<p>So we made kind of a dumb mistake. The FAFSA and CSS forms were all filled in and submitted well before the required deadlines, but we did not understand that we needed to also file our 2013 taxes well before the federal deadline (to complicate matters further we live overseas and our tax deadline is automatically June 15, not April 15) before schools would give an indication of any financial aid.</p>
<p>Now, taxes are done, but we are struggling with one last error code (forms have been submitted 6 times to the IRS -and we have spent about 4 hours on the phone so far trying to fix it - it has to do with a start and end date for our living overseas. No one seems to have an answer) further delaying the data retrieval portion of the financial aid labyrinth. The latest phone call from the school said it would be 2 21/2 weeks from when they receive the data retrieval to when they can make a financial aid decision. </p>
<p>My question is, is this delay decreasing the chance my son will receive any kind of financial assistance/aid? The May 1 deadline for committing to a place will be here soon and I am afraid we still won't know if there is any aid.</p>