<p>They say they want the CSS PROFILE by November 1st. This means that for Yale, they want estimated income for '10 However, my parents say they can't revise the CSS PROFILE once they submit it, so it's going to have old/estimated data for my RD schools. </p>
<p>What are we supposed to do? Sorry if I'm not being clear.</p>
<p>You can’t revise the Profile On Line, but you can/and do send hard copy corrections to schools.</p>
<p>Tell your parents to make their best estimates based on 2009 taxes and the financial information for 2010 that they have to date. Yes, it’s a pain, but fr year is the worst as in subsequent years they will be able to fill in FA forms after taxes have been completed.</p>
<p>Filing the CSS Profile for SCEA requires your parents to make a good-faith estimate of their 2010 AGI, as well as FIT contributions, Schedule A deductions, and valuation of assets and liabilities. Financial aid officers, both at Yale and other schools, realize that the figures are just an estimate. It’s been my experience that so long as the estimate is plus or minus 3 to 5% of the actual documented IDOC that is submitted in February/March, you are okay. As you cannot revise the CSS profile on-line once submitted, it makes sense to send it in for ALL schools at the same. BTW: I just filed the Profile for my 2nd child yesterday and was notified that Yale will download it on October 21st – so there does seem to be a 2 week delay between the time filed and the time Yale recieves it, so be forewarned.</p>
<p>Yale must receive the CSS Profile and 2009 tax returns by November 1st in order to give SCEA students their preliminary estimate of financial aid. As there appears to be a 2-week delay between the time you file the CSS Profile and when Yale receives it, you should file the Profile no later than October 17th to meet the November 1st deadline.</p>
<p>gibby: wait, so I don’t need to file hard-copy corrections for my RD schools if the estimates are off by less than 5%?</p>
<p>Another possibility/guess my parents brought up was to file corrections with ONLY the school I decide to attend come May 1st, but is that even an option?</p>
<p>^So just to clarify, we would send the CSS profile in the next couple weeks to Yale. Then in a few months, we would add the regular decision schools and at that time, we can update the information that we estimated the first time. Is that about right?</p>
<p>So… we don’t really need to print it out or anything.</p>
<p>We submit the estimated version to Yale, and then for other colleges, we are able to update the information later for the RD round. Am I understanding this correctly?</p>
<p>Yes, use the best information you have and turn in the Profile for Y SCEA. Then, update your information for RD schools, and send it to them before their deadlines. Later you can send hard copy corrections to schools. You don’t have to print anything to submit to schools, but you should print a hardcopy for yourself each time you submit , so that you remember what information later needs to be corrected for each school.</p>
<p>Fr year is a read pain because of the early deadlines, in future years your parents should be able to fill out FA forms after they do their taxes, so they won’t need to do updates and corrections.</p>
<p>Check out the FA & Scholarships forum too, there are some very well informed posters there.</p>
<p>P.S. looks like my link doesn’t work, I think because you have to be logged in to view the FAQs.</p>
<p>Wait, why do I need to send hard copy corrections to my RD schools if I revise the information before I send out the information to my RD schools?</p>
<p>It all depends on when the RD deadline is and if your parents have finished their taxes by then so that the Profile information is final. For instance, the recommended RD due date for Y FA is March 1 and to get a FA estimate with your decision, the date is March 15. Many people won’t have their taxes done by then, so they will still need to send estimates for RD schools and correct later. So you may end up with two versions of the Profile, one for EA deadlines and one for RD deadlines, AND have to send in hard copy corrections later.</p>
<p>Got to go now, will answer more questions later, or go to the FA & Scholarship forum.</p>
<p>Thank you so much, entomom. My parents assured me that they will have already filed their tax forms by my RD deadlines, so I don’t think I’ll have to send corrections.</p>
<p>You’re both welcome! Yes, if you can get taxes done before the RD deadlines, makes things a lot simpler.</p>
<p>One more comment, when I do estimates, I always round so that our FA package would be SLIGHTLY on the high side. I do this because the tentative FA package is a kind of placeholder and you want that placeholder to be at least as much as the FA you will receive when your information is final. So, I round income & assets slight lower, and things like medical expenses slightly higher. This may not be such an issue with Y which is a well endowed school, but it could be important for a school with more limited FA funding. Hope that makes sense, and I am in no way saying that you should misrepresent your financial situation, but since you have to estimate anyway, estimate towards the high end of your FA package and know that with the final data, your FA package might be slightly less.</p>
<p>Just to be clear, if you get an FA offer during SCEA it will be simply an estimate based on the estimated numbers you provide. Nothing is settled until final numbers are provided. Yale will update your offer as you revise the data you send to them. entomom is right to suggest making estimates slightly favorable to your situation so that early allocations are reserved by schools for you, but I had no problem getting a fairly substantial FA increase from Yale based on a revision in April. (BTW, I have found the Yale FA Calculator quite accurate in projecting what the numbers will be. Yes, I know it is offline right now.)</p>
<p>It’s slightly off-topic but I just wanted to add that we’ve found the people in the FA office to be absolutely wonderful to work with. They’re helpful, kind and never make you feel like you’ve asked a stupid question.</p>