So I recently got accepted into UPenn and just called them earlier today to ask about their availability of a CSS Profile fee waiver. They will probably not get back to me until Monday or Tuesday. I was wondering, if I submit the CSS Profile early next week, will I still get the financial aid I need or will they tell me it’s too late and/or I don’t qualify anymore. Has anyone had experience with sending in a CSS Profile after getting admitted?
According to UPenn’s website, the deadline to submit the required info/forms to be considered for FA was 2/2/18 for RD students; 4/15/18 for transfer students: http://www.srfs.upenn.edu/finaid-checklists/checklists-pro-us.htm
You haven’t submitted any FA info to UPenn?
@dygibbs I submitted my FAFSA but didn’t have any fee waivers for the CSS Profile left so I wanted to wait for admissions results before doing that. Also, I know what the website says but I also know a few other schools that have contacted me far after deadlines asking for me to submit documents and after doing so, received financial aid package details.
https://cssprofile.collegeboard.org/pdf/css-profile-fee-waivers.pdf----from this, students are notified if eligible for the waiver after they complete the CSS profile application, and the reported income on the profile is $45K or less.
@dygibbs Right but they only give 8 which I already used. Thats why I wanted to contact UPenn for college specific CSS waiver. Other schools were able to offer it.
I see. I can’t find any info to confirm whether or not UPenn offers it. Hopefully someone else can provide this information. Anyway, congrats for being accepted. I used to work there years ago, and it is a great school!
@dygibbs Thanks! I’m pretty excited. Its either between UPenn and Columbia at this point. Just dont know which is going to be less stressful and set me up for a good entry job in engineering.
Are you trying to say for the past 5 months, (4 months in order to meet the deadline), that you never had $16 to ensure that your paperwork was submitted on time so that you could get aid? You could have saved 25 cents a day and would have had the money for a fee wavier in time to make the deadline.
If Penn did not send you a request for additional information, it is possible that they are not entertaining late applications.
Well, has anyone had personal experience with UPenn or any other school in this regard?
You should have posed these questions to the Penn financial aid office prior to the forms submission deadline. Then you would have had a better understanding of whether or not it was a good idea to risk tens of thousands of dollars in need-based aid for a $16 fee.
My guess is that you’re not going to find anyone on this forum who has had the same issue with the same school, so you’ll probably need to wait until Monday or Tuesday until you can get the information you need directly from the Penn financial aid office.
It’s a good thing you have Columbia as an option.
Advice for others: do not willfully ignore a deadline for financial aid forms without having a complete understanding of how this may impact your eligibility for financial aid if you end up being admitted.
@BelknapPoint Well, I applied to Penn through Questbridge so I had the assumption that my financial aid forms that I supplied to Questbridge would transfer over to Penn’s. Maybe if I explain that to them on Monday it will be fine. Regardless, there were many other schools that requested additional tax forms (amended forms and 2017 details) days before admissions decisions and when I gave them in I was given a full financial aid package so hopefully the same pans out? I called on Thursday and was told to email them so I did. Waiting on weekends feels like forever ~X(
Once you submit the CSS Profile (and anything else that’s required – and there probably is) you will get a FA offer from Penn but whether it will meet your full need – i.e., whether it will be the same as it would have been if you had submitted your Profile on time – you’ll just need to wait and see. Penn guarantees to meet full need but logically this can only apply to those who meet the deadlines, otherwise the deadlines would be meaningless.
When you didn’t submit the Profile, to Penn’s FA office computers that was the same as you saying you didn’t need any aid. They have a FA budget and they computed and extended their offers based on the assumption you wouldn’t need any. Now they have to find the money for your package from somewhere in their budget. This may entail waiting to see how their acceptances and declinations are shaking out, whether their actual yield is looking higher or lower than projected, and the packages of those who are accepting vs. those who are declining.
If you have a FA package from Columbia (where presumably you did file your documents on time) then hang on to that and if your ultimate offer from Penn is not as good, then you can try appealing on the basis of your better offer from Columbia.
No. Based on your earlier posts, you knew that it would cost an additional $16 to get the Profile form to Penn, but you decided not to spend the money (or ask Penn for a waiver) before first knowing if you were admitted to Penn. This course of action caused you to miss a clearly stated deadline. Penn is a very well-funded school with generous need-based financial aid, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they cut a break for you and provide institutional aid based on a Profile form that is very late. But this is certainly not a strategy that should be recommended to anyone else, especially at a school on a tighter financial aid budget, and all for the goal of saving $16.
@illiniowl Good point. I do have a financial aid package from Columbia so worst case scenario, I end up at Columbia instead of UPenn. I’m not sure how appealing on the basis of a better offer from Columbia works but I can certainly try that if I don’t get a good enough offer from UPenn. @BelknapPoint I don’t know what you want me to say. I never said what I did was a good strategy. The point of this post is for others in a similar situation to explain how it panned out for them, not for people to try and make me feel guilty for passing a deadline. I can’t fix that part unfortunately.
You’ve already said it all. I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. As I noted above (“Advice for others”), this can be a learning point for others. Again, you probably will not get valid data from anyone on this forum; waiting until Monday or Tuesday to hear from Penn is your best bet, and that will be the only information that matters. Patience.
If Penn does provide institutional need-based aid, even though you are two months late in submitting the proper forms, I think that then appealing for even more money to match Columbia might be a bridge too far. In other words, you would probably have a much better chance of appealing an aid offer if you followed all the rules to begin with.
@BelknapPoint Well the fact that you continue referring to the fact that my forms are in late despite that being obvious shows that you’re trying to guilt me. You can say you’re not all you want but by continuing to rub it in my face that my forms are late, you are proving otherwise. I will just wait until Monday and give them a call.