As part of the College Financial Aid process, colleges generally request additional financial information from you to “finalize” your financial aid award. When you receive your first financial aid award from the school’s financial aid department, it is typically an “estimated“ award pending additional steps to be completed by you by a particular deadline before the award is “final”.
What is really happening is that they provided an estimated award based on the information you provided on your financial aid forms (FAFSA, CSS PROFILE, etc.) Now, to “double-check” that the information you provided is reasonably accurate ( or even “true”), the schools will typically ask for additional documents from you to verify the information on your financial aid forms.
Most often, they are going to focus on the information contained within your tax returns for your “base income year”. Most often, they ask for a copy of your most recent Federal tax return, W-2’s, etc. (Remember, separately we told you to “get your taxes done early”.) Most schools ask for this info in one of three ways – “IDOC”, send photocopies or even “linking” your FAFSA form to your IRS tax return filings. Remember, EACH school is different in how they collect this information, so make sure you check the portals and/or emails for EACH school!
So, what is IDOC?
Depending on the colleges you have applied to, you may receive an email from CollegeBoard (Or Big Future), or from the the school itself regarding “IDOC” (“Institutional Documentation Service”). This is a service that some colleges use to receive your financial documents; in particular, tax return specific documents. This will typically included your federal tax return, and most, if not all, of the related tax schedules submitted with your return. In addition, copies of W-2’s, etc. — lots of documents! They will scan this information and pass it along to the colleges. Please make sure you read the email fully and follow the directions on how to log in, which documents are required, and how to send the information to them.
Not all of the colleges use this service, so do not become alarmed if you do not receive an email regarding IDOC. Instead, simply follow the instructions provided by the school and send as directed by the deadline.
As we say many times, “BE PROACTIVE! Do NOT assume!“. Therefore, we recommend you check out each college’s process on how they collect this information beforehand.
