<p>The financial aid office sent me this letter a few weeks ago..</p>
<p>Dear Applicant:</p>
<p>Thank you for your application for admission to Columbia University. We are writing to remind you of the upcoming March 1 requested financial aid deadline and to update you on the status of your financial aid application. You may review the most recent status of your financial aid materials by visiting <a href="https://admissions.columbia.edu/%5B/url%5D">https://admissions.columbia.edu/</a>. Log in using your Columbia University Applicant ID# and date of birth. Then, select Financial Aid and follow the log in instructions for first time users.</p>
<p>Please note we are sending this letter to you as you indicated you were interested in applying for financial aid. Please read this letter in its entirety before contacting us with any questions or concerns.</p>
<p>....and so on....</p>
<p>Does this mean anything or is it just a normal reminder? I mean, they only need these informations from accepted applicants, right? Did everybody receive such a letter?</p>
<p>My daughter got one this morning(Sat. sent at 217 am.) They were asking for info that was not requested for in the idoc. It states that the info is due on March 1st but as I said above, the date of the email is today. The information they were asking for I have already sent last week(it was asked for on the financial aid portal). There was also a typo in the letter. Very strange.</p>
<p>I just looked more carefully at the letter we got this morning and it seems even more strange. Let me say first that we sent the Fasfa and css on time. We then sent the idoc things they asked for, on time. Over a week ago, I logged on to the fin aid portal and noticed messages. Essentially it said that they had recieved everything but also wanted 2010 taxes when done and asked for copies of 2009 taxes to be sent directly to the school. I sent them last week. The letter today is dated today but talks of the up coming March 1st deadline. It goes on to tell us 2 times to send the 2009 taxes to the school and send the 2010 taxes(when done) to idoc. It almost looks like they took sections of several form letters and put them together.(except the information was specific to our situation) Also as I mentioned above, there was a typo. Not a big deal but jarring. Anyone else get one like this? Any thoughts?</p>
<p>^ It seems that I got the exact same email. I sent them the CSS PROFILE back in February and yet they claimed that they never received it. I haven’t been able to send them my parents’ tax returns as the Canadian system runs quite a bit later than that in the US. I have no idea what this might indicate though.</p>
<p>PS. I just tried to re-send them the CSS PROFILE and cannot find Columbia University on CSS PROFILE anymore… Whenever I search ‘Columbia University’ or their code number 2116 nothing is returned. Anyone facing the same problem?</p>
<p>Both of you who posted above seem to international. Not us. Anyway, it would seem to be a good sign and if you search around on cc, you can see several threads where there is speculation and conjecture about the corrolation between late financial aid info requests and acceptance. But in this case, I dont think I can go there. The letter seemed too wacky. Like someone should have sent it out a long time ago (a routine request) and threw something together.</p>
<p>SheClimbs, I searched around in old mail from Columbia and found a generic reminder to apply for financial aid dated 2/26. The one sent this morning contained most of the same wording in the beginning but had other things in it too. It was also personalized. The first one wasn’t. Was yours?</p>
<p>Funny, but I haven’t received any such letter, and even I’m an international. Although I did sent my CSS PROFILE way early, and my parent’s income statement pretty early as well… I did get an email around 2/22 saying that my fin-aid app is complete.</p>
<p>Could it be a system error which is sending out the emails as some of you have received? It’s a big “could”.</p>
<p>Yes, exactly, the second one was personalized and contained my name, address and applicant number…
It reminds me of sending my parents’ tax return while I submitted the forms several weeks ago…
How long do you think do they need to process these documents? Should I contact the office?
However, it still seems strange because of the letter’s content…</p>
<p>Well its interesting to know that there was a big surge in Columbia’s applications this year, so they may be having a bit of time processing the docs, including ones related to financial aid as well. It depends, sometimes it takes a few days to process, sometimes it takes a week.</p>
<p>I got the same letter, even though I applied through CSS months ago. Has anyone received something similar from other schools?</p>
<p>As well, are there other ivy schools besides Columbia which offer a way to check up on the financial aid status? I’m now worried that my documents may be missing for other schools too.</p>
<p>I got the same thing, asking for my parent’s tax returns, but both are not taxable - as I said in the IDOC packet which they should be privy to. Either way, I mailed them a letter certifying my mom’s income last month, they should have received it by now.</p>
<p>And before you ask, yes - I’m an international applicant too.</p>
<p>I see now why it seemed like a collection of bits and pieces of form letters. The email was the exact wording of the messages from the financial aid portal. Since there was more than one message, the instructions were repeated. (I think someone else had suggested this on the other similar thread) Anyway, it would be nice to think all this means something since they are asking for things above and beyond the idoc request but I will try not too. It also makes me wonder why the other schools didnt ask for similar info. Oh well, time will tell.</p>
<p>Columbia is not need-blind for international students :-/
I agree with malaml…I must admit that I DO hope that this means something because the letter addressed me directly…
The content of the letter just makes it seem strange. They really could have written a new one!</p>
<p>@skeriss
Exactly the same here: International student, no tax return but documentation of income and they haven’t received/processed it yet…</p>
<p>For us they asked for 2009 tax returns to be sent directly to Columbia. We put on the CSS that the 2010 taxes would be done by the deadlne April 15. So naturally I want to think they need the 2009 to make a ballpark financial aid package. On the other hand, this could just be some verification process(I think the schools are required by law to verify a certain percentage of the financial aid info) or it could just be routine since our taxes are a bit complicated. As far as the sent documents not being posted on the portal, its a bit curious because I saw the messages last week and went ahead and sent the info on the 9th.I sent info to other schools as well when there were messages on their sites. (They didnt email a notification though) All the other schools posted the information sent except Columbia. I think I will call tommorrow.</p>