We're not Big Brother (we're more like a friendly cousin).
Jason Hernandez recently posted on one of my previous blog entries that:
“I recently called into the MIT Financial Aid office about the status of my aid application because the documents I submitted were not acknowledged online or in the letters from SFS. When I asked why my documents were not listed online, I found out that MIT never got my Social Security number (I guess I was trying to be careful about giving it out...). Once I provided my SSN to the financial aid office, the person at the other end of the line found my FAFSA and CSS Profile immediately.
PS: Thanks for the bi-weekly letters updating me on my financial aid status. It's very helpful, considering that there are so many scattered deadlines (esp. at other institutions) with regard to financial aid.”
Well, first off, thanks for the complement Jason. By the way, it was me you talk to on the phone!
Also, I should say that your call prompted us to do a little research to see how many people there were like you who did not provide SSNs when they completed their initial admissions application (and are US Citizens or Permanent Residents, so they should have an SSN), but yet who had indicated that they were going to apply for financial aid. The number was astounding! Over 650 of you didn't give us your SSN.
Now I know people have privacy concerns, but BE AWARE! If we do not have your Social Security number, all of your matches for your documents will fail. What this means is this: since both the FAFSA and the Profile require a Social Security Number as their primary identifier, we cannot match your record if you never give us your SSN.
So, what to do, what to do? Well, we have four of our excellent student employees (two of whom you met below) going through each of the 650 records to see if you submitted an application (an arduous task, since they have to look up each one of your records individually), If they find an application record for you (from FAFSA, Profile, or IDOC), they are adding your SSN to your record and loading your applications. This project began yesterday. We hope to have it complete by end of the day Monday.
In the meantime, if you know that you submitted forms and you still do not see them on Autumn or in any letters we send you (and you believe that we do not have your SSN because you left it off your admissions application), feel free to contact us, either by mail at finaid(at)mit(dot)edu or by phone at 617-253-4971 so that we can confirm if your SSN is the problem.
Jason, thanks again for the message and the call! Helped us see where there was a problem we could address!
And while we are on the subject of students working in our office, here is a photo of the rest of our student crew (you met Thaddeus and Tony in a previous post):
From left to right, we have Lindsay, Tony and Adam. It is very likely if you phone our office you will be speaking with one of the four students or Emily or Joanne. Now you can match a face with the voice...