Hi, I have three questions. I accessed my Vassar College portal and when I looked at what I was missing, I see that there are two areas that have a red “x” and is labeled as “awaiting”. These two x’s are near where it says “IRS Data Retrieval or Transcript Parent” and “Federal Verification Worksheet”. I have a few questions:
Is the verification suppose to be completed on the fasfa website or through the specific college?
The Federal worksheet part sends me to a link that prompts me to print out the form, am i suppose to print this out and mail it to Vassar?
Why is there an x specifically on these two parts, but not on the parts that say "CSS Profile", " 2018 Parent Federal Tax Return", or "2018 Student Non-Tax Filer Statement" (even though they are marked as awaiting as well)?
Have any of you dealt with or seen this situation with specifically Vassar, or should I wait until Monday to contact their financial aid office?
It’s a good idea to contact the financial aid office.
When you file the FAFSA, student income and parent income can be linked to the tax return with the IRS data retrieval tool.
If you didn’t use this or couldn’t use it, then your parents will need to get a tax transcript and if you didn’t file a return, the school will have a process for you to provide proof that you didn’t file a tax return.
That might be their own form or the “IRS verification of nonfiling letter.”
The fastest way to get these is probably if you have an IRS office close by where you and your parents can get these documents in person right away.
The federal verification worksheet, I’m not sure what that entails, but sit down with your parents and go over that together.
You can probably mail it, or there might be a process through IDOC or similar where you send these documents electronically.
It seems this school requires FAFSA and CSS profile. And copies of tax returns.
Call the FA office on Monday, and find out exactly what you need to do and what to send and how to send it to them.
Do it as soon as possible, so that the school can process your financial aid, and you will know before May 1 whether it is affordable or not.
@mommdc Thank you for the response, you cleared up a lot for me. Here’s the thing, my parents refuse to fill out the CSS profile and I just looked up how to get an IRS tax transcript, and it will cost me 50 dollars to order it. Is it really worth it anymore to even go forward to submitting these forms to Vassar if the CSS profile won’t be filled out regardless? I applied because I was trying to apply to multiple scholarships to see if I could win them and use that to apply to my tuition, but now that seems unlikely.
@Mwfan1921 Yes, I was already aware about Vassar requiring the CSS Profile, but I was working really hard to apply to scholarships to see if I could end up using scholarship money to cover the cost of tuition since I knew I most likely wasn’t going to be eligible to receive the schools’s institution grants and aid.
Yes, over half of my college list consist of FAFSA only schools that are most likely affordable (checked with NPC).
And as for why my parents won’t be filling out the CSS profile, they don’t like how invasive it gets (like asking for mortgage info and bank statements) and also they have a hard time understanding anything financial aid or college related because of a barrier in language.
They have the right not to apply for FA, but then you won’t get any. If their income and assets are likely to get FA, you are really giving up a lot to protect their privacy. The fact is that if you want/need FA, you have to disclose the info requested, or choose a FAFSA only school.
Your parents income and assets can also be verified by FAFSA only schools. And yes, those schools can ask for any documentation they want…including bank statements (we were asked to provide those when we were verified).
Your parents will need to get a tax transcript for the schools where the FAFSA was completed if they didn’t use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. So…get on it. If you can’t or don’t provide the documentation the schools ask for, your aid will not be disbursed to you.
I find it hard to believe that you won’t have to provide that to transcript to any college where you submitted a FAFSA without using the DRT.
And yes, I did tell you a while back that if you don’t submit all financial aid application materials a school requests, your request for institutional need based aid will be incomplete and you won’t be reviewed at all for institutional need based …and you need that to attend Vassar…so no Profile…no institutional need based aid.
Unless your parents are willing to pay your college costs, it’s probably a good idea to complete that Profile. do they understand that?
In another thread you qualified for free lunches, what can your parents possibly have to lose by filling out the CSS? Ask them that. If they proved all the reqs for that, and for FAFSA, then you have to ask why the CSS gives them such pause for thought.