<p>I'm posting this here again in its own thread in the hopes of getting additional opinions...</p>
<p>Hello again,</p>
<p>I'm filling out the Profile and plan to include the schools to which D has already submitted her application and has been accepted. She is mailing off a few more applications the first week in January. Should I include those schools as Profile recipients already, or wait to complete Profile after all schools have received her application (which at this point will be within a couple of weeks). I kind of hate to hit them with financial aid matters before they've even received her application and realize how much they want her. ;-)</p>
<p>Also, how involved is the non-custodial parent portion of the form? I'm wondering how many days would be reasonable to ask that D's dad get it completed, and therefore how many days beforehand I need to complete my portion. </p>
<p>Send it all in so you can forget about it is my advice. And give your ex lots of time to fill the thing out, and beg him or cajole him to just get it done ASAP. You don't want this process to drag out. They are not going to look at the fin aid forms until she is accepted. THey do not assess every single fin aid app, just the accepted kids'.</p>
<p>Sushi, some folks like to complete their taxes before they complete the finaid forms (both FAFSA and Profile). Truthfully, it is much easier to complete both forms once the taxes have been done. I would advise both you and the non-custodial parent to complete your taxes as soon as possible after Feb 1 and then do those finaid forms. The year your child is going to be a college freshman is NOT the year to delay filing your taxes until April. You are able to complete both forms (FAFSA and Profile) using estimates based on your end of year pay stubs and bank statements and other informations. If you do this for the FAFSA, you can do it anytime after Jan 1 but if you haven't completed your taxes, you will do this as "will file" meaning you will be filing taxes. Once your taxes are complete (asap after Feb 1) you can amend the FAFSA online. The Profile is another story. It is available now and can also be done using estimates. Corrections, however, cannot be done online. You must submit it...then print it out, and hand write the corrections and mail them to the college. You should call the college for specifics on how they want the Profile amended. Regardless...Your student's finaid award will NOT be finalized until you have provided finalized (after tax) FAFSA and Profile information to the schools. Anything you get prior to that time will be estimates. We got those last year (used estimates for two EA schools). When we finalized the FAFSA and amended the Profile (on Feb 1), we later received finalized finaid. In one case (school that did NOT use Profile) reduced DD's finaid by $3000. The school using the Profile didn't reduce her aid at all. So...free advice...to know the REAL finaid award, get those tax forms done ASAP. And politely ask that the non-custodial parent do the same.</p>
<p>yesterday we went through the schools i'm applying to and most of them require the profile to be submitted no later than 2/1. And one of my schools requires the FAFSA by February 1. So the first thing to do is check deadlines at each college.</p>