Daniel Barkowitz | February 22, 2007
"The Son of Updates"
Some updates for you patient folk, and some more answers to your questions...
1. Today, we received and processed our first IDOC file, so for those of you who have been submitting information through the IDOC service, you should begin to see documents showing up on your MyMIT account. Timing works like this: if IDOC receives your information on Monday, they scan it that day, but it can take 3 or 4 days before we receive file indicating that your information has been received. Once we load that on our system, we refresh overnight to the MyMIT portal, so it could be Friday or Saturday before your information is reflected on MyMIT. Keep in mind that we do backdate the receipt date to the date IDOC got your information, so you are protected that way, but if you are curious to know if the IDOC service got your packet, you can always log on to the service and check the status at http://idoc.collegeboard.com/.
2. We are almost completely through the backlog of mail. Thanks to the excellent work of our staff at MIT (thanks to all) we are almost caught up with our mail backlog. We still have a bin of mail from yesterday to process, sort and code, but otherwise most of the information we received last week is now coded and should appear on the MyMIT portal by tomorrow morning. Keep in mind that we still have a large backlog of email to get through (our priority has been to get the documents on before responding to email since we know many of you are emailing about whether or not we have your documents, and it is a "needle in a haystack" search if we do not have the information coded before we try to answer your question. Special thanks to all of you for your patience. I know we have not been speedy in our response time to email, but we were blanketed with an unexpected volume of paper (last year, most people just did their forms via IDOC) so your patience is appreciated!
3. We have begun assigning completed cases for financial aid applicants out to our first readers. Based on the early admits who have completed their applications, we have begun reviewing your files internally to meet the upcoming mid-March projected mail date. As we get the results from Admissions round-up, we will begin assigning regular round cases to review to financial aid readers. We are now in our heavy processing season (I love it!!!), when we get to spend some time with your applications and do our own analysis, in many ways as detailed as the Admissions read, but very different. I will try in the coming weeks to describe a little bit about how we do our job to give you an insider’s view. We do have 7 readers and 3 second readers who review every Freshman financial aid application, and to date we have assigned over 80 cases to this group (of the nearly 400 early admits). But, early admits, where are the rest of you? We do anticipate that nearly 70% of our applicant pool will apply for aid, and early admits, you have no reason not to get the rest of your information in so we can get you a financial aid award!!! If that estimate holds true, we should be expecting another 200 of you to apply! Where are your applications?
4. Once we get through the mail and email, we will be sending out another round of so-called "Missing Information" letters to our early admits providing a customized letter (either paper or email) with the status of the application. We sent one of these to our regular round applicants who had indicated an interest in applying for financial aid; no other letter will be coming to you until we mail our admissions decisions.
5. Some pre-publication news. I have seen the final draft of this year's Making MIT Affordable, our annual publication and guide to the financial "stuff" which accompanies the Admit packet. This will be an exciting publication and we are doing some things to improve its usability and your notice of it. Please make sure to share this booklet (and indeed, this blog) with your folks! There will be a lot of (personalized) information inside of it!
Now to Q and A:
First, thanks again to all of you for your understanding and words of support. I know I am a lucky man... I work with some of the best financial aid staff in the country, and I (we) are blessed with a terrific pool of applicants as well... Thanks again for your patience and praise (and for your criticism as well)... We love to get the feedback (even if it isn't wonderful)...
Eirik asked (on the brief update post): "I come from Norway, a country where the average income is much higher than in the US. (and, of course, things are much more expensive over here as well). Do you keep that in mind when you calculate the EFC for international students?" We do take context of the country into account when we analyze International students. I'll be doing a post soon with much more information on a new International Needs Analysis which I have been working on with members of a task force with other schools which are part of the 568 group. Look for that in the near future.
Tigran (from Armenia) said we are asking for a 2005 Foreign Income tax form, but "my parants don't have any "Foreign income"." I guess this depends how you define the word, “foreign". What we mean here is income in a country other than the U.S., not foreign to you in Armenia!! (smiles) So, if Armenia has a national tax system with personalized tax returns required, send us a copy of your parents' return. If not, a letter from their employer will suffice. In both cases, translate to English!
****SHAMELESS CALL FOR HELP**** -- One thing you all can do for us: We are not experts on the individualized tax systems of each country in the world, and it is hard for us to figure out which countries require returns and which do not, unless one of you sends us a return from, say, India, at which point we know that India has a personalized return. Does some international applicant want to take on the task of surveying your peers and making a database for us of all countries represented with the tax system identified??? No reward promised, other than a hearty "Thank you", and maybe a job in our office as a work-study student if you wind up attending MIT.
Peter, you said that "So many of the CSS and IDOC columns don't apply to international students that half of my forms (okay, perhaps this is a minor exaggeration) are virtually empty, what should I do?" I am not sure what you mean... explain... columns? Do you mean on MyMIT? Or in some form you have? If you are an International student, you should not be completing the Profile, you should be completing an International Application anyway...
Kenechi asked "My mom is self employed and she doesn’t really file a W-2. Is the W-2 still necessary?" The answer is no... If we miss it, let us know. We do need to mark the form as waived on our system to advance you to be read.
Akilez was worried about papers sent with the Admissions application which didn't seem to make it to our office. We do get packets of information from our colleagues in admissions on a regular basis, so if it was sent a while ago, we should have it by now. If we didn't get it (check the MyMIT portal) send a duplicate to us...
Vishal says "my tracking says I am missing Business/farm supplement. is it necessary? I mean, i have listed that it's annual profit is no more than 500 dollars. And yes, what is the IDOC. i cannot understand it at all. Is not the financial aid application complete now?" For businesses, we do ask any business owner (whether it brings in small income or nor) to complete a Business/Farm supplement. This is because we look at businesses twice, once for the income they produce, but secondly as an asset which we must consider as part of the family's net worth. The Business / Farm Supplement helps you (and us) estimate the value of the business. As for the IDOC, remember it is just for domestic students and only to submit your 2006 tax returns (plus the Business / Farm Supplement if you haven't already sent it to us).
Help says "as for the income tax form-well, i´ve tried to translate it and mailed it to you, but it may be a bit confusing. most of those taxes and regulations don´t exist in america (germany really loves regulations :/) and it was quite hard to find out what it is-i still don´t really know. thats why the translation may sometimes be a bit, well, you´ll see... . i´m sorry for that, but i´m neither a translater nor a specialist for the german income tax, so i hope you´ll forgive me". Well, obviously I don't speak German either (see my last post) although my Spanish is pretty good (I lived in Panama from birth to fourteen), so do the best you can, and we will struggle through it as well. we do need as much as you can translated as we look at a lot of figures on each return (allowances, set-asides, VAT, taxes paid, medical expenses, etc.), not just total income.
Utkarsh had a question about our policy and the Indian system. Since the tax year in India ends in July, we do not require a 2006/2007 return for you. Instead, the 2005/2006 return will be satisfactory for your financial aid award.
deepak was curious about who his counselor is. Our financial aid officers are listed at http://web.mit.edu/sfs/contact/index.html#financialaid but realize that we all handle walk-in traffic, get randomly assigned cases to read, and help as needed, so really anyone can answer your question. Your counselor of record, though, is listed on the page.
JL asked "upon reviewing the FAFSA SAR my parents have noticed that the calculated EFC is not realistic to what they can pay. How can we evaluate this information? (is the FAFSA EFC usually about the same, lower, or higher than the MIT financial aid EFC?)" The answer is completely dependent on your case... In many cases (and an increasing number of cases over the last couple of years) our contributions have been lower than that of the FAFSA, but you will need to wait until we do our analysis to see. There are some old posts about why this is (if you want to read the gory archives).
gp asked "Is there a time lag for the CSS Profile to show up on the portal as well?" There certainly could be. It takes the College Board several days to get us the Profile from the date you process it, and then the portal is refreshed overnight, so if it is longer than a week, I might be a little concerned, but otherwise you should be OK. Remember that if you do not pay your fee, or completely submit the Profile form, nothing is coming my way!!!
Monika wanted to know how many German applicants there were for MIT. I don't know! MATT? MATT MCGANN? CAN YOU HELP HERE???
anonymous wants to know why we won't answer his/her emails to finaid@mit.edu. Anon! Read #2 above. And it is awfully hard to reply when the email comes from anonymous.... :)
Saurav asked "does everybody at MIT have a grt sense of humour??" The answer is yes.
Heather is concerned because her non-custodial parent doesn't "do" the internet and we need the NC Profile form. Heather, you can have him write the answers for you and do it yourself (the College Board sent you an email with password included). That is fine with us. Also, since he doesn't file taxes, send in his W-2 and just indicate that he is a non-tax filer.
Wahaj says "I sent my fin aid documents through Fed Ex on jan 23 and till now they have not shown up . Moreover, for the last 2 weeks fin. aid office has not answered any of my queries." I should explain something about Federal Express. It may get the mail to us faster, but it doesn't get your mail handled faster. We put the Federal Express stuff in with all of the other mail we received on that day and process it as we get to it. Since your name is so distinctive (You are really named "Wahaj" right? If so, we only have one Wahaj on the database.), I can see that we still do not show your paperwork as received. How about scanning and emailing it to me or faxing it to us...?
So, I am all caught up!! Turning off the comments to the other update posts.... Fire away here.
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Responses To This Entry:
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i've just submitted mine! oops
Posted by: t on February 22, 2007 09:52 PM
Quick question.
My MyMIT page says I need a "Parent's 2005 S-Corporation Tax Return" but I don't think my parents file one of those. Should I just ignore it? Or do I need to do anything to notify the financial aid office that I don't have one?
Posted by: Kim on February 22, 2007 11:31 PM
What is your e-mail address Daniel, so that i could send you my fin. documents again?
Posted by: wahaj on February 23, 2007 12:46 AM
I truly dont mean to bother or criticize unfairly, but could you explain to me why MIT would judge a student to need less financial aid than the FAFSA? (I interpreted your comment as affirming the prevalence of this)I received my EFC, and I helped my friends with some of their respective college paperwork, and from what I have seen, the FAFSA EFC is rather draconian. why would MIT be less generous than they are?
Posted by: Mike A. on February 23, 2007 01:03 AM
Thanks a lot sir,I have had all my questions answered.Thanks a lot for your patience.
But,hey don't get over relaxed,I think I'll send you an e-mail or give you office a call if I have some more questions.
There's no reason to say that you and your team has been slow in it's work.No! Not at all!
Instead your team and especially you have been very prompt in answering our queries.
I have a word of special thanks for Maxence Mateyar,for constantly helping me round the year with financial aid application process. I must say he(or may be she) is very much cooperative and was ready to go an extra mile for answering all my queries.
THANK YOU; WISH TO SEE YOU THIS YEAR.
Posted by: Utkarsh on February 23, 2007 01:47 AM
God! You have typed too much!!
Posted by: Vishaque on February 23, 2007 02:07 AM
you might be swimming in pool of papers
best of luck with papers
ha!!ha!!!ha!!!
Posted by: bhushan on February 23, 2007 02:43 AM
its been a week
and my documents were recieved at MIT on 29 Jan.
but still they show as not recieved on My MIT.
shall i fax them again or what???
please help me out;(
Posted by: k.zulfiqar(Pakistan) on February 23, 2007 03:45 AM
One Mom's Theory
I was puzzled by MITs choice to use IDOC for the submission of tax forms. IDOC forms are not availabe until the first week of February - this year, Feb 5. IDOC forms state they are due by March.
The colleges, that have a tax deadline during February, request that tax forms be sent directly to the college. Colleges that employ the IDOC (except for MIT) have deadlines in March or April.
My theory is that because MIT employs IDOC, has a deadline of February 15, and sent an e-mail telling applicants to send 2005 tax forms and 2006 W-2 forms to MIT if they couldn't make the deadline with IDOC, the MIT financial office received lots of mail/tax forms this year and lots of e-mails.
My suggestion is to change the February 15th deadline to March or drop the IDOC and have applicants send 2006 tax forms directly to MIT. Or, deal with the same situation again next year.
Posted by: One Mom on February 23, 2007 08:09 AM
FYI - IDOC tracking
I mailed IDOC on Feb 9. IDOC notes they received it on Feb 15 and sent to MIT on Feb 21.
Posted by: Anonymous on February 23, 2007 10:30 AM
shud i add 'the' b/w 'in' and 'pool'
ok!! i shud
Posted by: bhushan on February 23, 2007 10:58 AM
where shud we mail so called tax system identification
Posted by: Anonymous on February 23, 2007 11:00 AM
Where can I get a non-custodial waiver request form? Can I get it from anywhere on the MIT web? I didn't know about this form earlier and so my application is still incomplete. Will it be OK if I submitted the waiver request a little late?
Why wasn't this mentioned in any of the instruction forms? :(
Posted by: Hopeful on February 23, 2007 11:20 AM
Dear Mr. Barkowitz,
Thank you very much for your reply, and I am very sorry for my misunderstanding.
You know, in Armenia there is a national tax system, but it is a very recent innovation here, and also not all employees are required to present personalized tax returns.
In fact, I have already sent you a letter from my father's employer (my father is the only employed person in our family) along with my "International Student Financial Aid App.", and I know that you have received the latter one. So, I suggest that you have received the letter from the employer too (it was with its translation into English), haven't you? :) Please let me know if you have it and if it is sufficient.
In the end I would like to say that I really appreciate your patience and willingness to answer all our questions (at times even not so important questions concerned with the sense of humor of MIT community :)).
THANK YOU!!!
Regards,
Tigran
Posted by: Tiks on February 23, 2007 12:31 PM
Hi, I faxed in my parent's 2005 income tax forms about 2 weeks ago but they haven't shown up on my tracking list yet. Should I resend?
Posted by: Kristina on February 23, 2007 01:27 PM
Dear Mr. Barkowitz,
I would say please dont worry about my timely submission of documents.
JUST GIVE ME THE GOOD NEWS and I will readily sign my death warrant too.
On a much serious note just tell me that I am admitted and I will take a flight to Boston from Delhi to personally deliver all the documents to you.And Yes this time I am serious,very serious.
BECAUSE THAT's all I need at the moment.
Posted by: Utkarsh on February 23, 2007 01:38 PM
I truly appreciate that you answer all of our questions. It must get tiring sometimes. Sometimes (actually, most of the time) we only consider our viewpoint and see that our sent in materials have not been processed yet. What we really need to consider is that you have hundreds of envelopes, emails, questions, and various packages of unknown origin coming your way from all of the corners of the earth (maybe even including places that are undiscovered as of now). And now, another one to add to that list (sorry, can't resist). Is there really a waiver form for noncustodial parent material if there are special circumstances when you cannot get the information? Thanks again for all of your help.
Posted by: Thank you on February 23, 2007 03:38 PM
Mr. Barkowitz,
I have faxed my my fin. aid application and documents to your office on FEB,23. Did you guyz recieve them?
Posted by: wahaj on February 23, 2007 11:53 PM
Can I scan the business/farm supplement and email it to you?
Posted by: Amna Sarfraz on February 24, 2007 01:52 AM
Can somebody please explain me what IDOC is. The above entry didn't help me understand it.
Although I am an international student, i live in United States. so, do i have to send IDOC to fin.aid office?
Posted by: Sabina on February 25, 2007 11:01 AM
My son Vinay Prashanth Subbiah's myMIT dashboard shows that his Mid-Yr. reports have not been received. May I clarify that he did not submit it as the form clearly specified that it was required only for students whose schools followed the US educational system. Does he have to send his..?
Posted by: Uma on February 25, 2007 03:54 PM
URGENT. PLEASE HELP.
Are there any extra forms (Financial Statement for Students from Foreign Countries, for instance) that international students have to fill out and send? (It seems that many schools require Financial Statement for Foreigners whether they are applying for financial aid or not: I am not applying for fin.aid.) If there are such forms, what are they and when is the deadline for each form?
Also, I had collegeboard send in my Jan. SAT score report (790 in Biology-E and 800 in Chemistry) to MIT u-grad admissions office, and the collegeboard homepage indicates that it was processed on Feb.14th, but when I logged onto MyMIT tracking page on Feb.25th, my Jan. score report didn't appear among those received. I sent an e-mail to u-grad admissions office the day before, but I'm not sure whether anyone would read it as I am sure that it is a very busy time for admissions officers. PLEASE HELP ME IF POSSIBLE. Thank you. (I am Ja Hyun Cho, a Regular Action applicant for Class of 2011 (freshmen) from Pohang Jecheol High School, Republic of Korea.)
P.S. I got a letter from 'Global Young Leaders Conference'. I guess this question does not belong here, but do you (or anyone reading this post) have any idea what 'Global Young Leaders Conference' is? I can't seem to find out enough about it.
Posted by: Ja Hyun Cho on February 25, 2007 07:32 PM
To Ja Hyun Cho,
I google it and it says its a leadership development program, i saw there were a number of sites about it, so i guess u should try doing it and probably u'll find it.
Posted by: Sabina on February 26, 2007 11:22 AM
To Ja Hyun Cho
http://www.cylc.org/GYLC/
That's the website i found
Posted by: sabina on February 26, 2007 11:24 AM
i've got no answer from finaid at mid dot edu. I sent the e-mail a week ago and no response.... HELP
Posted by: me on February 26, 2007 11:47 AM
Thanks, Sabina. :)
Posted by: Ja Hyun Cho on February 26, 2007 08:44 PM
hey 'me'
u r scaring me i mailed a day ago yet no reply
Posted by: bhushan on February 27, 2007 04:07 AM
I re-faxed my fin aid application and documents on friday. I sent an e-mail for confirmation on friday night, but haven't received any reply till today.
Posted by: wahaj on February 27, 2007 08:43 AM
sorry bhushan but im desperate i've sent 3-4 mails since last week and i've got no answer :S
Posted by: me on February 27, 2007 12:26 PM
Mr. Barkowitz, Since you have been involved with student employment, may I ask you a question..?After their Undergraduation, what do MITians do..? What percentage of them i) continue into higher education,ii) start up on their own entrepreneurial ventures,iii) prefer employment? Are these MITians hand picked by corporates..? Like who?
Posted by: Mah on February 27, 2007 02:38 PM
Thank you, Mr Barkowitz,
maybe sanish and German aren' that different *smile*
I wish you and your team patience and fun whle working through the apps.! (and generosity, if possible;))
Posted by: Monika on February 27, 2007 04:01 PM
hey me,
try calling them i did that yestarday after reading ur response
can i know who u r
mail me at bhushanlodha@gmail.com
apart i lov to callllllllllllllllllll
sabina u hav experience
Posted by: bhushan on February 28, 2007 01:00 AM
Mike A.,
I believe he was referring to the Expected Contribution being less, rather than the financial aid sum. It follows that, if your parents are expected to contribute less, the sum will actually be greater than that of the FAFSA.
Posted by: Jacqueline on February 28, 2007 01:31 AM
Ah, Thanks Jaqueline. That makes sense. I interpreted it as the financial need asessment being lower than the FAFSA, not the EFC, and that confused me.
Posted by: Mike A. on February 28, 2007 09:26 AM
Ah, Thanks Jaqueline. That makes sense. I interpreted it as the financial need asessment being lower than the FAFSA, not the EFC, and that confused me.
Posted by: Mike A. on February 28, 2007 09:33 AM
Hello!!
I sent my international financial aid application in December and my.mit still shows that it is not processed! I've been also emailing the fin. aid office for the past 3 weeks and they emialed me today saying I never send them. HELP! What should I do? I am very worried :S
Posted by: Alice on February 28, 2007 11:44 AM
Dear Sir, I have applied for undergrat aerospace engineering.Practically my father can not support my studies but plans to sell a small building 12x24 feet to support initial cost, if unavoidable. Will this be considered while reviewing my financial aid application
Thank you
Posted by: Shaheryar on March 2, 2007 11:02 AM
I mailed the International Student Financial Aid Application along with my mother's tax statement and my father's banking statement a while ago. My mymit account says that I still need to send the Business/Farm supplement and the 2006 foreign income tax return. I will be sending in the Business/Farm Supplement shortly, but I had included the 05/06 income tax return (in India the 06/07 statement isn't available till midyear). Do I have to mail the Financial Aid office telling them this or just let it be?
Posted by: Aditya on March 2, 2007 02:20 PM
Hey, my Fin. aid tracking page got crazy!!!:( It was indicating last 3 weeks that my International Aid Application has been received,BUT now I see there written the opposite thing:(.
What should I do?
Am I supposed to send it again?
Posted by: Tiks on March 7, 2007 10:22 AM
