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<p>Why do the colleges require all the financial aid forms, including W2's and tax returns before they make admission decisions ? My child hasn't recieved a letter of acceptance, yet I'm sending many colleges all this personal information. This seems like lots of unnecessary paperwork...and make me question need blind admissions. Any idea why they do this ? Why not just weed out the rejections first and then require the financial information only for those admitted?</p>
<p>My understanding is because they send the scholarship/financial aid info along with the acceptance letter (if the student is accepted). If the student ends up getting rejected, then yes, it is a waste of time for the parents and the admissions staff, but the colleges still insist on it.</p>
<p>do you know how soon should the tax returns be sent to the colleges?</p>
<p>UPenn sent a letter requesting we fax tax infromation and the other schools use the College Board CSS IDOC...so we also recieved a request for the information, by March 1</p>
<p>While it may seem more intelligent to operate this way, it would actually result in more work for the financial aid office to wait until the students are admitted because they would have thousands of admitted students to process in a very short period of time. By requesting verification early on, it allows the Financial Aid Office more time to receive all necessary documentation without being inundated with paperwork all at once for the entire student population.</p>
<p>Decisions come out around March 29th. You have to decide what school you wish to attend by May 1st. That's about one month to decide. If you do not file tax forms until after you are admitted, it will take the college's financial aid office a while to get back to you with their financial offer. This could possibly not get to you until days before the matriculation deadline, which would be quite the predicament. If you submit that information sooner, you can be given financial offers around the same time you are accepted, leaving you and your family plenty of time to weigh the options.</p>
<p>Also remember, when they finish with incoming freshmen, they must prepare financial aid packages for continuing students (so it is not like they do not have anything to do other than process forms for incoming freshmen).</p>
<p>Almost every school operates on a financial aid budget. Since most schools do nothave deep pockets, financial aid is given on a first come first served basis. If your child's application is the last to be processed and the school does not have enough $ to give him an adequate package, at need aware or need sensitive schools, s/he could be denied or could be given a package that has much less "free money" because the resources have been exhauseted.</p>
<p>In a book I read on college admissions, it stated that even so-called need blind schools sometimes go through the "admit" pile and weed out marginal admits that will require a lot of financial aid.</p>
<p>Based on my experience as an attorney, I would say it's very common for people and institutions to "cheat" if they think they can get away with it. If colleges are indeed "weeding" the admit pile, it would be very difficult to detect. So I would say there's a good chance that even need-blind schools peek through the blindfold now and then.</p>
<p>Even if they don't review your family's tax returns, admissions officers can probably make a pretty good guess about your financial aid situation based on where you live and your parents' jobs.</p>