ability to compare. An ED admit arrives in December with one financial aid offer. The family can decline only if that offer makes attendance genuinely unaffordable — and “unaffordable” is judged by the college’s formula, not the family’s feelings. There’s no “we’ll see what State U offers in March.” There is no March.
The calculation
Before signing anything, run the college’s net price calculator with last year’s actual tax figures. It takes thirty minutes. The result is an estimate, not a promise, but it’s usually within a few thousand dollars of the real offer.
Then ask one question: If the December offer comes in at that number, do we sign the deposit without hesitation?
If the answer is yes, ED is on the table. If the answer is “we’d want to see what else is out there,” then what you want is Early Action, and the family should say so now rather than discover it in December.
Merit money and ED
Here’s the part that’s rarely said plainly: colleges that give large merit scholarships to attract students have less reason to give them to a student who has already promised to come. Need-based aid is formula-driven and generally holds. Merit aid — the discount that brings a $75,000 school down to $45,000 — is a recruiting tool, and ED students have already been recruited. If merit is part of the family’s plan, ED usually isn’t.
ED II
Some colleges offer a second binding round with a January deadline. It’s the same commitment with a later date, useful for a student whose first ED didn’t work out and who has a clear second choice. The money logic is identical.
Deciding this week
- Net price calculator, real numbers.
- The “deposit without hesitation” question, asked of both the student and the parents.
- If yes: ED agreement signed by all three parties and the counselor, application submitted by Oct 29.
- If no: Early Action where offered, Regular Decision elsewhere, and the family compares offers in April with the spreadsheet I wrote about last spring.
Neither answer is wrong. What’s wrong is signing a binding agreement without having done the math.
By Jeff Thompson, Phortex Campus · October 14, 2025 · ← All posts