I really don’t want to. I would like to give [the] accurate information, not estimations. Is it okay to wait until my parents file the 2015 tax return? Harvard’s site says that the initial financial aid application is due by November 1.
If they say it’s due by a certain date you have to estimate if you don’t have the info. I think missing the deadline would be a poor decision.
@johnnamjh: While that is probably good advice for most colleges, for Harvard – which has more money than any other university – it doesn’t matter when the OP submits the CSS Profile.
If the OP is accepted in the SCEA round, they can submit their CSS Profile after the fact – in March, April, May, June, or even July/August and Harvard will still give the OP the same amount of financial aid they would have received if they had not missed the deadline. **That is NOT true for most other colleges, which have strict penalties for missing financial aid deadlines. **
The only downside in not submitting the CSS Profile by the November 1st deadline is that if the OP is accepted they will not receive an estimated financial aid award with their acceptance letter. The ‘key’ word in that sentence is estimated, because student’s applying for financial aid must update the CSS Profile with corrected information from their family’s 2015 tax returns and submit those tax returns via the College Board’s IDOC system in March to receive their finalized financial aid award.
This year, I was very sick and was unable to get everything done until well into July. I notified financial aid I would be late and they worked with me, even allowing me an appeal to explain special circumstances. In trying times, Harvard has come through for my family. My two sons will graduate because a real, live person took the time to understand my circumstances.
In the same vein, is it okay if the early supplementary financial aid materials get in a couple days late?
If you’re talking about any of this: https://college.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/ea_cover_sheet.pdf, I suppose so, as Harvard’s financial aid committee does not begin to calculate an SCEA accepted student’s financial aid package until they receive a list of accepted students from the Admissions office, which usually happens after the first week of December. The worst that could happen is that a an SCEA accepted student who is late with their financial aid materials must wait until April 1st to know how much financial aid they will be receiving.