<p>So I filled out both the FAFSA and Profile with estimated numbers. We just completed our taxes for 2009, and I corrected the FAFSA with actual numbers. Is there a way to do the same for the Profile? The numbers are not significantly different, but they are somewhat different and when I send the taxes in through IDOCS the numbers will not match. Is this right?</p>
<p>Call your college(s) and ask them how they want corrections to the PROFILE handled. They will tell you what to do. It varies…some told us to make a copy of the Profile and handwrite the corrections. Some said they would make the corrections themselves based on our submitted tax returns. You need to ask each school.</p>
<p>Oh poop! Do you think I could just call the 4 that D is actually still interest in? I really do not care about the other 2 at this point.</p>
<p>It’s really not hard to make a xerox copy and write in the corrections and mail them. And it’s not hard to make six phone calls or send six emails. Personally, I would send the corrections to ALL the schools…your daughter applied to them for a reason and it’s two months until she has to make a decision. For all you know…one of these schools could rise to the top.</p>
<p>You know, I’ve always wondered why, if hand-correcting the Profile is required, it isn’t mentioned as a requirement on each colleges’ financial aid pages. It seems they (at least the colleges we are sending documentation to this year) go to great lengths to spell out all the requirements (including listing all tax docs required), but correcting the Profile isn’t one of them.</p>
<p>I agree with you Archiemom but I’ll take it a step further. It doesn’t take a Rocket Scientist to know that many folks need to amend the Profile once after they complete their taxes. For all the money we pay the College Board, I think they should have a provision for ONE online amendment and submission of their stinking form at NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE.</p>
<p>OK…off soapbox.</p>
<p>It does seem kinda stupid, doesn’t it.</p>
<p>QM, I always send a copy of a hand-corrected CSS Profile (4th time around here) with copies of tax returns & a letter explaining any other quirky things we have going on! I send everything “Certified Mail.” That way you get the little green card back showing when they got it and who signed for it. </p>
<p>S did test “Stand by” in December & I paid too much for the SAT, Collegeboard did send us a refund check for $23.00 in the mail! I had no idea I had overpaid! 
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<p>I’m with you Thumper, I find it utterly crazy that we “pay” and then they don’t have a method for correcting and uploading to the colleges whom I assume also “pay” college board. It seems downright absurd to print out something that was done on-line, write in corrections, put in an envelope and stamp. If they don’t watch out some other company will come along with a much more user-friendly system and they will lose their market share.</p>
<p>Just an update. None of D’s school’s wanted an updated profile. They just wanted to see the taxes from IDOC (and in one case sent directly to the school). So I guess they are used to this.</p>
<p>Yes, with the early finan. aid deadlines so many of those schools have, of course people have to estimate and then update. Do they LIKE having all those written-on paper copies tagging around their offices? Just doesn’t make sense. What about really early deadlines like WUSTL or Cornell, Colgate? (I think those are all Profile schools). Keeps the employment up in their towns, hiring people to deal with all of that?</p>
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<p>OMG, I just used a grocer’s apostrophe. I am mortified. That’s what I get for typing in a hurry.</p>
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That’s what I assumed. But everyone on CC has been so insistent on sending hand-corrected Profiles, that I eventually did just that…even after being told by one school NOT to add to their paperwork, by resending forms not tagged as missing as of yet.</p>
<p>archiemom…the OP’s kid’s schools use IDOC. The IDOC collects the tax information from the 2009 tax year. The schools can make the corrections to the financial aid information tha was put on the Profile using the info IDOC requests.</p>
<p>MOST schools do NOT use IDOC. For those schools, you need to call them to find out what THOSE schools want you to do for correcting the Profile. Our kids had to provide hand written corrections to six schools (3 for DS and 3 for DD). For DD, one school used IDOC and we did not need to provide those corrections. We got our information directly from the financial aid offices at each school. So…for anyone needed to amend the Profile…call the schools. They will tell you what to do…if anything.</p>
<p>Back to my original post on this thread…it would be most helpful if the schools would all put their Profile correction instructions on their financial aid pages. All three of our schools using the Profile also used IDOC or required tax documents sent directly to the school, so they were getting the final numbers anyways. I was never clear whether the Profile needed to match those numbers or whether the schools themselves were correcting the file based on all accumulated documents. I’m guessing that I did not need to send the hand-corrected Profile copies to any of those schools.</p>
<p>archiemom, you are absolutely correct. It WOULD be nice if the finaid websites were very clear about the updating of Profile information. To be honest, I find some of them very UN user friendly…period.</p>
<p>Usually, however, you can get answers to your specific questions with an email or phone call…or at least that has been MY experience (and maybe I’ve been lucky). </p>
<p>Because the policies vary so much…better to ask each school (if the website is unclear) than to assume that what you’ve done for one school is what applies to another. YMMV.</p>
<p>and Thumper1, you are absolutely correct. I have been in touch by email and phone with finaid staffers for S2’s top choice schools on other issues and they have been very helpful. I’m just reacting to the sense I got from one staffer who practically begged me not to send extraneous paperwork as they were inundated with forms (this is a school that did not use IDOC, but had the same tax form back-up mailed directly to the school) to place in the proper files. I’m more likely to not send something unless it’s explicitly listed in the financial aid directions.</p>
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<p>some of them do. The one that does not, also wanted tax docs sent directly and told me not to bother correcting the Profile.</p>
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<p>I got the same feeling when I called.</p>