Hardest part of college app process..

<p>is undoubtedly the application for financial aid. The must convoluted and insufficient system I've ever seen..so confusing and so many repeated answers and even simply stupid answers, "what is the make and model of your car, and when did you purchase it"..Thanks Washington and Lee...</p>

<p>and then once you are done with the FAFSA and the retardedly confusing CSS Profile you find out oh no, you still have toooooons of **** to turn into the colleges, and you have to do IDOC because 40 pages of information about every minute detail of your income isn't just quite *<strong><em>ing enough. I'm so *</em></strong>ed it is crazy right now. I would kill the owner of the FAFSA thing if I could right now. Seriously.</p>

<p>i agree completely !
i hate doing all the freaking form-filling, number-crunching, deadline-checking and paper-mailing for 10+ schools
some of my colleges are still missing parts of my financial aid application, **** my life</p>

<p>I decided any college that I didn't want to do for sure could go **** itself..I'm not paying money for that. There is a reason I'm applying for financial aid, I have NO DAMN MONEY.</p>

<p>Now they want me to send copies of my 2008 return. We haven't done that, and we won't for a while because we owe money. So good luck with that ****.</p>

<p>I didn't feel like the finaid apps were "complicated." There were a lot of documents to fill out but everything was fairly clear for us. Granted we don't have a business or farm or other children in college, which made things easier. </p>

<p>I'd say the essays are the hardest....</p>

<p>Do you send the financial aid request at the same time you send your regular application or after you've sent it by a certain date?</p>

<p>Sorry, I'll be the first to go to college in my family since my parents were immigrants.</p>

<p>Co-sign. It takes weeks to months to finish the financial aid process.</p>

<p>FAFSA and CSS were easy. Pointless, but easy.</p>

<p>I still think the hardest part was the essays BY FAR. It's already hard enough trying to find where your strengths are, not to mention putting them in an organized and impressive fashion on a word document.</p>

<p>Wow noob, essays take 2 hours max and are under your control...FAFSA -> CSS -> IDOC depends on your parents' financial information and the tedious nature makes me almost feel sorry for those who get rejected from generous schools/dont get awarded any grant money.</p>

<p>None of its hard if you start early and get it done without rushing at the last minute.</p>

<p>You're all wrong. Waiting for RD decisions is the hardest part.</p>

<p>Per Columbia AdCom director,</p>

<p>College Applications in Fall is like taking an extra AP Class. Don't.</p>

<p>Instead.<br>
- arrange for recommendations after spring break.
- Pull college app questions from last years apps.<br>
Do first draft on old questions in Spring vacation.<br>
Revise the week after school ends;
do final draft on current questions in August.<br>
- have all apps ready to go Oct. 1</p>

<p>Last minute applications are consistently sloppy and not well thought out. ie less chance of admission.</p>

<p>the CSS is probably the most annoying thing in the world.</p>

<p>well next year or so, we won't have to worry about FAFSA, Obama is gonna pass something that turns all that paperwork into a checkbox on your taxes (1040 iirc)</p>

<p>Essays are hard</p>

<p>Are you all out of your minds??</p>

<p>I'd rather do the financial aid any day. The hardest part is by far one of the following</p>

<p>-Starting your essays
-Being denied
-Waiting the 3 some months for RD descisions
-Choosing where to go if you are equally stuck (Maybe Y and H?)</p>

<p>Plus- some of us have parents that LIKE t fill out the financial aid forms. My dad asked me to do the Fafsa and Css. Yeah they are confusing as hell- but its not like there are wrong answers to get you denied!</p>

<p>Lol, waiting for decisions is far harder than financial aid forms.</p>

<p>I agree with IV.</p>

<p>Being poor helped for financial aid, since I could put 0's for mostly everything. =D</p>

<p>^I put 0 for so many things! Like parental assets... SCORE.</p>

<p>^ completely agreed with IV, it feels like i have to wait an eternity until march 31</p>

<p>its a good thing i don't work, otherwise i'd have more stuff to do for finaid, lol</p>

<p>@Modulation: OMG! Same here! Awesome!</p>

<p>@bicyclekick: It's not that much more work at all when YOU have a job. Because you're only getting wages and no benefits or pensions (atleast that's my situation) so it's easy.</p>

<p>Waiting is waiting. Not having tax returns to use on the damn forms that I have to fill out sucks. "oh look at line 32 on 1040a form"..I don't have any damn forms because my parents are retarded. </p>

<p>So I had to do it basically by myself..and I don't know what the hell I was supposed to put.</p>