IDOC deadline

Paying for College
1

<p>The most intimate thing in America is your income tax return. I am really glad that some smart software engineers have come up with a program to encrypt that information and make it available electronically to several different schools to which the applicant has applied.</p>

<p>How outstanding and fair can their analysis be for the largest financial obligation you will have for your child when their instructions are an abysmal failure? Thousands of mothers and fathers everywhere have had to suffer. If this is the measure of their level of care, I would reconsider subscribing to the program.</p>

<p>IDOC Page One obliquely states that one should review one’s Requirements, including deadlines.</p>

<p>Could they be more direct? Could they state that their unusual system is calculated upon the date of actual RECEIPT of the documents at the processor?</p>

<p>Page Two tells you neither anything about delivery of the documents nor about the necessary timeline.</p>

<p>Page Three, the Requirements page, merely states under the fourth heading that the packet must be received by the College Board by March 1, 2009. </p>

<p>Could it have said (after the short month of February) that it is due by SUNDAY, March 1, 2009? </p>

<p>Only at the end of the two page document does the letter tell you to send the packet to a post office box in Illinois.</p>

<p>There is no warning that the customary express mailing services are not feasible for delivery to that address. </p>

<p>In fact, the post office itself provides Sunday delivery for certain post office addresses, but not this one. That information is not included in the Requirements. </p>

<p>Isn’t it a mystery that the College Board could direct everyone to send their most private financial information to a post office address by a deadline without any more consideration that that? Why would they even pick a date that is not a normal business day? If their deadline falls on a Sunday, does that mean that the real deadline is actually Monday, the following business day? Why does the Requirements Page say immediately after the stated deadline to just send the papers as soon as possible thereafter? They may be speaking for the processor, but the schools may have very different policies concerning the ramifications not meeting the deadline. Shouldn’t there be a link or something that states the current policy of each of their subscribers concerning this important matter? </p>

<p>The amount of grief is untold; the amount of harm caused is unimaginable. College Board needs to get on the ball.</p>

2

<p>Golly, it didn’t seem all so theatrical to me. Put it together, send it in, if you have a question call them and ask. And if you consider your tax information so sacrsanct you’re going to have an uncomfortable 4 years asking for money.</p>

<p>March 1st is a Sunday. So what choice would you make? Get in before March 1st? That’s what I would do. If not, then get it in as quickly as possible afterward, just as they advise. Wonder if the college will have an issue with that? Just call them and ask.</p>

<p>It doesn’t have to be so perplexing, really.</p>

3

<p>I can think of a lot of things more intimate than my tax return. While I choose not to post my 1040 on the WEB, I have no problem in allowing people who are going to give my daughter money, access to this information. I have been filling these forms out for six years (two children) and let me say I has been well worth the time and effort. A friend with a college age son was complaining about how they were asking for personal information, my response was “Fine, pay it all yourself, then you don’t have to tell them anything.” The point is, we parents are asking for something, they have a right to determine how to allocate their limited resources.</p>

<p>Deadlines are deadlines, life is full of them. My IDOC deadline was April 1, but that might just be specific to Dartmouth and returning students. I assume boohisser has a first year student.</p>