College families, info please: Early Admission / Early Decision — obliged to go?

Factual Questions
1

My niece is of that age now (holy shit, how’d that happen??) and the following question has come up. If a student applies for early admission or early decision (these are two different things) and if they are accepted by the college, are they still legally bound/contracted to attend that college and to not apply to or decide to go to any other college?

At least one person has made the claim that such an obligation does indeed exist unless the college or university doesn’t offer any kind of financial aid, even the kind that takes the form of loans that might put one in deep debt that one might not wish to incur; and so therefore to apply for early admission would mean having to accept it if offered and maybe end up with a huge debt at an expensive school if it were to end up offering nothing but loans for financial aid.

Also: Is it true that turning down an early-decision acceptance (if a school offers one) can blackball one from consideration at other colleges/universities?

2

No offense, but this is all answered if you read universities’ FAQs. Now, early action is a non-binding decision done earlier than regular admissions. If you have your paperwork in order early, there’s no disadvantage to it. Early decision is a binding decision again done earlier than regular admissions. ED should only be done if the student absolutely intends to attend this school versus any other. The fincial out happens only when the student proves that is impossible for the student to afford the school with the financial aid offered (which happens after admission, thus the problem).