MIT Finaid Office is Making Me Cry

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>Not really: these frustrations are par for the course, and there are no actual tears, but.....</p>

<p>What is the number one piece of finaid advice people give? Get your materials in on time.</p>

<p>For me, that meant:
filling out the Profile in October,
updating it in December,
putting the accountant on red alert in January,
filling out the FAFSA,
watching the mail as each 1099/W2 rolled in,
rushing them to the accountant on Feb. 1st,
getting the taxes back on Feb 3rd (yay, accountant!)
updating the FAFSA immediately
trying for two days to login to IDOC while the site hung
finding out, when MIT suddenly updates their financial aid tracking, that they want 2007 taxes (corporate and personal) and the business/farm supplement
spending entire evenings packaging documents for MIT finaid and IDOC,
and getting everything in the mail by February 5th!! Yay!!</p>

<p>It was close, but I felt I had a pretty good chance of making the 2/15 deadline, and I certainly couldn't have done it any quicker.</p>

<p>Now, of course, they claim they never received the 2007 corporate returns or the business/farm supplement. Naturally, these were in the same envelope as the things they did receive. Naturally, the harried person on the phone couldn't even check the paper file to see if there was a mistake in logging things in. Even though we had just identified a similar logging mistake during the same phone call. Her statement: "just send them again - don't worry, you won't be late."</p>

<p>I know, I know, I'm just lucky there is a finaid office - nobody owes my son money for college. And whatever hoops they want me to jump, I will just jump.</p>

<p>But CC is the place where I can say: UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH! (c'mon, say it with me!)</p>

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<p>I feel your pain</p>

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<p>As do I.</p>

<p>H and I spent every weekend in 2009 doing everything from preparing forms to standing in line at the Post Office.</p>

<p>Question: Did you send documents to both IDOC and MIT? I understood that whatever forms were required by MIT would be sent by the IDOC.</p>

<p>We received the financial aid email yesterday, and we are starting to panic that maybe we should have sent them directly to MIT.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

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<p>They wanted 2007 forms to MIT, 2008 forms through IDOC.</p>

<p>However, don't panic. (Vent, yes, but don't panic!)</p>

<p>The conversation in my original post was yesterday afternoon. I packed up the forms to re-send them last night. This morning, my.mit is suddenly showing everything received (!).</p>

<p>Is the finaid office lurking this forum? ;-)</p>

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<p>Hmmm..... maybe they are!</p>

<p>2007 tax documents are not on the list of documents missing from my son's mit online status. We'll just keep checking his status and if things are still missing, we'll contact the office directly.</p>

<p>Thanks again!</p>

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<p>Okay, Mr. Barkowitz's blog made me feel much better</p>

<p>MIT</a> Admissions | Blog Entry: "Deadline, Schmedline"</p>

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<p>WAIT A SECOND.</p>

<p>I already submitted my 2008 forms to IDOC. I don't need to send 2007, do I?</p>

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<p>From the MIT Financial Aid Website:</p>

<p>"If your parents' 2008 federal income return is not available by our February 15, 2009 financial aid deadline, you may submit your parents' 2007 federal income tax return, including all schedules and W-2s, directly to Student Financial Services by February 15, 2009. You will be required to submit the 2008 federal income tax return, schedules and W-2s through IDOC as soon as they become available."</p>

<p>But check your online status for the documents that are missing. You may not need them.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Is the finaid office lurking this forum? ;-)

[/quote]

Daniel Barkowitz used to post quite frequently on CC, actually. :) His username is barkowitz.</p>

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<p>I'm stressed because neither of my parents know anything about the CSS Profile so I'm stuck filling out both the regular and non-custodial parent profile. Then today my non- custodial parent says they cant give me their tax information for some reason that they cannot explain over the phone so I'm pretty much screwed there. Then, after getting the 2008 1040 form for my custodial parent, I realized I overestimated some stuff on my already submitted profile that I have to change and resubmit along with a corrected FAFSA. To top it off, just failed my first math test of the second semester. I feel like ripping a phonebook in half or using my math teacher as a punching bag.</p>

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<p>I just got my S's IDOC required docs in the mail yesterday (2/13). All other MIT required docs (FAFSA, Profile, Noncustodial Parent Form) have been rec'd by MIT. I did not, however, send them by 2007 Tax Return because I knew I would be getting the IDOC docs in the mail yesterday. Please tell me we made the deadline. The MIT FA website makes it sound like the IDOC docs have to be postmarked by February 15th. Correct? MIT is BY FAR the most complex FA procedure we've encountered. Perhaps they use this to thin the herd.</p>

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<p>I'm lurking now... :)</p>

<p>Just keep in mind we are SWAMPED in our office right now. We are about three days behind in posting mail to the system, and IDOC did not turn on until yesterday, so so give us time... </p>

<p>We don't need 2007 anything if you are sending us 2008 documents. Sorry if you think we are complex. My understanding was that we are closely aligned with what others are doing. Maybe we haven't explained our process well enough... </p>

<p>SIGH!</p>

<p>Back to lurking...</p>

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<p>barkowitz - the hardest part of the MIT FA process is the Feb 15th deadline. It looks hard and fast, and it sounds like if we miss the deadline then my S will no longer be considered for financial aid. Most other schools have a priority deadline of Feb 28/March 1with nonpriority consideration for docs postmarked after the priority date. In addition, this year the Feds pushed back the date for receiving financial reports from January 31st to February 17th. Thus, many of us JUST received the inforrmation we needed to complete our 2008 tax return. I, for one, was not willing to guestimate on the FAFSA and have to correct it later. All that being said, my S carefully researched his college choices, and he decided MIT would be a great fit. I just hope that I've sent the required docs in a timely manner.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the comments. Every year or so colleges go back and forth on the deadline issues. Where we try to mail admissions decisions by mid-March, we need time to reply to financial aid applications and if we postpone the deadline until March 1, the concern is that families who run late will head into timeframes where we cannot respond to the applications in time to mail the decision by mid-March. Part of the issue is that we send our decisions out about two weeks earlier than most of our peers, so our financial aid deadlines are also about two weeks earlier.</p>

<p>Anyway, I do understand your point and maybe we need to be more specific that the deadline is a priority deadline and not an absolute one, so the feedback is very helpful. Please do read my most recent blog entry (which I probably could have had out a week or so earlier).</p>

<p>--Daniel</p>

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<p>And, please note that we DO NOT turn off financial aid consideration so you are fine...</p>

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<p>Knowing that my S will still be considered for FA is a big relief. Thanks for responding.</p>

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<p>lol MIT's process is not that complex; at least, no more than its peers, but I too thought the Feb. 15 deadline was hard and fast. The website says something like the forms must be submitted "no later than February 15."</p>

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<p>Again, because if we said "turn them in whenever you want to" how many people would have them in earlier than September? SMILES.</p>

<p>Ah what fun!</p>

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<p>Nice to hear from you on CC Mr. Barkowitz! Being a parent, I am afraid to post on MIT blogs! At least here, I know there are lots of parents who post. I have to say that of the 12 schools I have dealt with for Financial Aid, MIT was the smoothest, seriously....I've been pulling my hair out... the redundancy of the different forms... (and I'm not just trying to score brownie points) Although I do have to admit the February 15th deadline was a little intimidating.....and for a brief moment I thought our file might just get thrown into a big shredder that sits beneath a huge neon sign that says "TOO LATE" if the documents weren't in by the 15th. A simple phone call took care of those silly thoughts. The Feb. 15th deadline was a little tough with IDOC opening up on February 3rd...but we made it. Your blog was comforting to read, however, I didn't see that prior. So, I have a question....is there any chance for an EA Admitted student to get a financial aid award notification in early, early March?? Thanks..</p>