It’s only a trivial problem if the OP is prepared to accept one of the other schools on her list to which she’s been admitted.
In the next month, Stanford’s FA folks are going to get 500 requests for a sit-down to negotiate a bigger aid package, have to deal with 50 students whose FA documentation was either lost, mis-filed, or somehow went awry, have 100 walk-in visits from current students worrying about next year’s aid (parent just lost a job, house destroyed by a fire or hurricane, parent deported), a compliance request from the Federal Government making sure that all Pell funds were distributed correctly and in accordance with the law, and a subpoena requesting documentation going back 10 years for an EEO lawsuit.
So sure, it’s trivial because the ONLY thing that Stanford’s FA folks have to do in the next month is help the OP.
The short answer, OP, is NO.
Do NOT accept an offer of admission if you do not have a financial aid offer in hand that makes it possible for you to afford to attend.
It takes time for IDOC to process. There is nothing you can do to hurry IDOC along. Planet College Board will only orbit its own sun.
Once everything is processed, you can ask Stanford for an estimate for when they could give you a package. In the meantime, keep your other affordable options open. You may need them.
@blossom – admittedly I have no experience with Stanford’s financial aid office. But I do have experience with other private college financial aid offices and complicated financial situations that required submission of additional documentation. And it always was a very smooth, very fast process with all the private schools. (Including NYU, which is nightmare bureaucracy and absolutely terrible about financial aid, but my daughter submitted an appeal of her financial aid on a Sunday and had an answer back with within 24 hours. And that answer did include an revised, enhanced award, although nowhere close to meeting need).
And yes, I understand that it is different at public schools. My son was very good about venting his frustrations to me when he was a graduate student at UW – just the process of dealing with loan processing was a mess.
But I think it is reasonable for me to expect that Stanford’s financial aid office would be more responsive, being that it is Stanford – and the OP is every bit as important to them as every other admitted student. They are going to prioritize getting the award done as soon as possible. And the OP simply is not the only student whose paperwork is arriving a little bit late. No reason to shame her.
@BelknapPoint – believe it or not there are people on this planet for whom $16 is a big deal, especially when it is $16 x many. And given that the reason the OP held back on Stanford is that she didn’t think she was going to get it, it makes sense for her to have prioritized paying for colleges where she thought admission was more likely. She mistakenly thought those would be her “match” schools rather than reaches (and didn’t get into the match schools, possibly because they might have included schools that were are more likely to be need-aware in admissions).
So NO, she is NOT going to get shafted by Stanford because some of her paperwork shows up on the Monday after she was admitted rather than in the weeks before she was admitted. YES, it will mean a slight delay in getting her award finalized. I’m guessing maybe 5-7 days at most. It might speed things up a little of the OP gets on the phone with someone in the financial aid office and happens to mention that she has also been accepted at Princeton and Columbia.
And YES, even in the off chance that Stanford totally drops the ball and doesn’t write an award for this kid, it is a “trivial” problem because she never expected to get into Stanford in the first place, and I’m pretty sure that her entire life will not be ruined if sloppiness at the Stanford financial aid office means that that the OP has to suffer the indignity of spending 4 years at the school that US New ranks as #1 instead. Either Stanford will come through with the money in time, or it won’t. Wherever she goes she is going to have to deal with the financial aid office for the next 4 years, so might as well choose the school that has the more helpful and efficient financial aid staff.
I never stated or implied that OP was going to get “shafted” by Stanford.
It’s a matter of opinion, but my opinion is that being denied the opportunity to attend Stanford simply because OP was trying to save $16 would not be a “trivial” thing. Like I said, YMMV, and OP’s is really the only opinion that matters.
Choosing a school based on the helpfulness and efficiency of the financial aid staff? That’s an interesting thought.
@floraha You’ll be fine. I’m in a similar situation with UPenn (hence @BelknapPoint saying “this is the second time in a few days we’ve heard from a student”). I also didn’t think I’d get in and didn’t want to risk paying $16 if I didn’t end up getting accepted. Regardless, I submitted everything relatively recently, gave the financial aid office a call, and they said that the school was still accepting financial aid forms. And this applies to pretty much every top school (from my experience). It even said on the UPenn financial aid website that “Applications are still accepted after the deadlines”.
