The Other Early Decision Deadline: When 23 Colleges Want Your Aid Forms

An Early Decision application has two deadlines, and the Common App only shows you one of them. The other belongs to the college's financial aid office: the date it needs the CSS Profile, the FAFSA and, at most colleges, a copy of your family's tax returns. That second date decides whether a price comes with your December answer.

For a binding application, the price is the one thing you can't afford to be missing. We read the aid pages of 23 colleges that run Early Decision. Their dates run from November 1 to December 2, and at five of them the aid forms are due the same day as the application.

The dates

IDOC is the College Board's document upload service; colleges that use it want tax returns sent there rather than to the aid office. "Only if requested" means the college's page says it asks some families for documents after it has reviewed their forms.

Eight colleges want it by Monday

At Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Boston College, Villanova and Lehigh, the aid forms are due on November 1, the same day as the application. November 1 is a Sunday this year. Brown, Duke and Boston University want them the next day.

If one of those eight is your Early Decision school, the CSS Profile is part of the application, not something to finish afterward. It is also the longer of the two forms: it asks about things the FAFSA leaves out, including the value of your family's home. Starting it the week the application is due is how families end up filing the application on time and the aid forms a few days late.

Penn's label says what the date is for

Penn's aid checklist gives Early Decision two dates and names each one for what it does. November 6, 2026 is the "Deadline for Award Letter at Admission." January 15, 2027 is the "Deadline for Award Letter Before Fall '27 Billing in July."

File by the first and the award comes with the admission decision. File by the second and it comes later, after the agreement you signed has already asked you to withdraw your other applications.

That gap matters more in Early Decision than anywhere else. The usual way out of an Early Decision admission is an aid offer that doesn't make attendance possible, and many colleges publish that release (how the agreement works). You can only use it if there is an offer to look at. Penn is the only college here that labels its dates that plainly. The safe reading everywhere else is the same: the aid deadline is the date your file has to be complete if you want the number in December.

Priority, preferred, deadline

Four colleges call their date a priority date: Vanderbilt, Boston College, Villanova and Northeastern. Carnegie Mellon calls its November 15 date preferred and says students can still apply for aid after it. If you want the aid answer to arrive with the admission answer, read all of these words as "deadline."

Small details that cost a week

• Haverford wants the College Board account you'll use for the CSS Profile registered by October 15, a month before its November 15 deadline.
• Cornell asks international applicants for the CSS Profile by November 1, two weeks ahead of its November 15 date for U.S. families.
• Duke and Tufts split the forms from the paperwork: forms first (November 2 and November 16), tax returns later (November 15 and December 1).
• Penn and Lehigh don't use IDOC. Both take tax documents through their own systems.
• Dartmouth wants the CSS Profile by November 1 but the FAFSA not until February 1.

The CSS Profile costs $25 for the first college and $16 for each one after that. The FAFSA is free. Both opened for 2027–28 on October 1.

Where the pages disagree

Four colleges print different dates on different pages. Lehigh's aid office says the FAFSA is due November 1 for Early Decision; a Lehigh admissions page says February 1. Emory's aid page says December 2; an Emory admissions page says December 3. Tufts' aid page says November 16; an older Tufts table says November 15. Duke's admissions page for the 2026–27 cycle says November 2; an older Duke aid page says November 3.

In the table we used the page written for this cycle. When two dates disagree, file by the earlier one. Nobody has lost an aid award by being a day early.

What the date doesn't settle

Filing on time gets you a number. It doesn't tell you whether the number will be one you can pay. Before you file, the best preview available is the published average for your family's income band (what families actually pay, by band), and each college's net price calculator is the step after that. If the average for your band at your Early Decision school is already out of reach, the aid deadline is not the date to worry about first.

Where this comes from

Each college's own financial aid or admissions page, read on October 8, 2026, for students applying Early Decision I for fall 2027 entry. Application deadlines are from our Early Decision deadline list. CSS Profile fees are from the College Board. Colleges revise these pages during the fall, so check the college's page before you file.

Start with the school you're leaning toward: what it published, and your estimate there, are free. The full answer for your whole list is the paid document.