<p>Congrats to your son! It is nice to have choices.</p>
<p>Now comes the wait for the FA packages.</p>
<p>mom2ck, Contrats to your S.</p>
<p>Regarding the FA application, we did it too early last year. As a result, when we did the FAFSA, we could not download the data from IRS directly as required by the school (I think the download tool at FAFSA was available on March 1, or March 15 last year.)</p>
<p>We did the Fed tax return too late this year. Now we do the FAFSA and try to download the data from IRS, FAFSA’s download tool said we need to wait 2 to 3 weeks before we can download the data from IRS.</p>
<p>We could submit the FAFSA without downloading the data from IRS. But I believe the school would likely ask us to go back to FAFSA to download the data from IRS again. So we hesitate to go this route as we need to do it again if we submit the FAFSA now.</p>
<p>It is all because we filed our Fed tax return 2 to 3 weeks late. So we are in a state that we do not know whether we should submit the FAFSA now, or we should wait till we can download the data from IRS. The official deadline (I think it is March 22) is approaching. Arrggg…Why does the school (together with FAFSA and IRS) make the process so difficult?</p>
<p>^Check this out:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1467187-please-post-your-efile-time-data-retrieval.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1467187-please-post-your-efile-time-data-retrieval.html</a></p>
<p>Mine took more like 9-10 days; I had the AOC, itemized deductions and a refund. Hard to say how the various factors and the submittal date (like AMCAS verification) influence how long it takes.</p>
<p>^ Thanks for the link.</p>
<p>The dreadful Data Retrieval Tool is what we worried about.</p>
<p>We do not have the education credit. But maybe a late e-filing is a big factor. We also exercised/sold some stocks (in order to pay some of the tuition or COA.) The schedule D and its associated Form 8849 (?) could hold it up. I really regret doing this (i.e., selling stock and inflating the income – and delaying the e-filing as I was not good at TurboTax.) We should have kept it very simple for the 2012 tax year – by including the wages and mortgage-related deduction only.</p>
<p>I have the impression that the new students need to complete the FA application earlier, and the current student could complete it somewhat later.</p>
<p>^For what it’s worth, and I’m sure it varies by school so this might be totally worthless to you, but at my school it doesn’t matter when returning students fill out FAFSA.</p>
<p>m2ck, I missed your earlier post, congrats to your S, nice that he ‘informed’ you :). Is he planning on attending any second looks?</p>
<p>D1 got her final two decisions, a WL and an acceptance. I think she’s planning on a second look to a school that is relatively close to where she’s currently living. </p>
<p>One of the personal aspects she’s considering right now is whether she likes the idea of being at a med school attached to an UG college or a stand alone, or if it really makes that much difference once you’re actually in med school. The top choices are all in urban areas, so there are definitely a lot activities close by either way.</p>
<p>entomom, Some university has a graduate/professional affiliate program which promotes interactions with undergraduates by providing special access to the participating college, two meals per week, use of that college’s facilities and many activities.</p>
<p>It appears it offers the first year students from the graduate/professional school this opportunity.</p>
<p>However, DS told us that mostly, the med school students interact with other med school students of the same year, as they take so many classes together. They even do not have many opportunities to interact with other students (in other professional programs) who live in the same dorm! (unless some intentionally initiates, say, the bf/gf relationship :))</p>
<p>Entomom, my 2 cents about being at a med school that shares a campus with undergrads (big state school, midwest):</p>
<p>1) Are the med school and the UG separated by anything? At my school, the med school is basically part of the wing of the hospital that is all offices and administrative stuff. It’s the same building as the hospital, but a different wing. The UG classroom buildings and dorms are not far (just a few minutes walking), but it’s not like they’re actually mixed. The closest we get to mixing with undergrads is that 2 classes listed as both undergrad/grad classes occasionally use the M1 or M2 lecture hall.</p>
<p>2) Do grad students live in the same (apartment complexes/dorms/neighborhoods) as undergrads? In my town, the nicest apartment complexes are only open to grad students–which helps keep the environment quieter and “more mature” (LOL that we’re “more mature”). I live in a complex that allows senior undergrads and the occasional younger undergrad, and if it weren’t literally across the street from the hospital, I probably would have moved by now since the undergrads get kind of annoying.</p>
<p>3) How much of a “college town” is it? Are we talking a place that’s all college bars and football games and nothing to do but get penny pitchers on Wed night (a real thing!), or is there a vibrant “scene” of professionals/adults/families etc to make it easy to separate oneself from undergrads socially? I find it easy to go out and have fun and not see a single undergrad if I don’t want to–and if I want to, I can go back to all my favorite haunts. </p>
<p>4) What do current med students say about the link to the UG campus? If she goes to 2nd look, I’d suggest she talk to a variety of students about this–from a variety of years and a variety of undergrads (eg both the students who went to the attached UG for undergrad and those who went to one more like hers). </p>
<p>Personally: I like having the UG attached. For one, I think the social scene is fun, and the presence of all these happy-go-lucky college kids just makes things less stressful, in my opinion. Also, the UG campus attracts lots of fun things (eg concerts, festivals) to town. Game day is fun. Since my town is pretty much a college town, the whole town (even those who aren’t students) “get behind” the university–lots of things are named after our mascot, campus colors are everywhere, etc. In some sick twisted way, I like having undergrads around and have really enjoyed the mentoring relationships I’ve picked up as a result. </p>
<p>I stayed at the same university for undergrad and med school, and (at least for me and my friends) the experience of being a med student is night and day different than being an undergrad.</p>
<p>mcat2,</p>
<p>Now that you mention the affiliate program, I remember D1 talking about it. However, she was just WLed there, so it’s not likely to occur ;). </p>
<p>She was less interested in interacting with UG students than taking advantage of classes, events, speakers, etc.</p>
<p>x-posted w/kristin</p>
<p>Kristin,</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great food for thought!</p>
<p>Both of the med schools that are attached to UG colleges are just separated by a street and have lots of UG activity buzzing around. One is private and the other the state flagship, the latter is in a large city but the university area feels like a college town. I’ve never been to the private, but I’m having lunch tomorrow with a friend whose kid went there for UG, so I will hopefully learn more about the lay of the land.</p>
<p>D1 tends to be less into school spirit than the trappings of city life (museums, food, movies, etc.), all the schools are in large enough cities to offer these things. Good idea to ask other students at the second look, I’ll be sure to have her do that.</p>
<p>
It doesn’t make sense but if you owe money it seems to take longer even if you efile and have the money taken out when you file. It is going on 4 weeks and I still can’t access my son’s return thru the download. 
We received a refund and our download was available within two weeks.</p>
<p>Entomom…congrats to your D for the most recent acceptance. :)</p>
<p>Congrats to entomom’s daughter on her recent acceptances and to mom2collegekids son for his most (hopefully, most waited for) recent acceptance as well!!</p>
<p>As far as med school attached to the UG son is at one with a big rah rah campus. His undergrad was a very different experience and he really wanted the rah rah one for grad school. He had figured this out ahead of time when he turned down his med school’s undergrad when he opted for the smaller private school. </p>
<p>He does like having a hustle bustle campus with all the big time sporting events he can attend rather than as an undergrad when he was the participant. He says its a lot more fun this time around. Town is a college town in a very pretty setting and is 15 minutes away in either direction from 2 other major universities. And the bus goes back and forth from all 3. There is a ton to do and the area is a much lower cost of living then his other choices were.</p>
<p>He has enough budgeted to visit his friends in the other parts of the country when he has the time rather then living around them and not having the funds to do things with them when he is strapped for cash and they having the jobs they do not needing to be so frugal. He is on spring break now in NYC and will be back up in Boston in a few weeks for something else. And they do enjoy coming to visit him especially when he has tickets for basketball!</p>
<p>One of his acceptances was at a stand alone med school and he said, for him, it wasn’t the experience he was looking for. Granted if he didn’t have the choices he did he might have felt differently.</p>
<p>So it was the school itself, the money, the location, the money, the affliated hospital, the money…and did I mention the money??</p>
<p>Again congrats to the most recent acceptances!!!</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Even though the decision was 99% certain months ago, D1 finally withdrew from all but one school yesterday. So, it’s officially the end of the cycle and the beginning of a new endeavor. </p>
<p>It’s been an interesting, exciting and a long trip, thanks for all of the company, support and assistance along the way. Congratulations to all of the members of the Class of 2017!</p>
<p>Congrats Entomom.!</p>
<p>entomom, Congrats to your D’s for a job well-done. It is nice to have several choices, and I believe she has made a good decision.</p>
<p>Tangent to the thread here: IRS hated us this year. We submitted our Tax return and FAFSA in March. It is only a little bit over one week ago (so in May!) that FAFSA allows us to use The Data Retrieval Tool. As a backup plan, we asked IRS to send the transcript to the school. (Actually, they did not allow us to send a current year’s transcript till some time in April also.)</p>
<p>There was one upside. We used Turbox Tax to prepare our tax. All of our potential “untaxable income” was reported as taxable. The first time we were able to try the Data Retrieval Tool, this “untaxable income” was flagged as a negative income in red by the Data Retrieval Tool. Since we had the transcript submitted, we waited for a few days. Some nice soul either in IRS or FAFSA fixed this incompatibility problem between Turbo Tax and the Data Retrieval Tool so that the negave number in red for untaxable income becomes zero in black, without us to change anything on our end.</p>
<p>Hopefully, IRS will be “nicer” to us next year. </p>
<p>Last time I checked school’s FA wen site, I still did not see the FA package. Should we be worried? I know DS is a continuing student, but, still, it is quite late.</p>
<p>^^^What date did he receive it last year? Son’s second year’s was much later than his first but this year’s (3rd) was received same time as MS2. So he already has his, sometime in mid-April.</p>
<p>And Congrats Entomom to your daughter!</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Congrats to entomom’s daughter!</p>
<p>D hasn’t received her award letter either. Last year it was 5/9. But this next year is screwy with it being her research year. She was advised to put half of her remaining tuition year bill on this year and half on next. I have no idea how that is going to work but I am anxious to see.</p>
<p>Well, today is the day that a student with multiple acceptances must make a decision and withdraw from the others.</p>
<p>DS has been leaning towards one school for awhile now, but today it’s final. So glad to have the whole thing complete! Best wishes for those on waiting lists who may get tapped after students across the nation do their declinations.</p>
<p>Now, on to apt hunting. This could end up being nearly as crazy! </p>
<p>Congrats to everyone! :)</p>