<p>I’m frustrated because one of our schools asked for more documentation which is a lot of hassle and personal info (account #s etc…think identity thefy)–meanwhile they haven’t even provided an estimated, “pending verification” aid package…they already have my tax return, Profile and FAFSA</p>
<p>this is just annoying</p>
<p>most schools didn’t want anything beyond FAFSA/Profile/tax returns, and even if they wanted more, at least provided an initial estimated package in the interim, so I could decide if we were anywhere in the ball park before spending time and giving them more info</p>
<p>would it be fair to contact them and request an estimated package prior to my providing them with more info, so I can decide if I even want to pursue it? a friend suggested this, but I tend to think they hold the cards and won’t go along with it…</p>
<p>it isn’t our # 1 school at this point, luckily, but without an idea of the aid pkg it makes it hard to evaluate it</p>
<p>The school that did our Verification sent a fin aid pkg, then sent us the Verification request for more info, then sent a revised fin aid letter, exactly the same $, that said Verified, no changes handwritten at the bottom of the letter.</p>
<p>right, that’s all I’m asking for…but I have no est pkg, nothing…and after I’ve already providing taxes and student’s non filing, they want more (detailed and time consuming to gather)…</p>
<p>am I just being cranky or do I have a valid request to ask (diplomatically) for an est pkg before proceeding?</p>
<p>“which is a lot of hassle and personal info”</p>
<p>well think of the money they will be offering you, then devide it by the # of hours you spend to get the hourly rate. On the other hand you CAN decline their request.</p>
<p>Some schools will send out estimated Award Packages when they send the request for verification, others simply do not. If this school was one which did, you would have already received the estimated award letter. Sinceyou haven’t, odds are that even asking won’t get them to send one. There is a realistic reason why some schools do not send out estimated award packets with verification requests:</p>
<p>First, many FA Offices are deeply understaffed. This is because the FA Offices are the first to take budget hits. Since most offices are understaffed, they try to limit the number of times they “touch” a file. When FAA’s review a FASFA application and determine verification is necessary, they can usually tell whether an estimated award will even run close to the actual award. In may cases the federal portions will change once the verification process has been completed. </p>
<p>In my office, we used to send estimated award letters…but recently stopped, as we found the practice was creating more work for us in the long run. We ended up spending twice as much time working on individual files than if we waited until we had all of the necessary information and then sent the Award Packet. By eliminating the “estimated awards”, we found we had more time to process more applications…and could get the applications processed in a more timely fashion.</p>
<p>And in our office…there are 2 persons who process aid for our non-term program which has a total enrollment of @1400 (80% of which receive financial aid) and 3 who process for the semester based program which has enrollment of @500 (60-70% of which receive financial aid). There isn’t a month which goes by where my office (the non-term FA Office) is at least 2-3 weeks behind in processing.</p>
<p>Secondly, sometimes the information being requested in verification prevents a school from estimating the award. Sometimes the information on the FAFSA looks so incorrect that it is extremely obvious that the EFC is too inflated and an estimated award (based on the currnet FAFSA information) would be extremely low in comparison with reality, thus causing unneccessary stress to the student and parent.</p>
<p>In regards to your qualms about the extremely personal information being given to the FA Office…and you aren’t even sure if your child will be attending…let me say that FA Offices are heavily scutinized for securing student/parent data. Any unneccesary documents which contain perosnal information must be properly destroyed, ie: by shredding the forms. Also, documents are to be securely locked or inaccessible by outside persons. Failure to follow FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) regulations can mean lofty fines levied on the school…which in many cases could ultimately result in the closing of the institution.</p>
<p>she applied to 16 schools: we have 14 aid pkg in hand at this point</p>
<p>of those 16, a handful originally asked for tax forms and student non fiing, no problem</p>
<p>out of that handful, 3 then asked for more extra stuff (all 3 asked for something different)</p>
<p>out of that 3, one provided an est pkg upfront before I sent them the extra stuff, the other 2 did not (one is a pvt and one a public school). she isn’t interested in one of those 2 at this point…</p>
<p>which brings me to the school which is the subject of my post</p>
<p>based on our history of what other schools do, it just seems like it is not unreasonable for me to ask this school for at least a rough idea of what we might be looking at…before I go to all the hassle of providing another layer of detailed financial stuff…
remember they have at this point intereviewed her for 2 scholarships…
and its a spring admit, which we are probably going to appeal to a fall 07 or fall 08 admit (no interest in a spring admit)</p>
<p>so seems like they could at least tell us what ballpark we are in assuming the additional info is in line with my original info (it is) but that’s just my take…am I off-base?</p>
<p>“it just seems like it is not unreasonable for me to ask this school for at least a rough idea of what we might be looking at…before I go to all the hassle of providing another layer of detailed financial stuff…”</p>
<p>What would you do if they told you they can not go through the HASSELL of providing you an estimate? (are you hiding something?)</p>
<p>Maybe you can take some ease in this…FA Offices do not request information during the verification process unless they TRULY need it. To be quite honest, from the Financial Aid Counselor perspective, a student/parent who isn’t willing to provide documentation when requested isn’t worth my time. I am not trying to be mean or uncaring, but with the large number of students applying for aid each year, we truly must draw the line somewhere.</p>
<p>Nikki- Thx…and I totally get that–I just thought it should be a little more of a two way street…we are drilling down to the 3rd round of info and I have zip from them</p>
<p>d started in Dec with some very time-consuming scholarship apps for this school; followed by 2 interviews, once of which I took an entire day off to drive her to/from…</p>
<p>then its a Spring admit</p>
<p>I’m perfectly willing to provide any doc they want and have already (2 rounds), including very personal divorce info etc…but before we go to round 3, I just want to know where we’re headed. Nothing like this has happened with any of the other schools…</p>
<p>but what do I know, I’m just a fin aid rebel I guess!</p>
<p>This is the third time they have asked for documentation? And each time has been different types of information? I would say you might want to give them a call to see why a third request was triggered. It may be they are over-examining a simple issue…or it could be a serious issue which is preventing them from doing an estimate. I have sometimes had to make a second request for additional documentation, but never have I seen a third request…unless it was to a student/parent who didn’t send in everything the first two times. I would definately call them and, if for no other reason, make sure that this will be the last request…and to see if even a verbal estimate would be possible.</p>
<p>well first it was FAFSA/PRofile/non-custodial for m etc</p>
<p>then it was taxes and student non-filing, divorce docs etc</p>
<p>now it is other stuff </p>
<p>so that’s what I mean by 3 rounds</p>
<p>I think you’re right, I guess I’ll just call and see if I can even get a verbal est. and find out what is going on with the scholarships she interviewed for…</p>