Financial Aid office requesting additional information

<p>My son’s early action application was originally deferred back in December to regular decision and last week, he received a letter from the financial aid office requesting additional documentation. Should we take this as a sign that the admissions office has notified the financial aid office of a pending acceptance? Would the financial aid office at this time be concerned about everyone having all documentations submitted before knowing that the applicant has been accepted?</p>

<p>Hi - what are they asking for? My son is RD and we supplied a TON of documentation which I thought was interesting given he’s not been accepted yet. They needed our 2012 tax forms, our son’s 2012’s tax forms, W2s for the three of us, I think other stuff as well. </p>

<p>That said - good luck to your son. I hope he’s accepted!</p>

<p>They asked for the same things they asked you, BTMell, but they didn’t ask for a W2 form from me, and instead asked for Proof of Citizenship (I’m assuming this is a great sign, because colleges need this to disburse financial aid to my account. A good portion of my schools didn’t ask for it haha).</p>

<p>Fingers crossed for you! This waiting is tough.</p>

<p>Haha good luck to you too! The suspense is killing me… April can’t come fast enough</p>

<p>The reason why I suspect there is a correlation between the financial aid office asking for additional information and the admissions office notifying them of pending acceptance is because I noticed a similar pattern with Villanova and Bentley University. Prior to my son receiving formal acceptance notices from both schools, we received letters from both financial aid offices requesting additional info so they could proceed in evaluating our FA needs. It just doesn’t make sense to me for FA offices to be harassing all applicants for additional info unless they are already certain such applicant is going to be accepted.</p>

<p>I would make no assumptions, other than your child has not been put into the reject pile. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Uh, not so fast. Nearly every college processes International apps differentially; few colleges are need-blind for internationals. I don’t know if BC is or is not need-blind to Internationals, but US citizenship means eligibility for federal loan aid, and the lack of citizenship means that the college will have to spend more of its own funds if such a student is accepted.</p>

<p>Bluebayou: Would you assume the FA office is immediately notified of rejected applicants so they don’t waste their time processing? Therefore, until an application is officially rejected, the FA dept will continue the process of ensuring all documentations have been received and any unanswered questions are communicated.</p>

<p>^^yes, that is how I would manage the office, if I was in charge. But still in process does not mean accept. It could just be that - still in process, to be accepted, rejected or wait-listed later over the next four weeks. And what we – or at least I – don’t know is how BC handles deferrals from EA. Do they review them along with the RD apps, or hold the deferees towards the end (which is what some ED colleges do).</p>

<p>Sorry, not trying to be a downer, but just add some other, plausible scenarios.</p>

<p>@bluebayou</p>

<p>But wait… I’m not an international lol and colleges know that. I wrote on my CSS and FAFSA that I am an American citizen, but the problem is that the Social Security Administration was never notified of my citizenship (I became a citizen like 10 years ago when my parents became citizens). So colleges like BC, UVa, and Emory who may be thinking of accepting me want to see proof of this first so that they can see how much fed aid I’m gonna get.</p>

<p>This is just a complete theory… I have no concrete evidence to back this up.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I can write on my FAFSA that I’m an NBA player, but that doesn’t make it so. :)</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Negative. They require proof of citizenship to see if you are even eligible for federal aid. Your passport/Green Card must eventually match up with your SSN records.</p>

<p>How much $$ you “get” is not their call.</p>

<p>Just to clarify, the information requested was not your usual tax forms but for a statement to further explain my son’s non custodial parent situation. Why seek this type of detailed information at this stage if an applicant’s acceptance is not pending?</p>

<p>Because financial aid offices have a very small time margin to get the aid packages set and the letters written so that they go out with the admissions notifications, they do make sure that all of the files are complete on everyone though they do not put together packages until they get the list from Admissions. They need that list because even at a school like BC where 100% of need is met, they do prioritize who gets what, by special notations (who gets certain merit within need awards), limited government items like Perkins and SEOG, , Work study hours. </p>

<p>So they are not sitting around twidddling their thumbs but are making sure their ducks (the fin aid info needed) are in a row. So it can mean absolutely nothing to get a request for missing or questionable info. When the questions start verging on the knitty gritty and are closer to the decision release date, it usually means, that you are in. This far in advance, nope. it doesn’t usually mean a thing.</p>

<p>It is also possible, however, that a school has started sending lists of their first wave of accepted students instead of deluging FA all at once. One simply does not know these things and without info from an insider from those places, it’s impossible to say.</p>

<p>Rastaman, as info from each file is examined certain special cases are flagged that can take time to resolve, such as NCP waivers. I knew someone who had to work solely with those at a selective school some years ago. They very rarely gave them if there was any contact with the NCP in the high school years unless some extreme situations were involved, and they would have to sludge through all of them to come to a Yes or No on them, since you can’t even calculate aid without all the required infor to make the determination. Your explanation or statement is likely missing certain key words they want to see to deny or give the waiver. Once they do that, the application may just go right back in the stack for specific award assignment. It isn’t complete without a determination on that waiver. When the officers hit those stacks, they want to go right through the files and be able to put together a package with no requests for additional info. There is no time once they get that list.</p>

<p>Bluebayou/cptofthehouse: I would like to thank you both for enlightening me on the FA process. I’m so desperate for my son to attend BC that I’m only seeing positive signs in every action.</p>

<p>If have a 9 person legacy (mother, sister, 2 aunts, granfather, uncle, and 3 cousins) how much will this help me to get in?</p>

<p>@rastaman in the letter you got when you were deferred when did it say you would be notified by? April 15th?</p>