Okay so the title might sound stupid because the obvious answer is no, right? Well, here’s a bit of context. I applied to Swarthmore College RD and decisions come out mid-March, which is next week. A few days ago, I received an email from their financial aid office requesting the Parents’ Federal 1120 Corporation Tax return form via IDOC. However, this form wasn’t even available on IDOC (meaning I couldn’t even see it). So that led me to believe they wanted an additional supporting document, which gave me some hope I guess. On top of that, aren’t their decisions already made by now? I know the admissions and financial aid department work separately and all that but if the decision release date is next week I don’t understand why they’d be emailing me. Unless of course I was admitted and they just wanted some more info to complete my aid or something.
Are Financial Aid material requests a possible sign of acceptance?
No. It is an urban legend
Yes but why request that particular document, which wasn’t required of me or even available to me when I initially completed the IDOC for Swarthmore, a week before decisions come out? Why look into a rejected applicant’s financial aid materials and email that candidate?
The FA office is working on FA in parallel to the admissions office working on admissions, so that when the admissions office produces the final list of admits, the FA offers are ready to go.
Understandable, but no. That is not in any form an indication. Best of luck!
Unfortunately, the two offices work separately—specifically with need-blind admissions, which I believe Swarthmore has. Several schools have requested this document from us as well, and it’s bc they can see from the CSS Profile and your parental 1040 that there is business income. Every year on these forums we see students get asked for financial aid documents and many are not accepted. That does not mean you won’t be though (just that the request for documents is unrelated). Good luck to you!
Update: I GOT INTO SWARTHMORE!!!
Congrats
Thank you!