How to handle schools asking for son's cell number?

Paying for College
1

<p>How should I respond to schools who ask for my son’s cell phone number on the CSS profile form? I don’t want my son to be the one have sophisticated financial conversations with a financial aid office. How have others handled this delicate question? Also the question about what other schools you’re applying to?</p>

<p>Thanks,
chaieverymorning</p>

2

<p>We used our house phone number on all applications. We also used MY email address.</p>

3

<p>No need to list a phone if you don’t want. Heck, there are thousands of kids who can’t afford a cell phone; hence, applying for finaid. If a college requires the Profile, you’ll have to list all colleges to which you are seeking finaid, or they’ll never receive the report. Also, certain colleges ask for additional information, so checking the box to add college X, means that the CB form will add college X’s specific financial questions and send to college X only. For example, some colleges ask for the value of your cars.</p>

4

<p>We used our home phone number too – as we do every every time we have to fill out a form. (Our family’s cellphone plan has a limited number of minutes and we never give out our numbers except to family and friends. The only exception would be the airline when we are buying tickets – so they can contact the traveler directly if a flight is delayed!)</p>

5

<p>I wouldn’t give it out. They’ll just use it to for recruitment calls.</p>

6

<p>It was the MIT financial aid office that asked it as a supplemental question. I don’t think they want to recruit my son–he wants to go there…but why else could they be wanted to have access to him separate from us from a financial aid point of view?</p>

7

<p>Seriously, put any phone number you want there. Use the parents house or cell phones if you want to.</p>

8

<p>If you do use email, try to make it one that both of you check reasonably frequently. You don’t want to use a throwaway email that you’ll lose the password to and neglect for weeks.</p>

9

<p>For these documents, you want to use a phone number AND an email address that will not change…and that you check often. That’s why we used the parents’ numbers and emails…knew we would check our messages.</p>