Unsure about FAFSA due date

shadowstar64 · 01-25-2012, 08:45 PM

I'm a little unclear about the FAFSA due date for the ivy's and Stanford, excluding Columbia and Brown. The websites all say the first of February is the due date, however I see some places citing it as the recommended submission date in order to receive financial aid information with the admissions decision.

Does anyone have knowledge of this matter? Thanks.

thumper1 · 01-25-2012, 08:55 PM

Quote:

The websites all say the first of February is the due date, however I see some places citing it as the recommended submission date in order to receive financial aid information with the admissions decision.

Don't you WANT your financial aid information when you get your admissions decision? How else will you make a matriculation decision. If it says Feb 1, then get them done by Feb 1...or you might just get an acceptance in April with NO financial aid award....because you waited too long for them to process your info.

shadowstar64 · 01-25-2012, 08:59 PM

The problem in hand is my mothers taxes won't be filed until tomorrow. In the case that something holds it up, I don't want to be completely screwed out of financial aid. I am just curious if Feb 1 is a final deadline or simply recommended.

thumper1 · 01-25-2012, 10:23 PM

Tomorrow is before february first. You will be fine.

You read the info. If you do not meet the school deadline THEY might not be able to get your financial aid done in time. Just get it done!!!

If those taxes do NOT get done for some reason you can and should file the FAFSA and Profile using your moms best estimates for 2011 tax return info. If your mom can compete the return fine... Get it done prior to the February 1 deadline. Otherwise use those estimates...good ones...use a "will file" status meaning you will file but have not yet done so. Then get those taxes done ASAP and update the forms. You can update the FAFSA online. You will need to contact your colleges to ask how they each want the profile updated.

beolein · 01-26-2012, 08:49 AM

The February 1 deadline can be so colleges can send aid information with admission decisions, and also so colleges can award actual aid. Heed the deadline.
With a deadline of February 1 or earlier, colleges know spme FAFSA figures will be estimates, because, for example, employers are not required to send W-2s until January 31, meaning they wouldn't arrive in the mail until after February 1, and therefore taxes can't be filed until after February 1.

teachandmom · 01-26-2012, 10:52 AM

You can file the FAFSA based on numbers from last pay stubs, bank statements, etc, and then go in later and correct those numbers based on taxes. Taxes are not the same as FAFSA, and don't need to be filed yet in order to submit the fafsa for fa reasons. Many people must file FAFSA with estimated numbers. Just get the taxes done asap, and update FAFSA sooner rather than later.

sylvan8798 · 01-26-2012, 10:54 AM

If we are filing for Sophomore year, is that also due Feb 1? We never have our taxes done before April. Last year we just SWAGed it altogether.

teachandmom · 01-26-2012, 11:04 AM

sylvan, check with your school. They will let you know the deadline for returning students to file FAFSA. My D's school sent out a reminder email just this week.

HelloImChelsea · 07-29-2012, 03:17 PM

I don't understand how the priority deadline could be February 1st because my mom said that we can't get the W-2's until January 31st... Help!

sybbie719 · 07-29-2012, 04:09 PM

Hi Chelsea,

You can file your taxes using estimates on January 1. Your mom would put her status as will file. This gets you in the que. when she files her taxes, she goes back to the fafsa website, make corrections and changes her status from will file to filed.

thumper1 · 07-29-2012, 04:17 PM

I'm sure Sybbie meant to write that you can file your FAFSA using estimates...and then update when your taxes are completed.

sybbie719 · 07-29-2012, 04:38 PM

**FAFSA using estimates (good catch)

teachandmom · 07-29-2012, 05:44 PM

With so many schools requiring that your fafsa info be directly from the IRS link (I can't remember the name right now), I wonder how many of these deadlines are going to have to be pushed back. If people have to file accurate taxes, and don't have all required paperwork until Jan 31, then need appointments with whomever files their taxes, and then it takes about two weeks to be entered into the IRS thing, I don't see how anyone will be able to file an official FAFSA by Feb. 1. I filed mine using accurate numbers from the taxes we filed, then had to go back in April and use the IRS link because that is when the college said "all fafsa info will have to be directly from the link." Luckily, my student was a returning student, so it didn't effect her, but for incoming freshmen, this could be very stressful on top of everything else!

sybbie719 · 07-29-2012, 06:32 PM

The early deadline usually only affects freshmen, so we are talking about one year that parents need to be really organized and file their taxes as early as possible as returning students will usually have a later filing date.