Thank the Lord. My parents and I had the most stressful night yesterday as we just finished our taxes and completed the FAFSA and CSS Profile. Then we saw we had to mail in the documents for IDOC rather than faxing them, and we panicked! Thank you guys for being more lenient than I thought you would be about this stuff.

hello. i just finished the CSS, FAFSA, and got the taxes together. But now it says I need home value/debt documentation... what is this? What kind of papers do i need to submit now?

Thanks In Advance.

I know this probably sounds naive, but what is a federal tax return form?

I just got my taxes together, and filled out my 1040, but haven't filed my taxes yet. Do I send a copy of the 1040 to the CollegeBoard, or is the federal tax return something the IRS sends back after I file my taxes? Is it okay my parents and I haven't sent in our taxes yet?

Hey everybody, first post ever. I didn't know where to post this so I decided I would post this here...

If you do not plan on applying for financial aid, what do you do? Thanks in advance!

~Michael

Bridger...Serious?

Michael,

YOU WRITE A CHECK

As I controlled my MyMit tracking page I saw that my parent’s income tax weren’t received. I live in Iran and there isn’t such a tax system in this country, I also stated this in my ISFAA form; what can I do in such a situation? If there is something else I could present instead, please inform me. I can send you my father’s bank statement which I included on my ISFAA; in case of need.

@Anonymous

Completely serious! :P I have never had to pay taxes before, and my parents won't give me a straight answer on the subject...

@Mr.Barkowitz
Thank you for the information..!

@In-General
I don't know if anyone noticed but ever since the hack started creating controversies, the blogposts suddenly increased..!
[I hope this ain't offensive]

Bridger...You 1040 is your federal tax return

The IDOC requires information that I can't complete regarding the noncustodial parent. Would I be viewed unfavorably by the MIT financial aid staff if I left out those documents?

Hello Mr.Barkowitz,

I faxed my ISFAA along with Business Supplement application, but I didn't fax the tax returns yet.

So I will send the tax returns for my parents + tax returns for small business via courier.

My question is: Do I have to send in the ISFAA and Business Supplement application again in the same envelope?, or it's optional?

Thanks very much for your help =)

I have another question. After submitting the FAFSA, it said what my Expected Family Contribution is. Is this the same EFC that MIT uses, or is it unrelated?

Hello all! And a happy Friday night to ya! So, I finally caught up to answers from my February 2nd post. Read those there...

Here are the answers to questions received so far on this post:

Lovig, I thought about calling this one "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Deadline" (A Dr. Strangelove reference), but decided against it. Glad to know I was able to relieve your stress...

anonymous, the Home Value/Debt documentation is required when your parents do not answer any questions about their housing situation (in other words, they do not answer if they pay rent or a mortgage and do not provide any home value or debt). It means we need an explanation of their living arrangements. Is housing provided by their employer? Are you living with relatives? Are you in militaty quarters?

Bridger, I understand. Not everyone has had this kind of exposure before... :) So the Federal Tax Return is the 1040 and all associated schedules and forms. You should look at www.irs.gov for some examples of how it looks... When you ask the IRS for a copy, they usually provide what is called a "tax transcript" to you. We want a copy of what you filed (or rather what your parents filed), not what you got back from the IRS.

Michael, if we sent you a missing information letter, you should contact us so we note you do note intend to apply for aid. Otherwise we will continue to send you application notices throughout the process.

sepideh, we need letters from your parent's/s' employer(s) in your original currency, but translated into English. You can see my more detailed answer to your question on the earlier post.

Dhvanit, controversies? I don't know anything about that! But I do know that this is usually the time things heat up for us in financial aid land...

Lin², you should contact our office on Tuesday and request a non-custodial waiver request form. This appeal form documents your circumstances and requests that we waive the information from your non-custodial parent. Once we review it, we will let you know our decision. In the meantime, send your custodial information in to IDOC.

Ahmed, no need to send them again. Once is fine!

OK, back to work! Enjoy the weekend!

Bridger, unrelated. The FASFA EFC uses the Federal rules and our process uses a different set of rules and expectations.

Hi there once again,

I re-faxed the documents on 9th feb to the number you provided but yet no update on my tracking, mailed the Financial aid departmentbut as of now haven't got a reply.

Was going to mail again had i not seen your post (Thnaks for that, its rreally great hearing from MIT people)

Thanks well in advance

Thank you this page has been very helpful. I too, was a little worried about the deadline. I have completed FAFSA and the CSS profile, but how would you like the parents' tax returns and W2s? Through the mail?

Thanks for the help!

@ Barkowitz

Hi, and thanx for that update..

Just one question..

I have sent the International Student's FA App. and along with it I have also sent the Tax forms, Bank Statement, and the Employer's letter..
But from the MyMIT it read that u have recieved only the International Student's FA App. and the Tax forms...
Could u kindly enquire about the same. Thank You

can we send by fax at night in MA?

It seems so difficult for me to fax all documents for FA application because it's night time here while in Massachusetts is daytime..

Thank You

Thanks Daniel, for the reply in the previous post....

just checked in and tracking says, "documents received"....thanks once again!

though i have already mailed those documents to your office also, to be on the safe side...

Dear MR.Barkowitz
I've been trying to fax my ISFAA for 1 week yet every single time i tried, post officers said the receiving fax machine(in MIT) gave signals at first then suddenly rejected the faxing process.
Does the time at which MIT financial aid office opens or closes have anything to do with that?
If that problem continues, can i send an email with attachments then forward the real material later?
u know, if i only send evry stuff by now, it will arrive too late to be considered.

i have faxed my FAFASA application on february 12th but still my financial aid application tracking shows its not recieved, does this mean it wasn't correctly filled,or what?

Hello. Thanks for the post. It helped relieve a lot of my and my parents stress. I just had a couple of questions. This first question may sound naive, but I can't find the finaid portlet on MyMit dashboard? Is there somewhere else I have to look for it? Secondly, if my parents will not be able to file their 2008 tax return by Feb. 15, should we submit our 2007 return and send in the 2008 return when we have it completed, or just wait for when we have the 2008 return complete and just fax that in? Lastly, where should we send our tax returns? I had contacted your office about this and they said to fax it strait to your office, but later I got and email form the College Board saying I need to send my tax returns through the IDOC form. I would rather send the tax return directly to you guys because it seems quicker, but I can send it to College Board if need be.
I realize that you are very busy right now so I am very sorry for the large post. Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions during this confusing time.

I scanned my financial aid form, income tax returns and bank statement and sent it via email to finaid@mit.edu. Will I have to send it again by fax or the scanned documents suffice?

thank you mr.barkowitz for your answer but...
they don't have any employers my father is a dentist, works in his own office and his income isn't something straight and guaranteed how much it will be every month, it has it's ups and downs. my father works together with my father as a technician.

Hello Daniel,
I have to send my Parent's 2008 Foreign Income Tax Return but here in Mexico it is done around april, so we do not have a 2008 Income Tax Return yet. Should I send a 2007 Income Tax Return, or wait until april to send it?

Thanks a lot!

Thank Goodness!
Just to double check; Is it okay If I cannot maile my IDOC packet until February 17? My parents just filed their taxes on the twelfth, so their returns won't be available until tuesday.

I sent in my parents' 2007 tax forms in their entirety, yet I received an email stating that they were incomplete! WHY?

Thanks!

Hi, in my mit page it says the farm/business supplement is missing. Although my father is self employed he has not a farm nor a business, he is kind of a free lancer. I know it's too close to the deadline but what should I do?
Thanks

@Daniel...I sent all my financial aid forms a month ago.but my MIT account has no update about whether my financial aid application and other documents have been received or not.Please help.

Hi Daniel,

I had posted my financial aid forms back on the 30th of January. They are supposed to take a time span of 15 days. So, is there a need for me to fax these documents or should a wait another week?
Thanks!

Dear Mr. Barkowitz,

We were really relieved to read your post after finally getting the FAFSA and CSS/PROFILE completed this weekend. Our tax returns are in the process of being completed and we knew that they would not make the 2/15/09 deadline. WE DID PANIC ... we thought that there is NO WAY we will make the DEADLINE!! It is very nice of you to put us at ease - and we will all will work to get everything to you ASAP. We also would like to know if we should send it to you via the IDOC form as the College Board asks us or directly to you? Please advise. Thanks again!

This is a bit random, but does MIT process FAFSA faster than other schools because it is the only school out of 6 that says it has received my FAFSA?

Mr. Barkowitz,

I had sent all the required forms to you by fax a week ago. But they still dont show up in my mit dashboard. have you recieved them? What should I do in caase you havent?

Mr. Barkowitz
I want to know that the application of Financial Aid for international student can be finished on line? Thank you!

Mr. Barkowitz
I want to know that the application of Financial Aid for international students can be finished on line? Thank you!

@Mr.Barkowitz
Well things went a little cyclonic around MIT admission pages a few days ago.. Anyway, wish you the best with the Financial Aid proceedings..Hope it goes as smooth as you'd planned it.. :)

Sir,
I was wondering if I could fax or email my financial aid documents, especially considering that I live overseas and am having troubles mailing them to the university. I only need to send the International Student Financial Aid Application and a letter from my sponsor.
Thank you.

Dear Mr. Barkowitz

Thank you for the post. I just had some questions about the whole financial application process. I am not very familiar with this process, so I need some help.
First of all, where do I fax or mail the 2009-10 International Student Financial Aid Application form to? To MIT financial aid office or College board? the second question is, is there a way to fill the form out online? I wasn't able to find anything on the collegeboard website when I searched it, but maybe I just missed it. Thirdly, for my supplemental forms, such as my parent's asset statements from Korea, do I fax or mail them along with my ISFAA form?
and Lastly, for the father's signiture on the last page of the application form, I am unable to get my father's signiture on the paper, as he lives in Korea. How should I approach this problem?
Please let me know.

Thank you.

Dear Mr. Barkowitz

Thank you for the post. I just had some questions about the whole financial application process. I am not very familiar with this process, so I need some help.
First of all, where do I fax or mail the 2009-10 International Student Financial Aid Application form to? To MIT financial aid office or College board? the second question is, is there a way to fill the form out online? I wasn't able to find anything on the collegeboard website when I searched it, but maybe I just missed it. Thirdly, for my supplemental forms, such as my parent's asset statements from Korea, do I fax or mail them along with my ISFAA form?
and Lastly, for the father's signiture on the last page of the application form, I am unable to get my father's signiture on the paper, as he lives in Korea. How should I approach this problem?
Please let me know.

Thank you.

dear Mr. Barkowitz

I submited my Financial Aid Application on the 14th, and I'm an international student. So how can I know whether you received it or not.

And also there's one thing stressing me out all these days. I had to scan the application because of the signatures. But I only scanned the last page. So it's not that clear compared to the 1st three pages. Would it be a problem? I'm scared to death that it would be.

Thank you.

Dear Mr. Barkowitz,

I submitted my Financial Aid application February 14th, but I'm confused on what information I must submit for the IDOC portion, is it the W-2s and 1040? Another question, for the noncustodial profile (a bit late) but is it a separate application altogether? Would I have to pay to submit that one as well?

I did not put my social security number on the CSS profile. Will this be a problem?

Dear Mr.Barkowitz,

I'm having a bit of an issue with my non-custodial parent and I havent submitted the Non-custodial profile or IDOC because I am still waiting for their information. As of today, I'm getting the vibe that he isnt going to give me anything since after a month of phone calls, he isnt giving me copies of forms or giving me information to fill in for the online form because he claims that he doesnt have a W-2 form. Is there something to give in in place of the non-custodial form?

Dear Mr.Barkowitz,
I sent my international FA App. and employer statements on 11th Feb.
But MyMit account still shows that they haven't been received yet.
Do I need to wait further, or should I fax them??
Please help...
(Thanks in advance!!)

where do I get a Pell Dibursement Record from COD and do I send it to MIT FinAid or where.I need a waiver for not being able to get a noncustodial CSS Profile. Noncustodial won't send info.What info do I need to send for verification of FAFSA or Profile info. Who do I send the custodial and student 1040 and w-2 and Schedules????

Gasp! my.mit.edu is reporting none of my financial aid information is in. Impossible! Just yesterday it reported everything was in and accounted for. I hope this is just a glitch :O

Hi,

I submitted my financial aid documents in early January (I am an international applicant), but the admission office told me that the translation of my parent's income tax form is not acceptable. So I translated it again (the first time I only translated the parts I deemed necessary for the determination of aid) and it was rejected again. Now I translated it a third time (absolutely evey single line, even ones that have no importance whatsoever) and the financial aid office still tells me that it is not acceptable. I have no clue what else I could try (there is obviously nothing more I could translate) to get it in order and complete the finaid application. The email correspondence with the finaid office was not really productive either as I mostly got oneliners as a response and nothing specific. Is there some way I can resolve the problems?

Best regards,
Benjamin Kiessling

Hello. Is it possible to tell us when the Financial Aid award notices will be mailed??