I am aholdout and do the family taxes by hand. I file a federal joint for GEN Alum and myself. I also file federals for our 2 children. Additonally, our D and I have to file with the state in which we live. My D will be doing her federal and state when she comes home for Spring Break in a week. She doesn't know that however....if I told her, she may have opted for a more pleasant venue.
What I find to be a big PITN is that we need to COMPLETE the forms early (within the next 2 weeks) even for merit-based scholarships.
There are students who don't qualify for financial aid through FAFSA and CSS Profile. These students still have to go through the rigamarole of applying through these 2 agencies for merit-based $$$.