<p>I know it sounds ridiculous (because it is), but I kid you not, I recall reading on some college's common app supplement:</p>
<p>Financial Aid (Note: If you do not apply as freshman, none shall be offered EVER)</p>
<p>I'll have to look back to see what school it was, but I'm pretty sure Stanford has something like it.</p>
<p>^I checked for Princeton, I didn't see anything like that, so hopefully that is not the case!</p>
<p>Interestingly, today I just found out about the form also. I was about to make a similar thread, but you beat me to it! So I took this advice and emailed them using their general Financial Aid Office email address. </p>
<p>I hope we both aren't screwed... Let me put it this way, I'm can't attend Princeton without getting aid....</p>
<p>Have you figured this out yet?</p>
<p>hookem168, i just said i remember hearing a policy, i'm not sure how true it is, that you graduate basically debt free.</p>
<p>like i said before, i'm not going to stress about it. if the deadline is up, i'll just have to find a way to deal.</p>
<p>Btw, to all ... from the Princeton site...</p>
<p>Do I need to reapply for financial aid each year?
For each year of attendance at Princeton, students must submit a new financial aid application. The application is evaluated according to the same need-based guidelines that were in effect when the student was admitted.</p>
<p>hookem, focus first on getting admitted. They love to bend over backwards in every way for kids who they accept.</p>
<p>^ best point I've heard so far. It won't even matter unless they let me in</p>
<p>ohmygod I'm in the same situation. CC won't let me post the expletives that would accurately describe my reaction. THANK YOU for posting this.</p>
<p>haha I figured some other CCers would've not read the fine print!
I think that's 3 or 4 besides so far!</p>
<p>Princeton, please be nice to us!!!</p>
<p>I fear with such a rise in applications across the board this year, Princeton will not be able to sympathize that you didn't know about the financial aid app especially because so many other people DID know about it and subsequently turned it in on time. I wish you the best, but I fear that might be the case :/ Best of luck!</p>
<p>Q. What happens if my PFAA is late?
A. We encourage you to submit your PFAA by the deadline we suggest. This is to ensure that we will have adequate time to review your application before admission decisions are mailed. However there are no penalties for late submission, and late applications will receive the same consideration for aid as those received on time.</p>
<p>It has been our experience that once you are admitted to Princeton, the Financial Aid office will bend over backwards to help you in any way possible. They are committed to their FA policies, and have stated that they will not change their committment even in light of the present economic difficulties. You can take them at their word that late applications will not be penalized. So everyone that hasn't sent them in yet, get them done as soon as possible as a courtesy to the FA office - they want to have everything ready by the decision date.</p>
<p>^That's a relief. From what I've been able to gather, the aid deadline is so they can send you a statement with your letter of acceptance. So I think (in the event that God smiles upon me and I am fortunate enough to be accepted) I'll get some kind of aid, just later than all the rest. I'm hoping.</p>
<p>My sister only found out about Princeton's financial aid application after she was accepted, but still got a fairly good deal, so I think if you get in, it won't be much of a problem</p>
<p>The email I got from the aid office:</p>
<p>There is no penalty for submitting the Princeton Financial Aid Application after the February 1, 2009 deadline. We will accept your application for aid. </p>
<hr>
<p>Looks like we'll be fine! That's a relief.</p>
<p>to the poster,
first of all, while meeting the financial aid deadline may be important, it is nothing to cry over. secondly, i find it hard to believe that you could dare blame your parents for missing the deadline (or being "inept). the fact that they did the css profile for you in itself is ridiculous. you need to wake up and realize that you're not six years old. if you want to go to a school like princeton, you have to tackle these things yourself. this advice of course comes from a fellow senior procrastinator; however, it doesn't take much to see what's wrong here. you need to grow up.</p>
<p>I couldn't possibly do the FAFSA, the Profile, or the IDOC, because I have no clue about the details of our assets.</p>
<p>I practically did my parents taxes when i did the PFAA, and for the real fafsa my dad just emailed me the tax returns and told me to get it done. So it is possible to do it on your own.</p>
<p>^ Not if my parents don't feel comfortable giving all their taxes and financial information to a 17-year-old kid...</p>
<p>^ hookem168: First off, I know this is frustrating for you. And your reaction to some of the suggestions shows that. Your situation may be different from the advice being offered by others on here, but overall I think folks are trying to help with what they view as practical solutions.</p>
<p>Here's my view, take or leave it: regardless of whether we're talking about Princeton or whatever schools you have on your list, you really do need to know the details of your parents' financial situtation if you are asking them to pay 10's of thousands of dollars to send you to college. I'm a sophomore in college (my sister is a senior applying to Princeton and about seventy-five other schools, it seems :-)) and my parents sat me down in my senior year and said "Here's our income, here's what it costs to run the house, here's what we can afford monthly, here's how much we can take in loans to help you, here's how much we have to keep for your sister's college in two years. So if you want to go to school X, you will likely have to acquire XX-thousand dollars in loans that you'll have to start paying in June 2011. And here's what it will mean in monthly payments when you are 22 yrs old and starting out in the world. What do you think?". We did this for all the schools I had been accepted to. It was the first truly adult conversation I ever had with my parents and without it I could never have had all the information I needed to pick a school. You should see if your parents are willing to do this with you. I believe my folks are just about to do it with my sis (with 3/31 close at hand)...</p>
<p>Now, in yuor situation, it is a step further in that you may need to get nito the actual tax forms and al that. If you do dit down an meet with your parents like 3 adults, then you will be in a position to possibly help your folks with the paperwork and all. in the end, i was not really at all surprised by any info that I got when I had that talk with my parents --- i knew roughly what they made and roughly the cost of the household, but it was eye-opening how much they had to contend with. Unless your Dad has a secret second family that he is supporting somewhere, or your folks run their own business and have done some creative tax planning, it shouldn't really be anything top-secret. BUt it sounds from what you have written here that they do need some help getting it all done, and you seem like you are on the ball enough to do it. And keep in mind the fact that, as others have said, getting admitted is the first step, and everything else can get fixed in parallel with that.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>