Money @ MIT (The Archives) : 2. Forms and More Forms

The Blog is Dead. Long Live the Blog.

barkowitz — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 23:22:00 GMT

This blog is officially closed and will now only exist as an archive of past posts.

Please visit the new blog at http://daniel.mitblogs.com.

The Right Hand DOES know what the Left Hand is Doing...

barkowitz — Wed, 04 May 2005 15:16:00 GMT

A couple of other items of interest:

For International Freshmen, we are providing copies of your finalized award letters to the ISO directly so that we can produce your I-20. We are working closely together with the staff of the ISO to make sure this information is released to you in a timely fashion so that you can start your visa application working. It is important to note, however, that we will not produce a finalized award letter until we have received your reply indicating you are coming to MIT (so if it is in the mail, we will get it and then work it through).
For International Freshmen and for Domestic No Need Students, if we have already determined the loan program from which you will borrow, you need to give us a little time before attempting to do the Student Loan (Tech Loan, Stafford Loan) paperwork (online or otherwise). Systems for this will not be ready until closer to July 1.
For all other Admitted and Coming Freshmen, we are including an insert as part of the May mailing (which Ben has trademarked as the NBM® -- Next Big Mailing) which identifies what paperwork we are missing (either to confirm your award or to provide an award). Please pay attention to the information provided. It is critical you act quickly at this point; any delay may jeopardize our ability to deliver your financial aid to you on time.
Lastly, I will be serving as a Freshman Traditional Advisor next year. I've had so much fun getting to know all of you this year that I can't wait!!! So I may get to be your advisor. We'll see!

Thanks! Be well!

The IDOCs of March

barkowitz — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 21:17:00 GMT

Happy March 15th! What an exciting week, Pi Day yesterday, the Ides of March today, and St. Patty's day on Thursday (by the way, here in Boston, the local folks get to take the day off on Thursday -- something about an Evacuation Day? -- I don't know, any excuse to party on Patty's Day). MIT will be open on Thursday -- no one will be evacuating here.

So, I missed last night's debate. Other issues intervened, but, no surprise, there were no losers at last night's debate, only an unfinished conversation. There is a pretty humorous piece in this morning's Tech covering the event. Read it and eat!

As for a financial aid update, we are still working on completing reviews of application files as we receive them, but I have to tell you, for many of you, we haven't received your documents. I know, I know, admissions decisions are still in the mail, many of you are getting over the shock and angst of the admissions decision, but we need you to complete your file. If you are unsure what still needs to be done, look on Autumn to see what is missing and GET IT DONE!

If there is information that you think you have submitted but that we don't show we have on file, please contact us ASAP by phone - (617) 253-4971 - or by email - finaid(at)mit(dot)edu - so that we can resolve the issue.

If you need help understanding what we've asked you to do, feel free to post questions here, review the “Forms and More Forms” category on the left, or be in touch with us. We know many of you are trying your hardest to complete the application requirements; let us know what we can do to help!

One other fun thing. On Friday, I finally got the opportunity to meet Mitra, one of my fellow bloggers here at MIT. To commemorate the mailing of the admissions decisions, the four of us (Mitra, Ben, Matt and I) took a group photo. Here it is:

Once you have your letter...

barkowitz — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 16:10:00 GMT

If the letter from us is an incomplete letter, there may be some forms or requests which we want but with which you aren't familiar. Let's keep this post as a place for questions about what we are asking. Post your questions here, and I will try to answer them here.

For Upperclass (Sophomore, Junior, Senior) Students and Transfers

barkowitz — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 16:26:00 GMT

Not sure if any of you reading this blog are current MIT students, or if you are all prospectives, but I thought in the interest of sharing information, I would post a relevant piece about the renewal FAFSA application process for upperclass and transfer students (who have already filed a FAFSA).

This comes from the Department of Education. Don't shoot the messenger!

Department of Education Electronic Announcement

Update and Reminder For 2005-2006 Renewal FAFSA Processing

Posted on 02-09-2005

We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that we made some fundamental changes to the 2005-2006 renewal application process, and it might be beneficial for you to remind your students, especially former paper Renewal applicants, that it is time to reapply.

As many of you are aware, one of the most significant changes we made to the renewal application process is that we began automatically sending E-mail Renewal Reminders and PIN Mailers to renewal-eligible students instead of sending them paper Renewal FAFSAs. Schools had the option to request that paper Renewal FAFSAs be sent to students instead of Renewal Reminders or PIN Mailers provided those students met certain criteria and schools made their requests by October 29, 2004. E-mail Renewal Reminders and PIN Mailers were sent to students between November 5 and December 17, 2004, and reminded students that they could use their PIN to reapply for aid on the Web, beginning January 1, 2005.

Because the E-mail Renewal Reminder and PIN Mailer process is new to some students, they may have overlooked the Renewal Reminder or PIN Mailer and may still be expecting to receive a paper Renewal application in the mail.

With many state and institutional financial aid deadlines rapidly approaching, we wanted to take this opportunity to ask you to urge your students to reapply as soon as possible. If your students cannot locate their Renewal Reminder or PIN Mailer and did not receive a paper Renewal FAFSA in the mail, please remind them that they can still file a 2005-2006 Renewal application via the Renewal FAFSA on the Web site using their PIN. Students who have forgotten their PIN may go to the PIN Web site (pin.ed.gov) to request a duplicate.

Your students can also file a regular, non-renewal 2005-2006 application by using FAFSA on the Web (fafsa.ed.gov) or by filing a paper FAFSA.

For more information on student Web applications and the Renewal FAFSA process in general, we encourage you to download and read the "2005-2006 Student Web Application Products Process Guide" and the "2005-2006 Renewal Application Data Process Guide." Both documents are available on the Department's Federal Student Aid Download (FSAdownload) Web site, located at fsadownload.ed.gov.

If your students have questions about using FAFSA on the Web, or have specific questions about the FAFSA form, please have them call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 800/4FEDAID (800/433-3243) or 319/337-5665.

It's February 8th... Do you know where your FAFSA is?

barkowitz — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 05:02:00 GMT

Well, its about three weeks (and a day) before our priority application deadline for financial aid for Freshmen, and I just wanted to offer one more reminder to all of you that your applications are due very soon.

If you are not sure if we have received your paperwork yet, please feel free to log into Autumn, our financial aid tracking system, to see if we have your information in hand. For those of you submitting documentation via IDOC, please keep in mind that the IDOC system will not send MIT information on students they have received until February 21st, so it is possible that your information has been received by the College Board, but that we just simply haven't gotten notice of it yet.

To access your record in Autumn, you will need your MIT ID. If you do not know your ID, check any paperwork we have sent you, or look online at MyMIT. We create an MIT ID for you at the time we receive your Admissions application. This number will become very important to you as it serves as an identifier (in lieu of your SSN) during your MIT experience. (If all else fails, and you cannot find your MIT ID, please feel free to contact our office at 617-253-4971 to check the status of your application).

Now to some of your more recent questions!

NoCreativity asked:

miiisssssttteerr barkowitz, i am still slightly confused about the IDOC and Autumn thing, although your post has helped a lot. My question is simple though. Will the Profile people send me the idoc letter automatically after submitting my css profile? and is there any way we can find out what our offer of aid is before we get our decisions? or do you have to wait for the decision as well? well thank you anyhow sir.

My reply:

Hopefully, those of you who have already submitted your Profile application have received your IDOC ID and letter via email. For anyone still working on the Profile, once you submit the form, the College Board will send an IDOC email (usually within a day or so) to you with your information. As for an early version of the financial aid, I am unable to help... We need to wait until a decision before we release any financial aid awards or status. And you are very welcome!

Now to the questions I don't need to answer because you already took care of it for me:

Eujin asked:

Do I need to attach some kind of document to certify the value of the apartment me and my mother live in? What about certifying the assets?

YJ Kim answered:

I think they will trust you to tell the truth. Later on, when you begin your visa process, as the Moneyman previously said, you will have to fill out the Certificate of Finances, also from the CollegeBoard. Then, you will have to get the bank official signature to certify your savings. (or your parents') Hope this bit helps!

MIT Hopeful said:

I am looking forward to next year. I have already filed the FAFSA and CSS PROFILE, and I designated MIT as one of my schools. Do I need to anything else regarding MIT Financial Aid at this time?

Patrick answered:

Send in 2004 Tax Returns and W-2's.

NoCreativity asked:

okay. question time! i applied to ten schools.. no make that 11. I need to send in fafsa for all of them. but there are only 6 slots. the schools tell me i have to remove some names and add theirs. How will everyone get my fafsa then?

Jane answered:

They will all get it (I think). If you submit it once with the first six schools, then edit it and put in the rest of the schools, it should send it to all of them. Hope that helps.

I need to clarify this answer

Jane has it pretty much right. You need to submit the FAFSA with six schools listed (I would put the ones with the earliest deadlines). Once you get a statement that the FAFSA has been processed (a form to you called a Student Aid Report or SAR), correct the SAR by replacing 5 of the schools and putting in the other ones. That will make sure that the other schools get the information. It is an imperfect solution, but the only one available to you. The issue here is that we (the schools) get the information based on each transaction, so by the time you submit your 2nd transaction (the correction) all 11 schools will have the information.

So, sincere thanks to my cadre of excellent financial aid detectives. I feel like you all are in good hands. And, by the way, congrats to all who played the lyrics game. It may be an experience worth repeating... What do you think?

Seeing double? Time for a visit with the IDOC.

barkowitz — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 23:39:00 GMT

It's that time of year: where we try to operate in 2 years simultaneously.

First of all, students arrive back on campus next week in time to start the 2nd semester of the 2004-2005 year. It's been a terrific IAP, despite the unusual overabundance of snow (over 3 feet at last count). I had fun teaching my two classes, and will probably be setting up an ongoing Tarot group to meet and look at the various cards on a bi-weekly basis (Or is it bi-monthly? I can never get that straight. Is bi-weekly every other week or twice a week? Anyway, we'll be meeting every other week.). But of course, part of the start of the semester involves helping students deal with any remaining issues for their current year, and settling any outstanding questions.

Secondly, we are eager to begin the process of reviewing your financial aid materials (for those of you reading this who will start your program in the 2005-2006 academic year). We have had several days of staff training, the systems are humming, and we are ready to go!

As part of this process, you too may feel like you are operating in several different years simultaneously. For the 2005-2006 academic year, we have asked you to fill out your applications using information from your and your parents' (probably at this point estimated) 2004 tax returns. The reason we do this is because the 2004 income is the income upon which we will base our financial aid decision for 2005-2006, as it is the last completed tax year before the academic year begins.

But, our deadline for submission of forms is March 1. And many of you may not have done your tax return for 2004 by that time. So what do you do?

To answer this question, I need to say a word about IDOC. For those of you who are U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents, we use a service provided by the College Board to collect your tax information for us. (By the way, yes, this is in fact the same College Board who does the SAT, the AP tests, the CSS Financial Aid Profile, and the financial aid software we use. We trust them. Can you tell?)

IDOC is a service which allows you to send all of your tax information in once, to all of the schools who need it (and are subscribed to this service) simultaneously. Think of IDOC as kind of a Profile on steroids. This service allows the College Board to image and send your information to MIT (and the other colleges who are IDOC schools and to whom you have applied) once, without you having to make multiple copies of all of your forms and ship them everywhere. Starting on this Friday, students who have successfully completed their PROFILE application will begin to be emailed with information about how to access your IDOC cover sheet. You will print the IDOC cover sheet, attach a copy of your 2004 U.S. Tax Return and all required paperwork (including W-2 Forms, the Business / Farm Supplement, etc), and send it to the College Board so that they receive it prior to March 1, 2005. We then will be sent an electronic record via a secure channel indication that you have completed your IDOC record and will be able to see an image of the documents you have submitted on line. IDOC will image anything you submit: shopping lists, crayon drawings, smiley faces, photographs (not that we want any of these), but it is crucial that you include all of the forms we have asked you to submit with your IDOC packet. You can only submit one IDOC packet per year. If you have additional paperwork that has to follow your initial submission, we ask you to mail it to our office at MIT directly after your first IDOC submission.

The College Board has an FAQ about IDOC here. Some other questions you may have:

So, what do I do if I will not have my taxes filed and ready by March 1st? First of all, don't panic. If you definitely know you will not have your final, finished tax return done by March 1st, then send the 2003 Federal Tax return as well as any copies of 2004 W2's directly to our office with your name, SSN, and class of 2009 clearly marked on each page by March 1, and then follow as soon as the tax return is complete with the 2004 copy to the IDOC service. Remember, March 1 is MIT's financial aid application deadline. The IDOC service will continue to process records for a long time after March 1st.

What if I lose your IDOC email or forget my IDOC number? Again, don't panic. Go to the IDOC web page at http://idoc.collegeboard.com/ and look up your IDOC number. You can also print another copy of your cover sheet from this page.

What if I am a U.S. Citizen living abroad or I file a Puerto Rican tax return? You still follow the same IDOC procedure identified above.

What if I am an international student? Instead, send your 2004 tax information directly to us at MIT (Building 11-320). If you only have your 2003 information, send that now and send the 2004 information when it is ready. DO NOT USE THE IDOC SERVICE.

What if I haven't filed the CSS Financial Aid PROFILE application yet? First of all, what are you waiting for? An engraved invitation? Here it is. But seriously, you need to file your PROFILE application as soon as possible. Once you do, it should be no more than two or three days of your submission before you get your IDOC email (This whole email thing is new to IDOC this year, so let us know if it takes longer).

What if my parents are divorced or separated and I need to submit two sets of materials to you? Ideally, you should submit both sets of tax returns together in one envelope to the College Board with one IDOC cover sheet. We do know, however, that this may not be possible or practical due to your family's circumstances. If this is not possible, submit the tax information for your custodial parent (see my previous blog entry for that de-“fun“-ition) to IDOC, and have your non-custodial parent send her/his information to us at MIT directly. If you do this, however, attach a cover letter stating why you are doing this, or the information will be sent back to you. Also, make sure every page of what you send to us has your name, SSN and “Class of 09” clearly marked on every page.

What if I send something to you by accident and not to IDOC, like the Business and Farm Supplement? Don't worry! Our crack staff will catch this and send it back to you so that you can include it in your IDOC packet.

What if I am a returning student and I have stumbled onto your blog and am curious about what to do for this year's application? or What do I do next year when I am a sophomore, junior or senior? Once you are beyond the Freshman admissions cycle, your completion deadline is moved later in the cycle (April 15th) so you can submit only one tax return (the base year) by the deadline. For returning students this year, you will also start getting IDOC emails and you should send your cover sheet and tax forms in to the IDOC service by April 15th.

What if I have any more questions? For example: I don't know how to express myself in binary code and I don't understand what 10 base 16 means? And I don't understand Schroedinger's equation? And I don't really know if “poetry matters”. Well, then, you are plum out of luck (or you need to take a couple of MIT courses). Feel free to post a comment here and see if some random expert in string theory, EECS, or modern literature feels like explaining the nature of their universe.

Happy last days of January, and keep those financial aid applications coming!

Is your PIN broken? How do you fix it?

barkowitz — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 22:01:00 GMT

So, as of December 26th, the Federal government added some new complexities to the PIN. Now the PIN has challenge questions and a notification not to share your PIN with anyone. If you created your PIN very recently, this is a no-brainer since you took care of this when you created your PIN; but if you are a returning applicant or created your PIN longer than several weeks ago, you need to take some action before you can use your PIN.

From the Fed's web page notification of the change:

......................................................................................................

Effect on Current PIN Users

Current PIN users must agree to the PIN Terms and Conditions Activation Agreement and select and answer a challenge question before they will be able to use their PINs on or after December 26, 2004. Users will have two options for "activating" their PINs.

1. On or after December 26, 2004, current PIN users can go to the PIN Web site at www.pin.ed.gov and select "Activate My PIN" from the home page. After selecting this option, users will be required to agree with the PIN terms and conditions and select and answer a challenge question.

2. Users who do not go to the PIN Web site to activate their PIN will be prompted to activate it before they can continue using a secure Web site. For example, when students using FAFSA on the Web enter their SSN, Last Name, DOB and PIN, they will receive a "PIN Not Activated" page. There will be a link on this page to the PIN site where they will be required to agree with the PIN Terms and Conditions Activation Agreement and select and answer a challenge question. Once users have completed these two tasks, their identifiers will be authenticated, their PIN will be activated, and they will be able to continue doing business on the site.

Effect on New PIN Users

New users who apply for a PIN through the PIN Web site will be prompted to indicate their agreement with the terms and conditions and provide their challenge question and response before they submit their PIN application. As an additional security measure, if these new users retrieve their PIN through e-mail, they will be required to answer their challenge question before their PIN will be displayed.

Students whose PINs are automatically generated and sent due to a successful Social Security Administration Match on their processed FAFSA application, and FAAs whose PINs are generated as part of their enrollment in FAA Access to CPS Online, are required to activate their PIN in the same manner as current users (see "Effect on Current PIN Users" section above). In these cases, if the PIN for new users is e-mailed, users must indicate their agreement to the terms and conditions and provide their challenge question and response before they can view their PIN.

Explanation for Your Students

We heard from many of you attending our recent Electronic Access Conferences that you would like FSA to provide a brief explanation of these changes for you to post on your school's Web site for students to see. You may use the following text for this purpose:

"To enhance the security of your U.S. Department of Education PIN and your personal information on the Web, there are two significant changes to the PIN process that you should be aware of.

If you already have a PIN, the first time you attempt to use it on or after December 26, 2004, you will be prompted to agree to a PIN Terms and Conditions Activation Agreement, which asks you not to share your PIN with anyone and to keep it in a safe place, and to select and answer a challenge question. Only you will know the answer to your challenge question, and it may be used to validate your identity in the future.

If you apply for a PIN on or after December 26, 2004, you will be required to agree to the terms and conditions and provide a challenge question and response before your PIN will be issued.

These changes have been made to ensure the security of the PIN process and to remind you of the importance of safeguarding your PIN. Your PIN serves as your electronic signature and provides access to your personal records, and it is critical that it remain as secure as possible."

PROFILE questions?

barkowitz — Tue, 28 Dec 2004 22:53:00 GMT

Similar to the FAFSA question post below, this post serves as your opportunity to ask any questions related to your completion of the CSS Financial Aid PROFILE. Post your question here and I will check in regularly to answer any questions. Like below, I would suggest that you ensure that your Profile is completed and submitted by Feb 15 at the latest so that you guarantee that we receive it by our March 1 priority deadline.

FAFSA Questions?

barkowitz — Tue, 28 Dec 2004 22:51:00 GMT

Given that the financial aid application season is now upon us, this section is for you to ask any questions related to the completion of the FAFSA. I will attempt to check in here regularly and answer any of your questions. Remember that the earliest you can do the FAFSA on line is January 1, 2005 and that you must submit it no later than February 7 to guarantee that you meet our March 1 priority deadline.

T minus 8 and counting

barkowitz — Sun, 26 Dec 2004 00:53:00 GMT

So, January 1st marks the official kick-off of the Federal Financial Aid application season for 2005-2006. Are you ready?

In eight short days (on January 1st) the FAFSA web site kicks off and you can start your Federal application for student aid online. Just remember, many colleges have early deadlines for the form (ours is March 1st) and it will take two to three weeks from the day you click that you are done until we at the college receive your information, so it is important that you get started soon!

What do you need in front of you when you get started?

1. You basic biographical information -- Social Security number (which I am sure you know by heart now anyway from all the standardized tests you have entered it on), parents' dates of birth and Social Security numbers (see my previous entry on who actually is defined as a parent for this process).

2. Your financial information -- Since most of you won't have filed a 2004 tax return by the time you get started doing the FAFSA, you will need to “guesstimate” on your application. In order to do this, have in hand your (and your parents) 2003 tax returns if you filed them, your (and your parents) last pay stubs for 2004 (or W-2s if they are in), and last statements on any assets (checking accounts, stocks, etc) and home mortgage statement. Remember to do your best job estimating, but know that we will get the tax returns later from you (once you file them) and will make any necessary corrections at that point. The better job you do of estimating now, though, the more accurate your financial aid award will be when we send it to you.

3. Your PIN or a printer to print the signature page. Remember that the government has not yet solved the digital signature issue so you and your parents either need to already have a PIN (see my previous entry on this) or be prepared to print out a signature page at the end of the application process, sign it, and mail it to the processor.

4. Don't forget to do the Profile as well. While you're at it, remember that MIT (and many other colleges) also require the Profile, and the deadlines for this form is the same as the FAFSA. Might as well get them done together.

Who said the new year would be quiet.

So, in T minus 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Financial Aid Blastoff!

Here's to a Happy New Year, and (few, we hope) happy hours of financial aid applications...

Make a resolution now, and get started on it!

Waiting on PINs and PROFILEs

barkowitz — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 20:54:00 GMT

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!