Early Decision

U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents

If you are applying for Early Decision, the following information will help you determine which applications and forms you need to complete and the dates you should submit them. In order to submit your financial aid application materials by the November 15th due date, you may need to estimate some of the required information.

If your financial aid application is late, your financial aid eligibility will not change. If you complete your application late, however, you may not receive your financial aid award before the deadline to commit to Duke. This means you will have to decide if you will matriculate to Duke without knowing how much aid you will receive. We therefore strongly recommend you complete your financial aid application as early as possible.

To get an estimate of your financial aid award, check out our calculator.

NOTE: The FAFSA application will not be uploaded to the applicant access account until the end of February. This item will stay incomplete until that time. If you have received a confirmation from FAFSA that the application has been received, you can go ahead and remove Duke's code and insert another school code.

Required Forms	Due Dates	How to Apply/Where to Send
2012-2013 CSS Profile Application	Nov 1, 2011 (Priority) Nov 15, 2011 (Final)	Apply online at the College Board’s Profile On Line site. Duke’s CSS College Code is 5156. Duke receives your Profile data electronically from CSS. Please do not send copies to the Duke Financial Aid Office.
2010 Tax Returns & W2 Forms (include applicant name and birthdate)	Nov 15, 2011	Submit signed copies of your parents’ and your own 2010 W2 forms and federal tax returns (including all forms, schedules and any business tax returns if your parent's own a business) to the Duke Financial Aid Office. The preferred method of submission of these forms is via email to finaid@duke.edu or via fax to (919) 660-9811. If you are unable to fax or email your documents, copies will be accepted via direct mail. If your parents did not file a US return, we require copies of the foreign return filed. If your parents did not file ANY tax return, download the Non-Tax Filer Statement from our forms page and submit to the Duke Financial Aid Office.
CSS Noncustodial Profile (Only required if your parents are divorced, separated, or were never married.)	Nov 15, 2011	When you complete your Profile registration, the College Board will notify you via email that Duke requires the Noncustodial Profile. This e-mail will provide details about the requirement and should be shared with your noncustodial parent. The e-mail will contain a link to the Noncustodial Profile website as well as login instructions for your noncustodial parent. Your noncustodial parent must send a copy of his/her 2010 tax return directly to Duke’s Financial Aid Office.
Additional Information	Nov 15, 2011	If your family has special circumstances or unusual expenses, or if there are any other details which will help us more completely understand your financial situation, please make sure we know.
2012-2013 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) (Required of all enrolling ED students to finalize their financial aid awards.)	Apr 15, 2012	Apply online after January 1, 2012, at www.fafsa.ed.gov. Duke’s federal code number is 002920. Be sure to sign your FAFSA either electronically with a PIN number provided by the Department of Education or by printing out and mailing a FAFSA signature sheet to the processor. More information on PIN numbers can be found at www.pin.ed.gov.
2011 Tax Returns & W2 Forms (Required of all enrolling ED students to finalize their financial aid awards.)	April 1, 2012 (Sent to IDOC) April 15, 2012 (Received by our office)	During January you will receive a letter from the College Board’s Institutional Documentation Service (IDOC) providing instructions on how to submit your 2011 tax forms along with coordinating W2's. You will be asked to send signed photocopies of all pages of your parents’ and your own 2011 federal tax returns (including all forms, schedules and W2's) to the College Board. This information is required before any aid can be applied to your charges. 2011 Noncustodial Parent federal tax returns must be submitted directly to Duke Financial Aid Office. Please Note: Only one package of documents may be submitted to the IDOC service, so please do not submit your package until all your documents have been compiled. If we request additional information based on the review of your aid application, please send these additional documents directly to the Duke Financial Aid Office. Do not send additional documents to IDOC after mailing your original package.
Profile Corrections	No Date	Since we verify all financial information with the financial documentation you provide to IDOC, you do not need to submit Profile corrections regarding financial information. If you need to correct other information, such as family size or number of children in college, you can email us this information and we'll correct it for you.