<p>Okay, so a friend of mine who also applied to Brown (only as an RD applicant…I was ED and deferred) said she got a letter 2 days ago from Brown that said something about needing to submit her IRS documents. She claims that since there are so many applicants, only the applicants who they are very strongly considering are getting this in the mail because they don’t have enough financial aid to award all the applicants like they have in previous years. Did anyone else get a letter like this??? I did not get this letter…i don’t know if its because I am a deferred applicant though. I have already submitted FAFSA, but not my official tax documents. </p>
<p>Is this legit? Did anyone else get a letter like this?</p>
<p>They probably want her IRS documents to make sure that what she put on her CSS profile is legitimate. If anything, this should mean that something in her profile was a little sketchy and they want to make sure they have all the facts straight.</p>
<p>If this were true, Brown would have made an announcement that its financial aid policy was changing. Brown is still need-blind, so I doubt this statement is true.</p>
<p>Ruth has made it clear that Brown will cut just about anything else before they cut need-blind admissions. Once you go need-blind, you just really can’t justify going back.</p>
<p>In any case, even with the financial downturn, Brown’s endowment is about twice what it was when they implemented need-blind admissions.</p>
<p>I hate to be on the other side of the rope here, but your friend may be right. Now, she’s probably exaggerating just to fluff her ego a bit but my friend (I should probably trim this down to aquaintence…) applied to Columbia ED and roughly 3 weeks before he was ACCEPTED…they contacted him asking for all of his Financial Aid information. This may just be a small world but your friend might be right.</p>
<p>No - your friend is wrong. They have a simple system in place for anyone with a complete application to be notified that their FA app is incomplete…</p>
<p>Everyone applying to Brown completes FAFSA and CSS Profile. Then, through the CSS profile, based on your entries…most people must then submit their tax returns via College Board IDOC. The decision is based on your financial picture, not your application credentials. Nearly all the top schools require it, of nearly everyone. My D only had one school that didn’t ask for our tax forms. </p>
<p>Look at the IDOC threads to see how this works. They just want verification of what you put on the CSS Profile financial aid application, and/or additional information. </p>
<p>This is from Brown’s website:
Q. What is IDOC?</p>
<p>A. The College Board’s Institutional Documentation Service (IDOC) collects documents from applicants on behalf of Brown’s Office of Financial Aid. The Office of Financial Aid will use these documents to verify information from your financial aid application (CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE and/or Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)) and to better understand your family’s financial circumstances. The College Board notifies Brown students applying for financial aid when and how to submit the required documents. Once the College Board receives your information, electronic copies of the documents will be made available to the Brown University Office of Financial Aid.</p>
<p>Your friend is lying to make herself feel good and make you feel bad. But don’t worry; they probably just selected her randomly for some sort of verification process or something.</p>
<p>Perhaps her file is incomplete (i.e. she is missing a form). A lot of need-blind schools handle admissions and financial aid separately (they have different departments), and they notify everyone whose financial aid application is incomplete.</p>