<p>bella - Congratulation to you and your D on the acceptance to her top choice college!</p>
<p>Aniger - Congrats! Even if not a top choice, it will make the remaining 2 months’ wait a lot easier.</p>
<p>So wait a minute. We did the FAFSA, we did the CSS. Now we have to send tax forms before D gets a FA package? Does this happen before they are accepted? I don’t remember any of the schools requesting tax forms but maybe I missed it. Huh.</p>
<p>They are asking for all that at Smith and Wesleyn too. Might just say no since pretty happy with our first choice</p>
<p>FinAid thoughts - I had to prepare CSS/Profile first. FAFSA was a breeze after that. Profile let’s you create a FAFSA Worksheet that shows you what answers to enter for each FAFSA question. Very convenient! </p>
<p>For Profile corrections I would advise to call each college and ask them how to send the changes. I called and the college wanted an e-mail. I don’t think you need to report the difference in the account balances due to the market fluctuation/etc. Profile asks for the balances as of the date of preparation, so if you reported them correctly, corrections are not necessary. Correct me if I’m wrong. (:):):)) </p>
<p>I can’t wait to be done with finaid! The funny thing is that we will be paying full price (or close to it) anyway.</p>
<p>Morning, all. No school today – first snow day here in central Texas in maybe three years. Late yesterday afternoon, the announcement was that school would start two hours late, with the snow starting last night around 11:00. Well, what wasn’t expected was the freezing rain and sleet that came first, laying down a nice layer of ice before the snow came! Interstate 35 is shut down in San Antonio and in parts of Austin; all the flyovers are closed, etc. DH works for our school district, so he’s off. My boss called last night and said my work would start two hours late, but that was before the ice showed up. So, I’m drinking coffee and listening to the weather on TV, and waiting to see what happens with my work.</p>
<p>DS age 9 is awake and bouncing off the walls and wanting to go outside. We’re trying to stall that for awhile. DS age 18 is still asleep; I’ll give him some more sleep time before breaking the good news of no school. Then the bad news will be “Hey, let’s do a couple more of those scholarship applications!” :)</p>
<p>Hope everyone is safe and warm.</p>
<p>When I lost my job as college consultant to S as some of you may remember I also handed over the CSS and FAFSA to H. He thinks the FAFSA was easy compared to the CSS but trying to find out if schools have received the FAFSA is not possible-at least the ones he has called directly. He felt the CSS was very invasive but if you want money you have to play the game. What really irks him is we aren’t going to get any FA per the calculators but some schools require them anyway-some don’t-but if you have to fill it out he just figures it is easier to send them to every school.</p>
<p>I do sympathize with those of you having to deal with it-I was starting the process when he took over and it seemed like drudgery. </p>
<p>My S finds my CC habit strange-I have been participating on some message boards for years involving sports teams and have met some great people in real life and they are all pretty normal. 
</p>
<p>He thinks I am a little bit crazy anyway so he just goes with the flow. It’s kind of funny because every time he comes into my office he finds me on the same thread-and it isn’t this one and it is a thread I don’t check nearly as often as this one-but it seems to him like I am stalking that thread. It’s funny.</p>
<p>He is so ready to go to college-or at least finish HS. I can see why there is the “senioritis” term-it definitely exists.</p>
<p>Long time member, first post. Hi!
My daughter applied to 5 schools: Macalester EDII, Lawrence EA, Illinois Weslyean rolling and Oberlin and Pitzer RD.
She was accepted to Macalester, Lawrence and Illinois Weslyean (she withdrew her apps and also withdrew Pitzer and Oberlin).
Lawrence and Illinois Weslyean offered her merit money, Macalester did not.
Has anyone ever approached a school with that info and asked it they would match the award?
Also, she did check the financial aid box on her common app, my husband filled out FAFSA only. Her enrollment instructions include “if your app for FA is complete, you can
expect to recieve your award soon. If you have applied for FA and your app is incomplete, it is important to act on it immediately.” He’s call the Admisions Office today.
Thank you!</p>
<p>H tells me each school has a different date and different forms they want. He gets an email from each one and has it under control-I am glad he is a CPA. :)</p>
<p>Hi All,</p>
<p>Aniger ~ Felicitations, Mc Gill est une merveilleuse option :D</p>
<p>Bella ~ Love your attitude towards CC and congratulations your D’s acceptance.
What a great feeling to know they found a place to 
Time to book those hotel rooms, research bedding options and all that fun stuff…
BB&B is having a major clearance sale going on right now time to shop </p>
<p>Fogfog~ Yes and Yes…Schools all have different requests when it comes to FA </p>
<p>Some one asked earlier in the thread, if it was worth contacting the FA office for an appeal…absolutely 
A prayer to the FA Fairy for some magic dust helps too ;)</p>
<p>Cheers for now :)</p>
<p>FAFSA - I called the FAFSA folks b/c I had the same concerns many of you did. I asked them to see if my file was OK. They confirmed that it was. I think (I didn’t ask FAFSA) how it works is that your FAFSA info is sitting in the FAFSA database and any school you listed on your form is allowed to access it. I don’t know if the schools are notified if you update your FAFSA so perhaps if you make significant changes you might want to notify each school’s fin aid office. If anyone has any other info on this, could you plz correct my assumptions?</p>
<p>For those of you who want to try to get more fin aid from a particular school, I suggest googling ‘negotiating financial aid’ or 'appealing FA" or something like that. I know I have read many good articles on what to do and what not to do, but I’m not sure where they are now.</p>
<p>Aniger & bella - congrats
Kathy - welcome</p>
<p>First day and last day of school this week! Our son actually jumped out of bed. He was really glad to be going back. Got to school 20 minutes early to sign up for some assignment for TAG Literature. (First come, first pick of memorization/essay chapter in Fahrenheit 451?)</p>
<p>Aniger–congrats on McGill. My brother, a former French teacher, loved his visit there many years ago.</p>
<p>FAFSA/CSS Profile/IDOC is one large domino setup. Now that we have all the 1099s, we can do our taxes (sort of) but we can’t file until Feb. 14 when the IRS will have the 2010 Schedule A available. So we’ll finish FAFA and CSS this weekend. (Thanks to keylime pie for the tip on the FAFSA sheet generated by the Profile.) But one school wants our 2010 taxes by IDOC for a Feb. 15 deadline. That’s not physically possibly, thanks to the IRS. So we have to mail our 2009 tax return to them and then submit 2010 by IDOC when it is available.</p>
<p>All of this for a school that will most likely reject our son. There’s a 9% chance he gets in and 2% chance we can afford it if he does. But it’s his dream, so we’ll pursue it until we hit a wall that shatters the dream.</p>
<p>FYI
The College Board website is moving from [College</a> Admissions - SAT - University & College Search Tool](<a href=“http://www.collegeboard.com%5DCollege”>http://www.collegeboard.com) to [College</a> Admissions - SAT - University & College Search Tool](<a href=“http://www.collegeboard.org%5DCollege”>http://www.collegeboard.org). The use of the .org domain name better reflects our status as a not-for-profit organization.</p>
<p>No date is given on their website.</p>
<p>OK</p>
<p>How much can you change the FAFSA to reflect current numbers and corrections IF you know you have errors in the Profile.
I am afraid to use that import tool on College Board.
Also–why does College Board - Profile connect into FAFSA? Aren’t they private vs federal programs?
I’d like to get started on FAFSA…yet dont want the program to tell me that block xyz in profile says qwerty and that I cant fix it.</p>
<p>Right now we haven’t even given the acct our self employed corp and family tax info–
and I am feeling squeezed because I cant correct the Profile nor do FAFSA witout good numbers. I would hate to have to file FAFSA corrections.
Anyone know what FAFSA corrections take ? I want to send good corrected numbers for Profile to the school once if I can help it.</p>
<p>IDOC…ug…one more place for too much information to go…social security numbers etc…</p>
<p>I don’t know if there is a way to import Profile #s to FAFSA. But if you already submitted Profile and select ‘Check Status of Application’ on the Profile website, on the bottom of the next page you’d see FAFSA worksheet button. It will create a document that will show how to answer each of the FAFSA questions. But you would have to enter those numbers into FAFSA application yourself. </p>
<p>And you can correct FAFSA even after you submitted it. Not sure if the colleges will get a notice that it was changed or if you have to contact them about it.</p>
<p>I know nothing about IDOC, but I don’t like it already.</p>
<p>Changing the FAFSA is no big deal. You just go in, change the number and click submit. In a day or two, you will get back a new SAR. The history of your changes is in the History section.</p>
<p>My understanding is that changes are to made if there are errors, such as you said your AGI was $5,000 not $15,000, or if you are updating from WILL FILE to FILED status with associated # changes. It is not meant to reflect an increase or decrease in your investment portfolio due to market value changes.</p>
<p>Both the FAFSA & Profile say estimates can be used so do the best you can with what you have. I agree this is all an invasion of privacy, but that is the price we pay for requesting $$$$$$$$$$.</p>
<p>I am sorry to report that D went to an accepted students day at her safety today and did not come home happy. This U is excellent and she would be in the honors program with essentially a free ride. Sadly, she left saying she would rather take a gap year than go. So much for “love thy safety!” In her excellent public high school there seems to be an academic snobbery (maybe not the right word, but it gets the point across) with the “tiger cubs” my D is in classes with and perhaps my D has “caught it.” Now, I am praying that she LOVES the strong match. We go to that accepted students event in 2 weeks. Hoping for some other options in April.<br>
Interestingly, one of the speakers at the parent portion today had some very interesting observations including: for the most part, our kids are just crazy stressed right now and there is a dangerous amount of discussion regarding college and scholarships among seniors at school (we should be aware back off), parents should be educating kids about finances and medical care NOW (a lot of kids go off meds and don’t know when they should go to doctor), and we should be letting our kids FAIL at home now rather than rescuing them - first true crises at school are terrible and common. The lady advising us was worth taking a day off from work to listen to even though my D has no interest.<br>
I am quite sad. I was hoping the honors college would be an appealing option that saved some $ for grad school and was close enough for a day trip if D desired. It’s her journey, though. Looks like she will be a plane ride away (sigh). Loving the kid on the couch…</p>
<p>Mnmom: I’m sorry that the visit to your daughter’s safety didn’t go well. Unfortunately, safety schools usually don’t excite kids like their other schools do. Your daughter probably is being influenced by her peers, but it sounds like this school isn’t right for her if she’d rather take a gap year than attend. I hope that she likes some of her other options better.</p>
<p>Mnmom: As a Mnmom also, I know where your daughter is coming from.
My daughter insisted she only wanted to attend the U of MN… till she spent 2 hours there in October of her junior year then she never wanted to see it again.
Two hours spent at Macalester was enough to convince her she would be happiest at a small LAC.
Fortunately, she’ll be at Mac in the fall.</p>
<p>MnMom and Kathy - We’re in the same boat, too. D is accepted in great honors program at flagship, but really wants LAC-type environment. So we’re waiting till April to sort it all out. And we’re not in MN now, but could end up there for the LAC (D loved visit to Carleton)!</p>
<p>Bluejr is officially a second semester senior!!! I can’t tell you the relief to be joining you all on the other side! I know my feeling of relief has to pale in comparison to my son’s. His exams were indeed counted, all seven they managed to eek out between delayed openings and snow days. This worked in his favor in the long run with a mid-term report better than he had hoped for. The AP Lit he’d scraped so hard for he ended up catching a break in the end. He’d gone to the prof. for some extra help on his weaker points (writing) which paid off on the exam. College decisions will be what they will be, but the mid-term report can only help. There will be no ‘if only’s’ if he doesn’t get into his first choice…just ‘oh well’. Not much more you can ask for. As we all know, in the long run, you rarely know what the tipping point is in a decision</p>
<p>I am dreading the FAFSA, which I am more and more convinced I will be doing as Bluedad is making no headway on. In the entire college search, testing/prep, application process this is the one thing I asked him to take care of. Urrgghh! Thankfully we don’t have anything complicated like others have here (ie own businesses) so it should be pretty straightforward. One school does require the profile. Based on reactions from you dear people here over the last few days…that may be my downfall.</p>
<p>mnmom - I’m so sorry your D didn’t like the school. So much better to find out now, but disappointing still. I love the advise you were given during the parent portion and am going to take that to heart. Thank you so much for sharing! I have found a couple of admission blogs I follow that offer sage advise for the admission process that is good for any family navigating it with their student, not just applicants to that particular school.</p>