Waiting on PINs and PROFILEs
Well, I have just returned from a very refreshing dip in the pool. MIT's aquatics facility is beautiful. If you are a swimmer, the Z center pool is perfect in every way: refreshing, well-maintained, always open for lap swimmers, I find it a great place to go for a quick swim during lunch time. And it was the refresher I needed for the middle of my day today.
So, yes, I came back from Orlando on Saturday, arriving back to my desk to look at my 500+ email messages and my 20 phone messages and spent most of Monday and Tuesday digging out of the mess; but I think I am finally mostly caught up. Travel is not easy, but the conference was great -- we learned a lot about the Feds plans for the coming year, and I got a chance to visit Universal Studios, always a favorite.
I am a Dueling Dragons / Hulk fan, so the coaster rides were a lot of fun. I am always amazed at the physics behind coasters, converting potential energy into rocket-fire, exhilarating action, allowing me to feel Gs beyond my body's normal experience of force (look at this lecture on Physics from the Open Course Ware site for an idea of the physics behind the coaster - the relevant section starts at 23:37).
Well, so I am imagining that those of you who applied for early action admission are full of potential energy right now. While you wait for MIT's decision, if you are like I imagine you to be, you probably are waiting on pins and needles. Let me provide a way for you to convert that potential energy into action.
If you are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and planning on applying for Financial Aid this year, whether you are an early action applicant or not there are two things you can do RIGHT NOW to make your process faster and easier when it comes time to apply for financial aid. What are they? I call them PINs and PROFILEs.
1. PINs. So, when you apply for financial aid these days using the Federal government's Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), you can either do it electronically or in paper format. No surprise that most of you choose the electronic format (in fact, in 2003-2004, 92.5% of you completed on-line, versus a national on-line completion rate of 79.4%, you can look at this data for all colleges nationwide on-line here). One challenge of submitting your application on-line is that you and your parents need to sign the application electronically. Since there is no universally accepted digital signature (yet), the Feds have a process by which you (and your parents) can obtain a Personal Identification Number (PIN) which you will use throughout the financial aid process to sign your applications, your loan Promissory Notes, and gain access to your Federal educational record. So, in order to make this process timely (since the application time frames are coming up soon), you should go to the PIN web site and register for your PIN today. Once you get your PIN, sit back and rest easy. You can't start to complete the FAFSA until after January 1. I promise you more information will be coming before then!
2. PROFILEs. MIT is one of a number of institutions which require two main financial aid applications for U.S. citizens and permanent residents, the FAFSA (discussed in number 1 above), and the CSS Financial Aid PROFILE, a supplemental form administered by the College Board. The PROFILE allows us to collect information to better determine your family's ability to afford an MIT education, and provides us data not available on the FAFSA. The Profile is a pay-per-use form, although there are low income fee waivers built into the process. In order to apply, you will need to register for the Profile service, another task you can do today. First, find out which of the colleges you plan on applying to for admission require the PROFILE (it makes sense to list all of them at once, rather than add later). The general rule of thumb is that if the college is a private institution that gives out money from its own resources, it will require the PROFILE, while if it is a public college or university, it probably will not require the PROFILE. If you have any questions, contact the college directly. Once you have your list, visit the PROFILE web site and register (you will need a credit card to make payment). Once you have registered, an electronic application will be ready for you to complete. Most schools' deadlines for PROFILE are after the first of the year, so you can kick back and wait until right after January 1 to start this application as well.
So, don't wait on pins and needles, act on PINs and PROFILEs! Convert your potential to actuality!
As always, feel free to comment or contact me if you need assistance through this process!