@lauraazumah i don’t have it. i thought it was confirmed that only RD applicants have that message on their portals?
Hey guys! I’m just now deciding to join the thread since decisions come out so soon. My name is Sophie and I’m from Arizona 
I hope you all are holding up well with the nerves
Guys, wait. What the heck is FAFSA? I’m international btw
Having just woken up to find about 150 new comments on this thread, most of them FAFSA speculation, I can’t stress enough that there’s little to substantiate these theories. UChicago has an admissions officer who regularly posts on the UChicago forum, and if there really was a “tell” like this, she would’ve noticed the discussions on that topic and alerted the university’s IT team.
In a way, the surest sign that the FAFSA issue does actually mean anything would be if the FAFSA box disappeared from everyone’s portal, suggesting the above has happened. But I don’t think the FAFSA check means anything, because the split of posters who have the FAFSA appear on the portal versus those who don’t is too even - whether it’s 50-50, 40-60, or even 30-70.
Last year, UChicago accepted 2,356 applicants. Based on previous data (courtesy of the NY Times), and some qualitative evidence, I estimate that 50% of them were accepted during the EA round, in a pool of 11,403 early applicants. The RD pool, assuming a 10% decrease in the acceptance rate (this is a conservative estimate - the acceptance rate has decreased by more than 10% every year since 2007), will be roughly 21,000 RD applicants. That’s without counting deferred EA applicants. There are likely 5,000 to 10,000 deferrals (hard to arrive at a precise figure), with some removed from the pool by ED acceptances, withdrawn applications, etc.
See: http://chicagomaroon.com/2015/04/14/record-low-acceptance-rate-as-applicant-numbers-increase/
Between 25,000 and 30,000 students are competing for 1200-1250 RD acceptances, meaning an RD acceptance rate of 5% at best and potentially 4% or lower. I believe students on CC are a very capable bunch. I don’t believe they’re destined to be accepted at 5-10x the acceptance rate.
@McKilla99 It’s the financial aid form for US citizens and permanent residents. Kinda wish I could join in on all the hype about the FAFSA portal thing but it seems that the international student financial aid forms are in order for everybody lol.
@FukaEri haha I didn’t apply for aid since UChicago is need aware for internationals xD
@McKilla99 That just kills my hopes even further 
Unfortunately, I wouldn’t even be able to go to college without some sort of financial aid, so for me it wasn’t even an option to apply or not apply. Maybe they’ll have some mercy because I’m a URM?
Hey guys! Good luck to everyone that applied, we made it! Now, I advise everyone to chill out and stop checking college confidential 24-7, since it’s only going to freak you out. Logging out of CC until tomorrow, so good luck everyone! We can do this
@scd166 That could be possible. I haven’t looked back very far in the thread.
Edit: I just looked back and someone, can’t remember who, had said that all other financial documents showed up except for FAFSA. I guess there might be some variation on what shows up on people’s portals. For example, an option for financial aid doesn’t show up at all for me. I don’t recall seeing any documents on my portal ever for aid.
@gagondalwala what message? I’m a RD applicant and the only message on my portal is a “Attention applicants”
Okay woah didn’t realize there was 100 some extra messages that popped up over last night. I guess CC didn’t update when I refreshed this morning but yikes. For what it’s worth, regular boxes over here.
For whoever it was talking about signs of acceptance, I applied SCEA to Yale and around 1PM the day decisions were released, some people were able to access the accepted students portal, some were not. I was not able to, and was not accepted. Those able to access the portal at that time ended up accepted.
@Kasami It’s me. FAFSA box disappeared and it has Financial Aid checklist with everything is checked as complete including my parents tax return and w2 that they requested and I manually uploaded them.
@PigletYorkie I see.
Anyone else have absolutely NO option for financial aid? That actually seems like a problem.
I really think there are many distinct variations on the portal (not just the FAFSA thing). @Kasami did you apply for financial aid? If so, you should probably contact them.
@Kasami Yeah it feels like a lot of schools tend to mess up a bit and reveal a bit too much. I’m sitting on a rejection and deferral from two schools that I really wanted to go to right now, so looking into every little thing is the only way I can preserve my sanity (or accentuate the loss thereof?)
If those with unchanged boxes really are the minority here (which they seem to be so far), maybe that means something for you 
Also, I don’t see a FA box, but I didn’t apply.
-edit But now that I looked at it again, I see a new box 
but it’s empty.
img ur.com/Op0Rcnb
remove the space between img and ur
Has anyone’s portal not changed at all? I’m a deferred EA person and I have no idea what this whole FAFSA showing up/ not showing up is all about.
@Alamom Yes I did. I think I’ll email admissions to clarify what’s going on.
@Scriant Yes, I have that empty space as well! My boxes are unchanged in the sense that there’s no weird code, but no FA stuff anywhere. I actually thought to have changed boxes was the minority here.
One more day everyone!
@savvyitup I’m an EA applicant, my portal hasn’t changed either. Is it an RD thing?
@Scriant Oh wait I think I JUST understood what the boxes look like. I wish I could provide some additional info from my end about box changes, but no idea. I don’t remember what the original portal looked like. I assumed my boxes didn’t change because I assumed my portal had always looked like that haha.
But I definitely have that random space there.
@soulswimmer13 I think it’s an RD thing. Don’t worry!