<p>Done with FAFSA and taxes! All thanks to Cornell for demanding a signed 1040 before 1) the fed gov’t will begin to process it and 2) they have accepted your kid.<br>
Cooker - Congrats!!!</p>
<p>amandakayak: Cornell is not alone on that list. MIT is also and I’m sure there are others. Frustrating, isn’t it? </p>
<p>After five hours of poring over taxes, CSS profile and FAFSA on Saturday, my head hurt.
No Schedule A available from the IRS until Feb. 14. IDOC submission due Feb. 15. Hmm.</p>
<p>Oh, and we logged into FAFSA last night to submit with son’s new PIN and all our saved information was gone. Had to redo it all. Thank heavens it was not the Profile.</p>
<p>Congrats to all the finalists! Hard work paid off. Hopefully money will also be coming your way. </p>
<p>OWM- I read your post on another thread about losing the FAFSA stuff. Yikes!! I have already submitted preliminary FAFSA and Profile to all who need it. Now I have to send last years completed taxes. </p>
<p>Feel like we are back in application mode with all these scholarship and honors apps S needs get submitted for various schools. H is getting stressed, S is hoping we will forget they are due and I am trying to mediate. </p>
<p>S is getting mail daily from the schools he is already accepted to and he is barely glancing at any of them. He refuses to join any of the facebook groups for accepted students. I would be all over that if they had that when I was his age. Right now I have no idea which school is his top choice because S is tired of the whole process and told me we could talk about it when he hears back from all the schools in March. …sigh</p>
<p>I’ve been advised to fill in FAFSA even if there is no real prospect of financial aid. Can you think of any reason to do this?</p>
<p>We are filling out FAFSA although we will not get any need based aid so we can take advantage of the low cost loans if necessary.</p>
<p>shawbridge - some merit aid requires the FAFSA; it depends on the school. i checked with each school and have been spared the FAFSA pleasure.</p>
<p>owm - Turbotax let me file sch A so it must be now released (it had blocked me from doing this before today) but what they do say is fed govt won’t begin processing sch A until 2/14. I don’t know, hopefully I won’t have to revise and submitted tax return because of Cornell 
The way I see it, the more ridiculous the demands, I am sure people just say forget it. From their online estimator, it looks like I will get next to nothing from them anyway so I really don’t know why I am bothering.</p>
<p>akayak: We use a preparer for our taxes due to at trust, my self-employment, etc., and she was able to complete our return but cannot e-file until 2/14. </p>
<p>A general question for everyone who has older children. How much does your EFC change in the second through fourth (or heaven forbid, fifth) years. We have not had to deal with that. Our oldest son went to college one year–2008-2009. We thought we had about three years saved and then market went south and we pretty much drained his UTMA accounts to pay for that year at a private LAC. Then most of you know the story. His GF got pregnant, he left school, got married and now has a baby. What’s left in his UTMA and Coverdell is now in his name since he is 21 and not a dependent. They make so little that his wife qualifies for all kinds of aid for her part-time tuition. </p>
<p>We still have two UTMAs (established before 529 existed) and a Coverdell for the younger son. EFC would indicate that we should drain those and pay some out-of-pocket for his first year. We get that. But when those assets are gone, our EFC should be much lower next year. Correct? Income all the same but no more assets (except our own investments–also not yet recovered.) Am I naive to think a school wouldn’t expect you to pay the same each year if you use all your savings to pay for the first year?</p>
<p>Finally got the NMF letter. Hooray.
Little bro SAT results online today. After finally finding an age appropriate (8th grade) percentile chart, I feel excited for him. I fear that, by the time he is applying, there will be about 100,000 applicants to the selective schools. Of course he is convinced that he will be choosing between DI scholarships in multiple sports (LOL).<br>
Diferent kid, different journey, same darn couch!</p>
<p>Congratulations, mnmom!</p>
<p>mnmomof2 -
Congratulations on getting getting that letter! Kudos to your younger son on the SAT as well.</p>
<p>This may be urban myth, but I have heard that if you ever find yourself in the position while your student is in school that you would qualify for fin-aid due to loss of job, illness, etc., it is much easier to get aid if you have filed a FAFSA from your students first year. I’m counting on getting zippo since bluejr only applied to schools with instate tuition (or the equivalent), but we are filing anyway just to cover our rear ends. In the event that we become a horrible victim of this economic crisis I want to do anything I can that might ensure less pain. Who knows if it would make a difference, but I’d rather not take the chance.</p>
<p>Hi </p>
<p>Hope to file FAFSA tom w estimates as taxes aren’t even to the acct yet.
Had hoped to only file changes to Profile–something tells me that wont be the case…
DH said he’d review the tighter estimates from what we filed in Oct before the EA deadline. I want to at least get into the system…
The pile of info,paper and drafts is 2" high! I am concerned and need to call the univ about an error I made on the Profile, yet want to have other ducks in a row first.</p>
<p>Have spent better part of day sorting the piles of paper around here…everything from coupons, leftover christmas cards, report cards, kiddo’s profile/app stuff, home repair receipts, old contact lens prescriptions…you get the idea…! </p>
<p>Fot NMF, 5 in the class have made the cut.</p>
<p>Question about curfews…
I was talking with a parent whose sr has a 12am weekday curfew and a 2am weekend curfew.
Our student OTOH isnt out during the weekdays unless its a school function, and weekend curfew depends on each event/plans…
so
what is the policy in your house?</p>
<p>fogfog: Curfew at our house is 10 on school nights and 11:30 on weekends (although sometimes he gets back later than that from speech/debate tournaments.) The only reasons to be out on a school night are to attend a school or church function, volunteer or work on homework with another student.</p>
<p>Our son would be a zombie if he weren’t in bed by 10:30. Not saying he’s asleep because I’m sure he has his netbook or kindle in bed with him. But at least he’s home and resting.</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you for your kind thoughts and words. We are doing okay here…but must confess that this is hard.</p>
<p>On a happier note, S2 was told at school that he is NMF!</p>
<p>Lots for me to go back and read since I’ve been out of touch for a few days. I’m eager to read all the good things that your kiddos have been up to.</p>
<p>Fogfog: No real need for a curfew here on weeknights as he is really only out for school or church related things. On weekends, his curfew is midnight.</p>
<p>Ohiomom - Thinking of you, it sure is hard isn’t it? Sooo glad to help my dad today, I have been hovering a bit, trying to get him to let me do something for him. So I am now the official thank you card writer. Feels good to have a job. Congrats to s2 for NMF! Maybe I will have some of that talent with kiddo #2.
Fog - Thankfully NJ has a graduated driver license restriction until they’re 18, so he has to be off the street by 11pm. He only has one friend who is 18 and can stay out later but I am up so early that I can’t be up waiting for him too! I’m too old for that.
On to Profile - I have changes (damnit) - I seemed to have put dh’s income for 2011 at $0. Must have raced through that question! Guess I will contact each finaid office to see what they want me to do. What a pain.</p>
<p>here’s a hooray for the NJ driving laws:</p>
<p>11:00 on weekends; if need/want to stay out longer, sleep over…only one night a weekend can she pull that card…</p>
<p>during the week has not been an issue; hockey games etc…but I have a feeling we will have to figure out a time for that too…prob 10:30 (cause I’m not staying up later than that)…</p>
<p>Congrats to all of the NMF winners from us over on the “B” student board!!!</p>
<p>Flmathmom, so sorry to hear of your friend. I hope the funeral was a comfort for all of you.</p>
<p>Huge congratulations to all receiving news of NMF status! What a wonderful accomplishment!</p>
<p>Kinderny, you are handling that teacher’s mistake with much more grace than I think I could muster. I hope your D has a wonderful semester with lots of other good stuff happening for her to compensate.</p>
<p>dignified1, I hope the $$ flows in with the acceptances. In any event, she should be quite pleased with herself! I hope she can take a moment to savor that, poor pup!</p>
<p>Novelisto, I’m glad you were able to share the one acceptance with your daughter. A nice treat!</p>
<p>madbean, I am cracking up that your DH was a Rock God! You just never know, do you. My own path is pretty straightforward but I love hearing stories of alternative paths. And what’s the good news? Don’t leave us hanging!</p>
<p>Congrats Amandak on your son’s bringing his scores up. Gotta love that persistence.</p>
<p>Hope everyone is having a good week and that your kids are enjoying this unique time in their lives.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>blue, this was something that we researched for D1’s schools. My understanding is that if you file the FAFSA now, you do have all the numbers in place and it can make it easier to get a faster re-evaluation of need. There are also some schools which will only award institutional need-based aid in future years if you applied for the freshman year. I called every school on D1’s list to ask if we needed to file for FA this year to be eligible for future years, and all of those schools said it was OK to not file. Our big risk would be if circumstances change suddenly, then we have to pull all of the numbers together. </p>
<p>Yay for all the NMFs! I was sitting next to the school VP at a meeting last night, and saw a letter with the NMF letterhead and a list of names poking out of her notebook. I casually let my eyes drift over, and saw the last few letters of D1’s first name and her middle initial on the list. So I got to be the one to tell D1 the nice news. Unlikely it will translate into any money, but a nice honor to have. Now if only we can have her clear her graduation requirements, not to mention 3 supposed truancies from last October. </p>
<p>I posted this link on the cafe, but this crowd, about to send children off into the world, will find this especially moving. It’s a commercial for a Chinese Skype/IM service, and you’ll want a box of tissues at hand. [To</a> Mothers (‘Tiger’ or Otherwise) - James Fallows - Technology - The Atlantic](<a href=“To Mothers ('Tiger' or Otherwise) - The Atlantic”>To Mothers ('Tiger' or Otherwise) - The Atlantic)</p>
<p>Congrats to all the National merit finalists, wow! Lot’s of proud parents on this thread -and for good reason!</p>
<p>PA also has an 11pm driving curfew for kids under 18. I haven’t had to worry about imposing anything because of that. Son also doesn’t have an overly busy social schedule so he’s not chafing at the bit. When the weather warms, and he turns 18, we may have to figure something out.</p>
<p>We got son’s first semester grades today and they were very good and his gpa went up a notch - yay! I’m a bit worried about figuring out what schools to re-visit on accepted student day, but I guess we’ll wait until the financial aid packages come in for them. Well, except for Drexel, we’ve got our basic numbers there and it’s pretty high on the list so son is signed up for that one. My older kids did those for a few schools, but for those where son is not sure of the specific program do you think it would be better to just go on a regular day and sit in on classes? The ones he is unsure of are not close.</p>
<p>^
FWIW, it may be beneficial to visit on your terms/timing…so your student gets a feel of classes and campus when it is closer to a regular day…otoh, the admitted student days are supposed to be fun…</p>