Welcome to the so-called "dog days" of summer. You know, that time where the lazy days of summer pass you by as you liesurely sit back, sip your iced frappucino and read that book you've long wanted to enjoy, but somehow just couldn't find the time for...

[insert sound of record scratching here]

Well, not in my world.

Summer is one of our busiest times here in the financial aid office, and this summer is shaping up to be busy again. Between responding to your self-help forms, finishing reading late spplicants, and helping you get ready for the Fall, we will be busy beavers all summer long.

A few updates:

Today we will produce and begin to mail out over 1250 award letters to returning students for 2008-09 (rising Sophmores, Juniors and Seniors). This represents almost everyone who had their application for aid complete by our recommended deadline of April 15th. This leaves us with slightly more than 650 files still needing review, which we will plan to complete in the next month of so (and send updates out weekly).

Today, we also say goodbye to the first of two staff members who are leaving MIT financial aid for other opportunities. Jason Shumaker has served as our Assistant Director in charge of Freshmen Processing for the last 4 years (although he has been at MIT for 6 years). In this role, Jason has provided a steady hand and a incredible work ethic to make sure that things run smoothly for those of you who are in the admissions process. We wish Jason much continued success as he continues his career in financial aid.

Next Friday, we will say goodbye to another of our financial aid counselors, Maria Zervos, who is leaving us to spend time at home with her family. Maria has been a steady and empathic student advocate and has worked tirelessly in assisting in matching students and donors for our endowed scholarship process.

Jason and Maria, you both will be sorely missed!

We are in the process of searches for both positions, and will update you as we have news. In the meantime, bear with us... Summer is shaping up to be another crazy time of year...

Well, tonight is our end of year event.

Every year we try to have a large event during the year. My first year as a Freshmen Advisor (in 2004-05) we went to see Altar Boyz when it played in Boston. In 2005-06, we went to a Boston Celtics game. Last year, we went to a wonderful fondue restaurant (a review and wrap up of this is on Anthony's blog).

Well, tonight, we blow it all out of the water!

We are going to have an amazing night tonight. In about an hour and a half, we meet at the MIT Kendall MBTA stop to head to downtown Boston. We head for dinner at P.F. Changs where 15 of us will join together for dinner.

After a fine dinner (take a look at the menu if you don't believe me), we move on to dessert at Finale (which is an all dessert restaurant). I am particularly partial to the Molten Chocolate, but it is all good!

After a fine meal, we head to our final destination -- a perfomance of the Blue Man Group. If you haven't seen Blue Man Group before, it is an amazing show, sort of an existential experience. I am looking forward to it, although the last time I saw it was a very long time ago...

And then back to MIT. Not bad for the break between end of classes and finals (and not bad for an advising event).

I'm sure I'll have pix and more content later, but wanted to give you the heads up...

Give a listen!

A video of the team's IGEM presentation can be found here (warning, the sound and the image are off sync!).

The pdf of the team's presentation is here.

As of this moment, we have 4 cases in process and 75 students who still have incomplete financial aid applications...

We have 1 pending appeal...

It has been a busy busy month, and I know the financial aid staff and I have appreciated the chance to speak with many of you, both at CPW and over the phone and email in the last several weeks. While I know not every one of you got the answer from us you might have hoped for, I hope that each of you feels that we took your case seriously, that we listened, and that we did all we could to work with you.

In the coming days, we will turn our attention to our continuting students at MIT so that we may get their financial aid awards out the door by the middle of June. I will still be posting and commenting here, however, so keep checking back for updates.

For those of you who will be enrolling, please make sure to mail us your Self Help and/or Student Information Review Forms. They can still be mailed by regular mail now (no need to Fedex them).

For those of you whose path will take you elsewhere, I enjoyed getting to know you. For those of you who will be enrolled at MIT, I look forward to seeing you in the hallways soon! For those of you still on the waitlist, stay tuned...

Now, back to work!!!

For those of you playing at home, I present my annual CPW presentation. You can join me (virtually at least) by clicking on the link below to launch the presentation at 1:00 pm Eastern time (which is when I am going to be starting the presentation in Kresge).

If you want the version with sound effects (trust me, turn up your speakers, they are fun) then click here (you have to have MS PowerPoint installed to view it).

If you prefer the lecture notes version, click here (you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed to view this version).

Or better yet, come see the live show (tomorrow at 1:00 pm in Kresge).

First the news (from Friday, no less):

On Friday, we sent out another 41 awards letters. We kept copies of these award letters to stuff in your CPW registration packets (for those of you who will be on campus for CPW).

Also on Friday, we sent 267 missing information letters to those of you who still have not completed your financial aid applications (What are you waiting for, a personal invitation? Consider yourself invited!)

At the moment, we have another 22 students ready to be awarded, and another 29 students whose applications are in the process of being reviewed. Additionally we have another 13 students who have submitted 2007 tax return information and need their preliminary awards verified.

We are hard at work on these remaining files, and we will continue to work through any files that are completed in the next several days before the start of CPW. We will be running packaging on Wednesday night to create awards, and will send these in the mail late Wednesday. We will also hold a copy of these letters for those of you who are registered for CPW.

So, now on to some questions you have asked...

'12er asked:

On the self-help form, if we report the outside scholarships we have already received at this time, will part of our MIT scholarship be taken away? Or will it only decrease the self-help amount?

Similarly, if the amount of outside scholarships covers more than the self-help expected by MIT, can those funds go toward the parent contribution (meaning our parents can pay less)?

Thank you very much, SFS, for doing all this!

'12er, our pleasure!! As for outside scholarship, our replacement policy states that if a student has a self-help award, we first replace the self-help and then if any funds are left this money will reduce the Student Contribution. Once the Student Contribution and self-help have been completely replaced, we then reduce the MIT grant by any received amount. This is why we would recommend that if you will be receiving a large amount of outside scholarship that you see if some of your providers can defer to a later year so that you get the "biggest bang for your buck." We only replace Parental Contribution if all of the aid we have awarded has been replaced by the outside award. Also remember unlike many institutions, we allow any outside award (with only two exceptions) to reduce self-help. The only two exceptions are the Massachusetts Gilbert Grant and the Federal SEOG grant. This means that if you receive a state scholarship, an award from your parents' employers, or any other outside funds, you will get the full benefit of these, to the extent that we are able.

roberto '12 asked:

two questions... how long does the process of reviewing financial aid appeals last? and are we going to be notified via email/website or through regular mail?

thank you very much

So, roberto, we review appeals throughout the year as issues come up for students. We have a standing weekly meeting during the remainder of the academic year, but for the moment (during the month of April) we meet daily to review Freshmen appeals. Once a decision is reached on an appeal, we communicate directly with the family to let you know of our response.

yiwen asked:

How common is it for MIT to match the aid offered by another college? I love this place and wouldn't want to go elsewhere, but with Harvard offering better aid and it being my parents' dream...I'm not sure how to make my case =/

The answer here is that we do not "match" other institutions awards as we may not use the same need analysis or awarding practices. We are interested in hearing about your other awards as sometimes the information provided to us may assist us in understanding how your case was analyzed. Speak to your aid officer during your appeal process to indentify your concerns about your award and your ability to afford our costs.

waitlisted mom asks:

My daughter got waitlisted. MIT is her first pick. She is trying to decide whether or not to stay on the waitlist as unfortunately the final decision -if there is room at MIT--will come down to financial aid (she got a very good package at 2 other comparable schools). She will choose not to stay on the list if it is financially unfeasible-so as to give someone else a chance. Is there any way she can get an estimated financial aid letter so she can make an informed decision?

Unfortunately we are not able to provide any estimates on waitlisted students as our process of reviewing a file takes at least 30 minutes. If your daughter is admitted off of waitlist (if we do accept any students off of waitlist), then we will provide an award as soon as possible after the admissions decision. In the meantime, we cannot provide any information.

Ram asked:

Dear Daniel,

My MIT portal indicates that I am missing the following forms,

Self-Help and Outside Award Reply Form
MIT Student Information Review Form

I will send them as soon as possible. In the mean time, I was wondering if I would still receive my financial aid award letter, before I complete and send the above mentioned forms to you.

TC

If TC is "take care" then thanks!!! In answer to your question, these two forms only show up if you have been awarded, so an award letter is coming. The Self-Help form means we awarded you self-help, and the Student Information Review Form means you are receiving grant, so congratulations! These documents don't hold up your financial aid letter, they are only originally listed when you are awarded.

KaYnaR asked:

Same as Ram,

I got my package only few hours ago. Or can I send these two forms by fax?

Thank You!

and Anonymous added:

Hey is it possible to email the outside help and student info forms instead of mailing them? thanks

We prefer these forms by mail. Fax is less preferable, but still acceptable. Email is a problem, unless you actually have scanned your signature in.

Jerome asked (on my REPOST post):

What happens to all those students who got an offer of admission, but no (or not enough) FinAid because their parents are not willing to support them?

I know one guy who is in this state and will probably have to either defer for two years to earn the money, or decline. And I know a prospect who wants to apply but knows that this will probably become an issue.

Luckily I am not in this situation (I didn't get an offer, but also my one parent (mum) is willing to support me fully but has no resources, so FinAid would be fine), but I am wondering if there is something the others can do if they are in that situation?

Interesting question, Jerome. We at MIT cannot replace a parent's responsibility for paying for college. Think about it; if we said that parents only had to pay for their children's educations if they chose to pay, then no parent would contribute to their children's education. That said, there are cases where students and parents are in usual circumstances and may qualify for a waiver, but they are few and far between. Some good information can be found on the finaid.org website under the section on Dependency Overrides.

KT '12 asks:

You may have already answered this, but if you didn't get any financial aid but you still can't afford the school, and another EFC (collegeboard) shows that your EFC is actually less that the cost that MIT will cost you, can you bring this EFC to your meeting with financial aid at CPW/will this have an effect? What I really want to know is, is it possible to get financial aid after you have already been denied financial aid (even if another EFC shows that you need more money to go to MIT)? Thank you.

I haven't answered this specifically, but the answer is covered in my section on appeals. We do not meet other offers from other colleges or results from other calculators; however you are free to bring these. They may be helpful in understand to what the difference is attributable, but we cannot simply match other awards or calculations. It is possible, however, to get financial aid after you have already been denied financial aid if the subsequent information you provide changes your calculated EFC to the point where you are eligible.

Jess asked:

How do you file an appeal if we would like to? If my parents set up an appointment with a financial aid officer during CPW, would that replace filing an appeal?

Not necessarily. An appeal is usually an email or letter from you explaining a circumstance we may not have considered in our initial review. We may suggest in our meeting with you at CPW that you write us such a letter, but a meeting at CPW is not itself a request for an appeal.

Class of 2012 asked:

Will receiving outside scholarships hurt us in essence if we do not receive any loans? I have heard that you will deduct this money from the grants you give us in our financial aid packages. Is this true? How does this work?

You don't say, but I would guess then that you had no self-help award in your financial aid package. If this is correct then any outside grant would first reduce your student contribution and then your MIT grant or scholarship. If you do have self-help, replacing self-help amounts (which can be work or loan) will be the first target.

Joan '12 asked:

I'm already extremely pleased to get my financial aid offer but I have a question: I am a US citizen abroad, as my family lives in China and our US permanent address is really just for filling out forms. In this case, why would I be expected to make a contribution? (I have a travel allowance and a student contribution included in my package) Thanks

I'm glad you're pleased. Chances are that since your permanent address is listed as a US address then we used that to determine whether you get a travel award and a student contribution. You will need to let your financial aid officer know so that we can make an adjustment!

Well, that's all folks!!!! Look forward to seeing many of you on Thursday morning. Note that I will be staffing the CPW financial aid appointment desk all day Thursday. Drop by and say hello!!!

So, due to popular demand I am replaying some of the posts that explain how we determine your family contribution. Where appropriate I will be updating the information with changes made in the last several years, including changes made by our newly announced financial aid initiatives. I will title each of these posts with the prefix "REPOST" so that you are aware of both the fact that much of the information is repeated, although there are some changes in the post itself.

Hope this is helpful and feel free to ask any questions:

Here we go!

I love to sing.

It helps that I sing fairly well (or at least I like to think I do), but I do love to sing.

As for what I sing, it varies from Broadway show-tunes to Abba to Air to Eminem (I have a pretty eclectic taste in music).

And I direct musical theater! This year, I am working on a massive show at my Temple which will feature over 80 performers from Kindergartners to 12th graders. We rehearse almost every Sunday through the year with our production scheduled for June 1.

Last Sunday in rehearsal, I was thinking about what to put on this blog as we were working on harmonies for one particularly difficult song, and it hit me! The perfect image! Singing in 4 part harmony.

So why is it the perfect metaphor? Well, just like in music you need 4 parts to make up the whole (S, A, T, B), in financial aid, you need four parts to make up the whole as well (PC-I, PC-A, SC-I, SC-A).

So, enough with the metaphor (I feel like I have beat it to death) and on to what I mean.

The Expected Family Contribution is made up of four components:

1. Parent Contribution from Income
2. Parent Contribution from Assets
3. Student Contribution from Income
4. Student Contribution from Assets

(Do note that if you are from a divorced or separated family, there may also be a Non-custodial contribution from income and assets -- see here for more information on who is considered to be your parent).

What I thought I would do in the coming days is spend a little bit of time on each of these 4 components and answer some questions about each one, providing some information that will help you understand how we conduct our business.

But for today, I need to tackle one issue before we can even get started, and that is the question of who is considered to be an independent student, therefore not requiring a parental contribution of any variety.

Remember that before, I explained how there were really two different formulas, one used by the Federal Government at all schools to determine Federal aid, and one used by a number of colleges (including MIT) to determine how to award their own aid. Also, remember that I said that while the Federal rules were pretty standard across the board, there were many variations in the Institutional formula (and this year even more variation in these rules has been introduced with the announcements by several of our peer institutions that they are making wholesale changes to their formulae).

So, let me tackle the Federal rules first. If you meet any of the following 7 criteria, then you are considered to be an independent student (for Federal purposes only) and do not need to fill out parental information on the FAFSA (although some colleges may ask you to):

1. You will be 24 by January 1, 2009.
   
2. You are an orphan or a ward of the court.
   
3. You are married.
   
4. You are a graduate student.
   
5. You are a veteran of the United States armed forces.
   
6. You have a legal dependent of your own (other than a spouse) who lives with you.
   
7. You have a legal dependent of your own who doesn't live with you, but for whom you provide more than 1/2 of their support.

If any of these are true, then you are an Independent student for Federal aid purposes.

For institutional aid, the rules may be different. At MIT, we only consider as independent undergraduate students, those students whose parents are deceased. We believe that a parent's obligation to assist with a student's undergraduate college cost doesn't end just because the student turns 24 or gets married. For our funding in these cases, we require parental information. (If you are curious about how other colleges might handle this, you should contact their financial aid office).

Also, it is important to remember that our process measures a family's ability to pay, not willingness to pay, so whether a parent is or is not willing to make a contribution has no bearing to either the Federal or the institutional formulas.

That is not to say that there are never situations where we would waive parental contributions (how is that for a double negative?), but they are extremely rare and handled on a case-by-case basis. The issues would need to be egregious for us to consider them. You should talk to your financial aid counselor if you feel your situation might qualify to be considered this way.

Look next for a beginning breakdown of the parental contribution from income.

Let me know if you have any questions on this information, and I will attempt to answer them on this post!

Anyway, we mailed another 55 award letters today, leaving us with 45 files we are working on at the moment and only 288 of you with incomplete applications.

We will be running two more packaging batches to create award letters prior to CPW, one this Thursday and one next Wednesday. We will keep a copy of these award letters and place them in your CPW packets (if you are coming), since we assume if we mail awards this Thursday you may not have them in time for CPW.

Appeal review began yesterday and we are listening and responding to your requests for reconsideration of your financial aid awards (for those of you who have need to appeal).

We are making good progress towards our CPW events (in fact, I will be staffing the CPW registration desk on Thursday, so look for me in La Sala de Puerto Rico).

Hmm, not much else to report...

Questions from you?

So some technology problems, but I am back.

So, we are in 26-100 and watching Ben give the "pre-pre-pre-frosh" a live info session. Snively and I agreed to liveblog the event as it seemed like a nice chance to crash the session.

See Snively post for a blow by blow. I'll do the more whole-picture view.

Speaking of which pictures are coming.

Quote 1 "Rogers pictured a place where a biology major would be walking down the hall reading his text and a chemistry major would be coming down from the other side of the hall reading his text. They would bump into each other and, boom, bio-chemsitry was born".

Looks like about 40-50 people are here (parents, students, random admissions counselors, etc). The Admissions Office runs these sessions every day twice a day (10:00 and 2:00) and when they expect a big crowd they move the session to a room on campus which can hold more people. Today is one of those days.

Ben was a little flummoxed by the fact that Snively and I showed up, but he got used to it quick. As you see on Snively's post (who, by the way, I finally met today) he has spent some time talking about culture of MIT, history, academic programs, and now he is turning to student life.

Quote 2 (about athletics) "We are really good at sports that involve weapons and water."

Quote 3 (about Ben) "I don't have a coordinated bone in my body" -- so Ben doesn't do anything having to do with weapons or water, I guess.

Quote 4 "Hacks are the students reminding the administration that they are smarter than us."

Here is Snively typing:

And another Snively shot:

Quote 5, regarding selection "We are looking for excellence, not perfection".

So, do you think at the end of his sesison I can ask the whole crowd to gather around him for a final photo shot? Hmm. Think I'll try.

Ben has now threatened me twice with pulling me up to speak about financial aid at MIT. We'll see....

Now he is doing the dirt on the admissions application and what you should and shouldn't put on the app (and the process). Again, see Snively's post as he is getting more of the information.

Funny thing as I sit here in the room. Behind Ben is a blackboard with the words "www.mitadmissions.org" and "Admissions Reception Center 10-100", but on the side board is Bryan Nance's email address. Guess who must have done the last session?

And now he's off to financial aid. Ben is discussing our need-blind status and explaining need-blind and need-based.

Quote 6, "MIT is tuition free for anyone with $75,000 or less. We had a parent Monday who said, 'well that must mean I need to quit my job so that I can get aid.' That is not the case at all!"

Now he is launching into how we determine your family contribution. How do we meet your self-help-- student loans, student employment, and also outside scholarships since we like to reward you for your outside scholarship receipt.

Where does most of the money come from? MIT scholarship and grants is the primary source of your financial aid.

Study abroad -- let's go. "We now have study abroad, research abroad, internship abroad, summer abroad. Basically if you want to go abroad we'll find a way."

Many abroad opportunities during off periods (summer and IAP) as well. See global.mit.edu for info about MIT in the world and global.mit.edu/go for information on how to go abroad.

Quote 7 (in response to "MIT or Caltech?" question), "Choose where you go based on the culture and the people and where you feel most at home." Boston completely caters to students (probably the best city to attend college in the world).

So, the tour guides are here waiting to pick up the group... but Ben is still dragging on... :) Seems like there is more yet to go. (time check is 2:54).

Quote 8 "If you love the people you are surrounded by then everything else matters less".

So, yet again, Snively proves he is a better blogger than me. I look at his entry and I am depressed.... How did he get all of this information on there so fast? I am impressed (seriously).

And now I see Snively reading my post (hah!)... Little does he know that I've been looking at his this whole time!

Dorms, Frats, Sororities, ILGs, let's talk about housing (it came up as a question)...

Quote 9 "East campus dorms aren't quite as new, aren't quite as modern, but you have the flexibility to be creative with your living space... People who spent time in high school blowing stuff up in their parent's basement would be happy in East campus."

And finally, some group photos:

At this point, we are averaging about 20 to 30 complete files a day, but we would love for that number to increase, so if you are missing any information for us, please make sure to send it in as soon as possible. As a Freshman, it is never too late to apply for financial aid (so you can still complete your application after May 1 and still receive financial aid for your Freshman year), but if you want to be able to receive your financial aid award prior to May 1, we will need to have your file complete in the near future. Otherwise you may need to make your decision about whether or not to attend MIT without your financial aid offer in hand.

With CPW coming up, I thought I would repeat our schedule for the weekend so that if you are able to attend CPW you can know how to interface with those of us in SFS (Student Financial Services). Much of this post is cribbed from an old blog post (almost exactly three years old) in which I outlined how CPW works for us:

Here's a brief description and highlight of what SFS will be doing during CPW (to translate, what those of us who work in “Student Financial Services” will be doing during “Campus Preview Weekend”).

CPW is a wonderful time to see MIT at its best. I particularly enjoy seeing the wide variety of activities available in the CPW guidebook. Of course, no one can go to them all, and there are many that will be competing for your attention. I would like to point your attention to two particular events that I think are worthy of your consideration:

• Financial Aid Appointments -- During Thursday, Friday and Saturday of CPW, Financial Aid Officers will be available to meet with families during 20 minute time slots. These appointment times begin on the half hour and appointments can be made from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm (the start time of the last appointment of the day). The appointments will take place in Room 11-320. You can schedule appointments when you check in for CPW. We will staff a separate registration table next to the sign in for CPW (in the Stratton Student Center) and will book appointments on a first-come, first-serve basis. We do have ten of us seeing students, so there will be plenty of opportunity to book an appointment if you need one. Additionally there will be four people at the registration table, two to work with you on booking appointments and two financial aid officers to try to provide some "on-the-spot" counseling for those of you who may either just need a simple question answered or may not have time to book an appointment.

This of course begs the question of “Who needs to make an appointment?” If you are having difficulty figuring out how to afford your EFC, if you have specific questions about your financial aid award, if you need to speak with us about a delay in filing your application and understanding the repercussions of that delay, feel free to make an appointment to meet one of us. If you have general questions, though, you may want to wait to book an appointment until after you attend:

• The Financial Aid Information session -- On Friday from 1:00 to 2:00 pm in Kresge Auditorium, I will be presenting a session whose purpose is to address general questions from “How did we determine your award” to “What do I need to do know” to “How do I pay my bill” and “How do I find a job on campus.” This session will also (hopefully) provide you some time to ask questions. Parents and students are welcome! As we get closer to CPW, I'll try to post a pdf file of the PowerPoint presentation so if you are not able to attend you can take a look at it.

There's also a “meet the bloggers” event Friday night from 8:30 to 10:00. Maybe I'll have a chance to actually meet some of the other bloggers! Hope to see you there too!

Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled! You never know where you might see those of us from SFS!

If you are coming to campus for CPW soon, we look forward to seeing you. If not, you're going to miss a great event, but don't worry: MIT is so terrific that much of what happens during CPW is just a reflection of the breadth and depth of events available most every weekend.

Last, but not least, our review of any appeals for financial aid reconsideration begins on Monday. If you are planning on appealing your original financial aid award, please speak to your financial aid officer as soon as possible (see here for their names and contact info if you don't already have it). We will be holding appeal meetings to review appeals daily through the month of April (with the exception of the CPW weekend) and would love to speak with you if you feel you cannot afford your PC (you may want to see my previous post about what to consider if planning on appealing -- specifically focus on the section dealing with dilemmas).

If I don't speak with you tomorrow, have a nice weekend! I plan on participating in a town spelling bee tomorrow night. Adults compete after the kids are done and they give us difficult words. Anyone ever heard of hoomalimali?