<p>Is it a good idea to submit your Additional Letter explaining financial status directly to the school or through IDOC? Or can you only do it one way or another?</p>
<p>What are you asking? If your school uses IDOC, they will let you know how to submit that information. If the school doesn’t use IDOC, you can’t use it.</p>
<p>What kind if “additional information” are you talking about? If it is a special circumstances request, it goes to the school financial aid department directly. Call the school(s) and ask them how to go about doing this.</p>
<p>If it is “other additional information”…what do you mean?</p>
<p>I assume the poster means the “additional information” section of the Common App.</p>
<p>It’s near the end of the common app, and it usually intended for attaching a student resume or writing sample or something more pertinent to the student’s application and his or her abilities that would get them into college.</p>
<p>Financial Aid or need-based status is a completely separate topic and I don’t think is normally included with the Common App submission.</p>
<p>Usually, the financial aid topic comes up once you’ve already been admitted, and then either can or cannot pay the tuition, room and board, after scholarships and FAFSA (federal aid). As that process begins, appeal letters from accepted students and their parents normally get drafted and sent to the school in question. Those are what are called “crying towel” letters as someone recently tabbed them at a seminar I attended.</p>
<p>Basing my response on the topic of this thread - I am not familiar with IDOC. Apologies in advance if the Common App isn’t what was being asked about here …</p>
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<p>If the student has a special circumstance that he/she would like the college to consider WHEN they are awarding financial aid, they should NOT wait until after they are accepted. In my opinion, if this financial situation is going to make or break a student’s ability to attend a college, they want the school to know about it ASAP.</p>
<p>SO…if the OP is talking about a special circumstances consideration (which could be for very high medical expenses or something of that kind), they would be wise to contact the financial aid office ASAP to find out how to get this information to the school.</p>
<p>Schools have the discretion to consider these requests…or not.</p>
<p>If this isn’t the “additional information” than…could the OP please clarify what they are asking?</p>
<p>thanks for your responses. thumper you hit it right on. I meant the “special circumstances.” It’s just that my family’s income in 2009 does not at all reflect our family’s average income history (in fact, it’s about double). So I’m hoping colleges will take that into consideration.</p>
<p>seadog, you need to contact EACH school and find out their procedure for sending special circumstances requests. </p>
<p>I will say…I seriously doubt that this will be considered as a “special circumstance”. The school would assume that some of that “extra double money” could have been put aside for college payment purposes. Your financial aid is computed on an annual basis so aid for subsequent years would be based on the LESSER income…if indeed income ends up being so much less.</p>
<p>But go ahead and ask. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.</p>