I’ve been selected as a QuestBridge finalist. Almost every university requires a “copy of [my] parents’ 2014 federal income tax returns” to be mailed or faxed. I asked my parents, and they do not have these copies. We can’t afford the fees to request new copies, not on top of the test score and CSS Profile fees all at once. Would it be acceptable to use a free transcript from the IRS instead of an exact copy? It should have essentially the same information. Or will I just have to go for regular decision?
For what it’s worth: know that the Collegeboard will waive up to 8 colleges depending on your financial situation; there was also the CSS fee waiver opportunity from Questbridge, which depended on whether you signed up for that waiver program or not. As for the tax transcripts question, consider writing an e-mail to the admissions offices of the colleges you’re interested in as they tend to reply pretty quickly and nobody on this site has replied to you yet. My advice is to write a quick, but polite, generic message that you can send to all the schools at once without dwelling on it too much.