@beemane Princeton tries to admit prospective legacies to the best of its ability; however, not all legacies can be admitted. A legacy deferral may be a nice gesture, but almost everyone is deferred in the SCEA round so it might not mean much.
@elk1819 Thank you so much! I’m crossing my fingers for you too; you seem like a wonderful person! I would be really glad if I had the opportunity to meet you in NJ next year. 
Gah I wish we could all get in and be friends at Princeton and be happy. Why can’t that happen? D:
“I’m just curious but did everyone who received this email actually not send in the tax return forms? I was wondering why you guys didn’t?”
My husband rechecked his email. He did not receive an email after submitting the PFAA requesting additional documents. I just checked the email address our son used on his Common App. No notice there either.
I found the screencap that I took of the “your financial aid application has been submitted” screen (printer wasn’t working at the time.) It said, “Tax documents and other supporting documents should be sent directly to the Financial Aid Office directly” and then gives ways of submitting.
I remember us interpreting this as, “If you’re accepted SCEA, we’ll send you a tentative financial aid offer based on what you entered, but nothing will be finalized until you submit your 2015 documents and the FAFSA” because nowhere did it say on that last screen that they wanted the 2014 documents. We figured they wouldn’t bother gathering extra paperwork unless the applicant was likely to be admitted or already had been.
The parents we know with kids recently in college or currently applying haven’t/aren’t applying to Ivies and none have shared any info about financial aid forms. We know a number of current and past college professors, but of course they never dealt with financial aid. I’ve gone to other boards too and only this one has even mentioned the CSS Profile (which the other Ivies my son applied to want.) We’re our own guidance counselor/school system, so unless we go look for it (assuming we even know there is something to look for) or the info is clear on a college’s website or email, we don’t know about it. I’m sure we’re not the only ones in the dark. At my son’s old ps, the few GC were dealing with over 300 kids a piece. The “financial aid sessions” were run buy a business trying to get you to sign up with their services.
@FarscapeFan Ah I see… Yes it was vague in the email they sent after you submitted the FA online. However, I think they are asking for the tax return forms right now because when they actually do send you the acceptance to Princeton, they will also send the FA email right along with it. In order to do that, they need your tax forms. I still am not sure about this whole “passing the preliminary round” thing though because well my parents emailed mine in and I didn’t receive any email…
I know you all want to be optimistic, which is fine, but I wouldn’t read too much into this FA email. It seems
everyone who applied for FA and neglected to send in tax forms got this email. No one has said otherwise, which is weird considering the dozens who have received this email and posted!
Per the Princeton FA website: “If you are an early action applicant, or a regular decision applicant whose family’s 2015 tax information is not yet available, please provide the 2014 tax forms”
Per the Princeton FA email: “Tax documents or other supporting forms should be sent directly to the Financial Aid Office using the fax, email or mail address below”
–
Moreover, I highly doubt somewhere like Princeton (or even Arizona) would send out “likely” emails like this without considering it through. The more likely explanation is probably that Princeton FA finished creating packages for all of the Early applicants, and now is in the process of verifying them (even for those who will not be admitted SCEA).
that’s the curious thing^^^ – there were clearly people on this thread who didn’t submit the tax returns previously, and so they received an email yesterday asking them to do so – But there are other people who didn’t submit the tax returns previously who were not emailed yesterday asking them to do so. Many are speculating whether there is some “correlation” between the email and possible acceptance/passing thru to committee; based on years prior threads, there appears that there might be some correlation, at least in the RD round, and possibly in the EA round. But no one really knows - it’s just speculation.
I swear that anyone, teenagers and parents who are helping, alike, who actually manage to make it through the whole application and financial aid process deserves an award and a party. It doesn’t even matter if you get in, the stress-inducing ordeal is an accomplishment all on it’s own. Worth it in the end, but yeah, I want my gold star and cake!
@AcrobatX That basically sums up what I was thinking! Thank you
@AcrobatX “It seems
everyone who applied for FA and neglected to send in tax forms got this email. No one has said otherwise, which is weird considering the dozens who have received this email and posted!”
That’s not true^^^ - Look back in this thread at @ALibertarian post #444 - he didn’t submit all tax forms and did not receive the email
Here’s what he said:
“Ugh, I didn’t get the email even though I know I’m missing forms. I felt like I was a pretty strong candidate, so hopefully not receiving the email doesn’t mean anything”
@AcrobatX “The more likely explanation is probably that Princeton FA finished creating packages for all of the Early applicants, and now is in the process of verifying them (even for those who will not be admitted SCEA).”
You actually think that the FA office will create financial aid packages for ALL APPLICANTS?
There’s no way they’re doing that
@meaa7130 I really wish that would happen as well. I always think about how cool it would be if we could all meet each other at Princeton and experience college together for the next four years — until I realize that the school hasn’t made its decisions yet. The admissions officers have the power to potentially change the course of the next four years (and perhaps history as well); that’s quite scary to think about! I guess we’ll see our fates soon enough… Princeton is pretty much the only school that hasn’t released its release day yet. It’s as if they are purposely trying to tease us into an endless nightmare of speculation and stress while we wait for their choices to be made public. They could be sitting in a dark office right now voting on one of us, and we wouldn’t even be able to know.
That being said, there are so many wonderful people on this thread that I wouldn’t blame Princeton if they end up making a mistake… it must be so hard to choose! And to think that the entire applicant pool is over 200x larger than this self-selected CC community (with many of them just as qualified), it’s honestly just mind-boggling.
I particularly want to have the opportunity to meet you on campus next year since you were the first person that I got to know in this community. You seem like a genuinely talented, easy-going, and friendly person that would make a wonderful addition to the Princeton community. 
Sometimes I just want to have the ability to switch minds with the admissions officers and participate in the admissions process so that I could accept everyone on this thread. Unfortunately, that scenario is impossible, so I’m stuck with the second-best alternative — waiting “patiently” for decisions to come out on the 14th or 15th. At least I have all of you guys to talk to during this stressful time. Honestly, I don’t know (and don’t want to know) what it would be like to just wait for this decision in solitude. CC has made this wait a lot more exciting and has certainly reduced my apprehension about my decision. We all came together on this thread whenever another one of us needed help or wanted to have a question answered; I’m certain that we’ll all come together and comfort each other when decisions are released in less than two weeks.
@PantherLair honestly though… maybe there is correlation maybe there isn’t I don’t think it matters that much D:? It’s not like everyone who received that email will get accepted… I think you are going a little bit too far trying to prove your point by telling others that they are just wrong
my 2 cents on this FA email thing: i don’t think it means anything other than the financial aid people saying, “ay, get your stuff together please. we have a job to do.” it’s much easier to send an email to everyone who hasn’t completed their financial aid application than to specifically select people that are likely to be admitted. i don’t think that just because they’re asking for these tax forms from so many people means that they’re actually going to use all of them. it might just be a quick and easy way to get everyone’s stuff in, and from that complete pool, they can begin to form the packages using just the forms from the people that are actually admitted. idk if i’m making sense tbh but hopefully someone catches my drift.
the financial aid office has separate email account from admissions (UA) - as it should be if admission is truly need blind (which is a whole different discussion)…
if you think about it as far as I know financial aid offices do not have outside temporary hires for admissions.
if the FAA office is going to handle 20,000 applications in January you’d think they could at least go through 4000 in december. I would think if there was picking and choosing of who to remind it would be much more likely in RD that EA especially since most of EA is deferred anyway.
what we would really need is someone to positively affirm that they did not include any W2s and they were not asked for anything further.
… and ideally that person to post test scores and GPS to see if that could be possible.
@azwu331 I really want to meet you too! You seem so intelligent and knowledgeable about this whole process and just everything in general. I really do hope you get in, even if/when I don’t. You really do deserve it and you’d be great at Princeton!
I want to know my decision, but at the same time I don’t. In this uncertainty, I’l always still have a chance, but once I find out and then get deferred, I’ll have no hope at all. I don’t want to be stuck in this limbo, but at the same time I do. Ahhhhh… I only want to find out my decision if I get accepted. 
Can that be a thing?
Hello all-
I applied SCEA to Princeton, but for some reason (really hating myself for this now), I blanked and forgot to put “National Merit Semifinalist” in my Honors section. Do you think I should send admissions an email and let them know? Or would that just annoy them at this point? My SAT score converted is well above the NMSF cutoff for my state.
Thanks!!
@seniorciti send it but be very careful about how you come off in your email. I can imagine something like this coming off as over the top.
before anyone answers, can u please tell us if u received the FA email yesterday?
just kidding… :))
i wouldn’t bother admissions with that info - esp if you have high SAT
just make sure you fix the common app for future applications
@ALibertarian, can you please provide more details about not getting the email? What forms are you missing? Have you checked all of where the email might’ve gone (if your parents filled out FA, it would go to the email they put)? I ask because your post is generating some wacky conclusions (that may be right if I’m just wrong, but I don’t think so :P!).