Hi everyone, I’m an international applicant applying ED2 to Vanderbilt and submitted the CSS Profile on Jan 15th. My portal currently lists CSS as received and doesn’t show any additional required financial aid documents.
I was wondering if other international ED2/RD applicants (this year or in past cycles) were asked to upload tax documents or other verification materials before decisions, or if those requests usually come later (or only after admission).
Thanks in advance, just trying to understand how the process typically works.
Many CSS schools, Vandy included, use IDOC.
So yes, you report your financials. But IDOC is where you have to submit docs so they can verify you’re telling the truth. So in theory everyone filling out a CSS form from Vandy will have concurrently submitted documents through IDOC.
Vandy is need blind in the US for domestic and eligible non-citizens. But they are need aware for international.
So it might be they want you - but dependent upon how much money they’ll need to give you. If it’s too much, they might not want you.
So it may be a good sign from an admission sense - but for a US student, at least when we did apps, I did IDOC right after CSS. They want to validate what you told them.
International Students
Vanderbilt University will offer renewable need-based financial aid to a limited number of international first-year undergraduate applicants.
Thank you for answering! Just to make sure I’m understanding you correctly, when you say it may be a good sign, do you mean that not being asked for additional verification yet could indicate the application hasn’t been ruled out financially and is still under consideration? My Vanderbilt portal notes that they don’t retrieve documents through IDOC and instead request any needed materials directly through the portal checklist, so I’m trying to understand how to interpret the lack of requests so far.
Sorry, I misread.
I saw being asked to upload. Being asked to upload (at least for a US Student) is a standard thing with CSS. I would assume they’d want you to upload too.
I thought you were saying you were asked to upload. My mistake. I’d imagine you are supposed to regardless as they are an IDOC school. You might sign into IDOC to see or ask Financial Aid.
They admitted 4.3% of international students. Whether you’d be one, I don’t know.
Sorry, I misinterpreted but I’d assume they will want your documents - especially given the need aware situation. So you might check into that - or sign into IDOC and see.
Got it, but Vanderbilt somehow doesn’t appear on IDOC. On my fin aid portal, it says: Vanderbilt will NOT retrieve tax documents from the College Board’s IDOC. All tax documents should be submitted through your checklist(s).
I saw an article from their financial aid office that they request the CSS Profile from international students, but also reserve the right to request additional documents.
Yes, of course, it’s super competitive for internationals, but I just wondered what this means. Thanks for replying.
Sure- sorry about that - but you might reach out just to ensure nothing is missing, just in case.
Good luck.
Here’s a few pics for you - I was just there yesterday.
Yes, I might email them tomorrow for clarity.
Ah, thank you so much for sharing! These are great. Maybe I can be there next year, who knows:)
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My son is not international student so we are unsure if our experience is relevant, but we were asked by 2 different schools to submit additional financial aid documents (due to our family situation) after we completed the CSS profile.
One school uses IDOC, so they sent my son an email with instructions on how to upload onto IDOC. The email came about 1 week after we submitted the CSS profile. However, we did not hear back from the school about anything else until 1 week prior to them releasing the admission offer - they emailed us that we are okay and no further documents are needed.
Another school does not use IDOC. Instead, they put in a message on my son’s application portal requesting additional documents to be uploaded on their own financial aid document submission website. This came about a week or 2 before the admission decision was released.
My son and I also reached out to our other schools which requires CSS profile submission. They all told us that they do not need additional documents, just the info on CSS profile is good.
I will suggest you to frequently check your admission portal and email for further instructions, and if you are really concerned (like I am), you can always reach out to the financial aid office and ask about it. They should be more than happy to help you!
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