<p>I just called the Harvard Financial Aid Office to ask them if my financial aid file was complete. The woman who answered the phone said that it was (I never received an email about it, so I was getting a little concerned), and she had the receipt dates of every part of the FA application in front of her.</p>
<p>I then asked her if the people who answer phones are warned about applicants who try to get their admissions decisions early, and she replied that it wasn't a problem, because nobody in the FA office had any idea if anyone was accepted or rejected. She said that "they keep going until the very end" with the FA offers, because the two processes are completely unrelated.</p>
<p>Now, granted that this seems inefficient (because it would make sense to do FA for only accepted students), but what she said is what she said. So perhaps I'm being a bit naive, but I think that the only 100% credible information is what comes straight from the horse's mouth, and I think this call seems to confirm the fact that there is no relation between FA and Admissions, even if personal experiences of some CCers may seem to dictate otherwise.</p>
<p>In other words - if you got a call, you were missing information. End of story. </p>
<p>If you didn't get a call, then all of your stuff was in, or perhaps they had what they needed to get a good idea of your financial need, or also, perhaps part of your application was late, so they couldn't get to e-mailing you.</p>
<p>and Plumb's "Primary Responsibility" is "Coordinator of the Freshman Process."</p>
<p>There aren't any other phone numbers there, and we already have Plumb's, so I called his office, and he wasn't there (I'd bet he's on vacation). </p>
<p>However, I have a strong suspicion that what he'd say would only reinforce their contention that FA and Admissions are entirely unrelated.</p>
<p>actually
i personally called the office twice and emailed Mr. Plumb myself and i got complete different stories... this late in the game, they only finish the FA applications for admitted students and when i asked Mr. Plumb that question in an email (which i stated very very clearly to him), he totally ignored it and did not answer it - meaning, he doesn't want to give anything away and there must be correlation between the emails and admissions.</p>
<p>i called princeton regarding this issue as well, the lady in the financial aid office actually admitted to me that they ONLY do the aid for likely admits and people who have already been admitted... </p>
<p>Maybe there is no correlation between the emails and admissions, but all you guys have to know is, the email is something good, not bad.. whenever a school wants more info from you, it means 1) you're not rejected yet 2) they are interested in you and think you deserve a closer look with more info given. 3) they give a darn about you.</p>
<p>but to those of you who didn't get the emails, who cares? maybe your FA file is complete... not everyone's is incomplete you know and they only send the emails to the ones who had incomplete files.....</p>
<p>Hmm...perhaps what I got on the phone was a packaged reply. However, I still think that there is too much speculation involved and too much at stake to get people unnecessarily nervous about the situation.</p>
<p>The fact that Mr. Plumb didn't reply may just mean that he was too busy to reply. Or, perhaps you're right in saying that he didn't want to say anything. But it's still just guesswork and assumptions.</p>
<p>I'm not entirely clear on the timeline of events at Byerly, but if someone gets an FA call now, it's probably a bit safer to say that he or she is probably accepted (based on your reasoning). But calls that came up to mid-March, I think, were too early to mean anything.</p>
<p>toasterking,
as a matter of fact, i think we spoke to the same woman. did you call this number </p>
<p>Harvard College Financial Aid Office</p>
<p>312 Byerly Hall
8 Garden St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
-----Telephone: 617-495-1581------
FAX: 617-496-0256</p>
<p>i think the same woman picks up all the time.</p>
<hr>
<p>As to Mr. Plumb's reply.. i asked two questions, he answered the first one which was related to my file and COMPELTELY ignored the second one regarding correlation between aid and admissions.</p>
<p>i just realized something... a LOT of people have actually called already... and theres a lot of different replies to the questions.... it seems only Princeton's phone calls have any kind of relation to each other (only admits get FA completed)... but.. GL to everyone! 2 more days.</p>
<p>Actually, when you think about it numerically, they COULD do FAs for every applicant. Of the 20,000, only about half are asking for FA. Only about half of those students actually deserve FA. So really, they only need to evaluate a few thousand students, not all the 20,000 applicants.</p>
<p>yeah... definitely.... but then.... you gotta realize that uh... theres tons of people who KNOW they are missing stuff.., and are not getting reminder emails. thats whats worrying people.</p>
<p>Princeton, yes, that's the number I called -- odd how they would tell us two different things. (...Is it possible that the woman could see our admissions decisions in front of her...?)</p>
<p>It's interesting that Mr. Plumb answered only one of your questions (probably because this is the only one he wanted to answer), and this does indeed suggest that there may be some correlation that they don't want to publicize.</p>
<p>Again, it is logical for the FA office to look at only likely students' FA applications, but it is not at all outside of the realm of possibility that they consider every single applicant. After all, I'd assume that the decision regarding how much Financial Aid would probably require simple number crunching, whereas the admissions committee has to look at 20000 applications, read all of them, reread, scrutinize, vote, and then spend countless hours narrowing down. In fact, I was told by my local Harvard Admissions subcommittee head that, on occasion, they've spent more than an hour discussing a single applicant.</p>
<p>Thus, although it's possible (and Princetonwannabe's evidence seems to suggest that this is the case) that Harvard calls only likely applicants missing information, it's still possible that they consider each and every application.</p>
<p>And to those who know they're missing information and haven't received calls, it's possible that the office has a good enough idea of your financial need to determine how much of an award you'll receive. It's also possible that, if you submitted late, they haven't gotten around to looking your application over yet (since FA letters don't necessarily go out at the same time as decisions).</p>
<p>toasterking - Harvard wants to include a copy of your financial aid with your acceptance letter. go to the financial aid page on Harvard's website and read it all in! And read the second part... it says that if your accepted and didnt get a financial aid award in your packet, you WERE SUPPOSED to have gotten an email telling you what you were missing... anyways.. ill copy it for you:</p>
<p>Congratulations on your admission, and welcome to Harvard College. We are eager to help you and your family understand our financial aid programs and to assist you in finding ways to meet your college costs.</p>
<p>From Monday, April 4th through Friday, April 29th, the Financial Aid Office will have extended office hours from 8:00 am until 8:00 pm Eastern Time each weekday and will be available to answer your concerns. If you have difficulty reaching us during the normal 9:00 - 5:00 daytime hours, please try again during the 8:00 - 9:00 am or the 5:00 - 8:00 pm period when there should be fewer callers.
If you have received a financial aid decision with your April admissions notification:</p>
<pre><code>* Read through the booklets which accompanied your financial aid award letter.
* Feel free to call us at 617-495-1581 with any questions or concerns.
* Discuss with your parents your aid offers from Harvard and other colleges to which you have been admitted. You may find the "Compare Your Aid Award" tool at the College Board website helpful.
* Visit the Harvard campus if you can, particularly for our Admitted Student Visiting Program, April 29-May 1. This is the best way to meet your future classmates, and to participate in a weekend program that is designed to expose you to a range of academic and extracurricular samplings of the Harvard experience. If you cannot visit in person, take a virtual tour of the campus.
</code></pre>
<p>If you applied for financial aid and did not receive an award letter in your packet:</p>
<p>Your aid application is probably incomplete at this time. <strong><em>You SHOULD have received a letter explaining the additional information that we need to obtain before evaluating your application.</em></strong> If your application became complete very recently, it is possible that we were not able to evaluate the materials in time to send you an award letter, but we will do so as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Haha, this is a bit unrelated but referring to what Princetonwannabe said
[quote]
whenever a school wants more info from you, it means 1) you're not rejected yet 2) they are interested in you and think you deserve a closer look with more info given. 3) they give a darn about you
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What if the info they want are 2 teacher recommendations and all of your SAT scores? Because that's what happened to me earlier this month even though everything had been sent back in December.</p>
<p>well those information (2 recs and SAT scores) are indispensible... you NEED them to be considered for admissions. if you don't have them, then your file is not even complete for review... Maybe they just didn't receive them, misfiled them, or the mails got misdelivered.. but either way, those are not considered additional material... what i meant was, if a school contacts you for ADDITIONAl material on top of the basic things it asks for, then you're in good shape. good luck!</p>
<p>I am an international student who indicated on the application that I wanted to be considered for financial aid, but realised that we have to fill out a separate application only last week after the deadline.
Do you think I should go ahead and submit or is it too late. My family's combined income is less than $40,000.
Please help
Shubham</p>
<p>Listen why would the FA Aid office reveal to any student over the phone that getting emails this LATE in the admissions process means you have more than likely been admitted. I mean first of all the Harvard FA Office would be beyond inept if they actually revealed it and second of all they are always going to dodge the question or give you a misleading answer so they NEVER have to tell you the truth. I mean think about this logically folks why would the FA email you and tell you send your forms ASAP to Harvard FA if they are going to reject you. It makes no sense. Why bother wasting your time and the FA Office's time.</p>
<p>omg...who cares. you're going to find out soon. does it help to ponder about issues like this? i guess that's how you kill time waiting for the decision. I'm taking a road trip to the beach on thursday with a couple of friends, and I won't come back until sunset because honestly, i don't want to be home in anxiously waiting. After all, it is my spring break.</p>
<p>princeton..you're still sepculating..because you're assuming that mr.plumb not reply or answerin the question means he purposly ignored it because its true..that's not necessarily true whereas toaster got a flat answer that cant be misinterpreted..</p>