Yes, exactly. And having EA schools hasn’t really helped, since two of his schools have deferred until March anyway!
April 2 is the final competition of the year for him, and it is a huge deal. With seven schools announcing March 31 and April 1, he’ll either be flying high going in, or miserable. The tension in this house will be palpable by March 29. I will definitely need to lay in extra stock of chocolate chip cookies for the week.
My brief foray into skiing (downhill) in Austria ended with me getting bruised and I much preferred drinking hot chocolate and getting a tan at the ski lodge.
@GoodGrief16 congrats to your daughter and good luck to her in the junior nationals!
@Booajo good luck to your daughter in the interview.
@readingclaygirl belated congrats to you on your successful testing.
Good luck to your D @GoodGrief16 !
@sseamom I totally agree we are keeping ourself busy at the moment, but the time will come and it will hit us like a brick. D is my only child and we are extemely close. We do everything together. Sad days ahead.
@dyiu13 I"m sure it is a good feeling to be finished. We are no closer to knowing what D is going to do. If she knows she is not sharing.
Congratulations to your D @GoodGrief16 and best of luck to her at finals
S11 and D14 applied to a long list of schools, with only a handful being rolling admissions. We didn’t really understand the strategy of applying EA…so neither did. It was a long, long wait - and then a mad dash at the end to visit some once acceptances were known. Very stressful! It also made for some missed opportunities to apply for some school specific scholarships/honors programs that had earlier deadlines, or were only open to EA admits.
This year I strongly encouraged/cajoled/nagged/almost forced S16 to apply EA to all schools on his list (or if rolling, to get those in early as well) He actually followed through on that. As a result, he heard back from most schools by late Nov/early Dec and a couple more early January. Much less stress, and it allowed us to plan some visits much earlier. Only one school had no early choice for applying, and will be a late March notification. So we will still be waiting like many of you here, but happy to have many choices in our back pocket already
This last round with my youngest has been a much better experience, so those of you with younger kids…I would highly recommend that strategy when it is their turn to apply!
@LKnomad, ah, I misunderstood your problem, because I spent time searching for the supplement in my tax forms 
Then realized it was their own form. Yes, it is all very confusing.
@crittermom thank you!
@dcplanner - thanks, except it is a vast difference. Many of the schools D16 applied to are needed aware & take it into consideration, so showing more money is actually helpful. Guess I am going to need to get on the Accountant’s back to get so good ballpark #'s & not submit the return yet.
We seem to be in the same boat as several of you. She has been accepted to her 2 academic/financial safeties, & 1 other. From her EA school she received a deferral, which I was surprised about & makes me very concerned about the other schools we will not hear from until the end of March - beginning of April. How do we go about lobbying for her? Do we also lobby with the schools she has not heard from yet? She did not have the greatest 1st half of the yr in AP Calc or AP ES. She is ADHD & her meds no longer work so she has been a walking chemistry experiment while they try & figure out the best meds for her. We have not told the schools she is ADHD but maybe now is the time for that.
DRATS! I was ready to celebrate finishing taxes and IDOC yesterday, but I think I messed up. We have a state refund coming but a payment due for federal. TurboTax gives the option of scheduling the tax payment, so I thought I’d schedule it for early April. I e-filed it and thought I was done. But I found out that if I haven’t paid the tax, I cannot use the IRS Data Retrieval thingie. In fact, it won’t be available until May! So I’ve been on the phone multiple times with TurboTax and the IRS payment center to see if I can cancel the scheduled payment and pay it right now. So far no one has been able to help. I just keep getting passed on to another department. ARGH! :(( Just had to share my cautionary tale with all of you.
On a brighter note, S just got an email to schedule an alumni interview with a lottery school. However, the interviewer is on the east coast, and we are on the west, so it’ll be a video interview. My S has never done a video interview. Would anyone have helpful tips for him?
@Booajo - rooting for your D as she interviews!
@GoodGrief16 huge congrats to your D! What an amazing way to top off her final year of high school!
@happymochi In this case it might just be easier to cut and paste the updated numbers than to keep trying to get the IRS data retrieval tool to work. But thanks for the heads up for the rest of us.
Thank you @crowlady I’m happy to report that I was finally able to cancel the April payment and reschedule it. Whew!
@happymochi
Thanks for the heads up on this matter. Since d is done with college apps and made her decision we are done with much of what is being discussed here. However, I have not yet decided if we will file FAFSA since she has a full ride scholarship to a state school (must maintain 3.2 GPA) and if anything happened we would be full pay anyway. I am reviewing all the info and gathering additional before I decide.
Thanks to all who have posted info/ further explanations on filing the FAFSA. I will be referencing your comments if we run into any questions if we proceed. Next year’s applicants will be able to use this info as a resource also.
@happymochi, thanks for posting this.
I had read here last year that not paying tax due right away can delay the DRT, so I made sure to pay my D’s tax due (because of taxable scholarships) with the efile and I scheduled it for the day filed. They took it out of her account a few days later.
Thanks for posting about paying the taxes @happymochi. I will get mine paid today
@happymochi is it just when you owe federal that you can’t use retrieval? We usually owe the state a few dollars and wait until April 14
@kandcsmom As far as I know, the IRS data retrieval only deals with federal. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
It’s the federal tax info that the DRT imports into the FAFSA, so if the tax due holds up the processing of the return, it won’t be ready to be imported.
I don’t think a state tax due status should interfere with that.
@happymochi I’m glad that I just read your post above, or I would be having the exact same experience. I always owe a lot in federal taxes so I tend to avoid even looking at them until April 14. I’ve talked myself out of doing the FAFSA the last few weeks, but was planning to finally tackle it by this weekend. I definitely would have set up an April 15 payment for that ugly tax bill.
I already know we don’t qualify for aid, my D is likely to receive $0 in merit, and she has enough money for 4 years (or close enough) in her 529 accounts, so filling out FAFSA is not a top priority. I assume I still need to do it?
My D has six acceptances and one application outstanding (she should hear very soon). Problem is that she has only visited one of the 7 schools she applied to. She loved the school that she did visit so it’s very tempting to just gently encourage her to go there, but I don’t want her to have regrets later that she could have gone to a “better” school.
On the other hand, that school starts handing out room assignments in early March and requires enrollment before you can fill out the housing application. I’m imagining her living in the equivalent of a broom closet if she waits too long. She may attend accepted student days at two other schools, but they aren’t held until mid-March. I thought the anxiety would end when the decision were all in, haha.
Our state gives a tax credit for saving in a state 529, so we actually got a small refund.
@eh1234, if you always owe federal tax, could you increase your withholding?