The Early Decision Advantage: Higher Odds, No Merit

At the most selective schools, Early Decision is the golden ticket. These colleges use ED to lock in a large share of their freshman class early. The result: students in the ED round often face much higher admit rates than those who wait until Regular Decision.

But the price of that advantage is steep. Colleges like Williams College, Amherst College, and Rice University offer no merit scholarships at all. Their financial aid is entirely need-based. Families who qualify may receive generous support, but families who don’t are committing to pay the full cost. By applying ED, you may gain an admissions edge, but you lose the flexibility to compare financial packages—and the possibility of a merit award disappears altogether.



For students aiming at their first-choice school, this tradeoff can feel worth it. But for many families, it’s a leap without a financial safety net.

The Merit Aid Path: Discounts Without the ED Lock-In

Other colleges flip the strategy. Instead of relying on binding commitments, they compete for students with generous merit awards. These schools admit more students overall, so merit becomes their lever to encourage enrollment.

Baylor University is a clear example. Many students receive significant merit scholarships, cutting tens of thousands of dollars off the sticker price. Southern Methodist University (SMU) offers both Early Decision and merit aid, but its scholarships are more modest compared to schools that lean heavily on merit.

Beyond Texas, the University of Miami is another familiar name. While its published cost is among the highest in the country, strong applicants often receive substantial scholarships, bringing the price down dramatically. These schools don’t push students to commit early. Instead, they compete with discounts, giving families more flexibility to compare offers.

Can You Have Both? Almost Never

Very few schools offer both a meaningful Early Decision advantage and broad, generous merit aid. SMU is one of the few that straddles both worlds, but even there, the scale of scholarships isn’t what families find at merit-heavy schools like Baylor or Miami. For most students, the choice is binary: pursue the admissions edge of ED or keep the flexibility of multiple offers with merit dollars on the table.

What to Ask Before You Apply ED

Deciding whether to apply Early Decision means weighing admissions odds against financial flexibility. Here are key questions for families to ask:

1. Does this school even offer merit aid? If the answer is no, applying ED means you are committing without the possibility of a scholarship.
2. Do we qualify for need-based aid? If yes, the ED path at a selective college may still make sense. If not, you may be paying full price.
3. How important is comparing offers? ED removes the ability to weigh multiple financial packages.
4. What’s the financial strategy of this school? Some lock in students early with ED, others lure them with merit, but almost none do both.
5. Do we have balance on the list? Having both ED-leaning schools and merit-heavy schools ensures options, no matter how things play out.

Early Decision can feel like the smart move—an edge in a competitive process. But families need to see the full picture. The boost in odds often comes with the loss of financial flexibility, because selective colleges that lean on ED rarely offer merit aid. On the other side, schools that use merit scholarships as their main tool usually don’t emphasize ED.

Students and parents must decide which matters more: the admissions advantage of ED or the ability to compare scholarships and choose the best financial fit. The hidden tradeoff is that you almost never get both. Recognizing that reality now can save families from disappointment later—and help them approach this decision with clear eyes and confidence.

Where This Data Comes From

Each year, our colleagues Jennie Kent and Jeff Levy analyze financial aid and admissions data from the Common Data Set, a national survey that colleges complete annually. By looking across hundreds of schools, their work uncovers patterns that aren’t obvious when families focus on a single college. One of the clearest findings is that Early Decision and merit aid rarely go hand in hand.