CSS Profile
Looking for more college financial aid? Here's a guide to the CSS Profile
On Oct. 1, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or the FAFSA, went live. The FAFSA is essential for any student who wants to qualify for federal student aid. But there’s another financial aid form that’s just as important: The CSS Profile.
This form goes live on Oct. 1. It’s more involved and invasive than the FAFSA, but it’s worth the time and effort because it could get you a huge chunk of college aid.
Here’s what you need to know.
The CSS Profile will make students eligible for institutional aid from nearly 400 colleges. (Karin Price Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
The CSS Profile is a financial aid form created by The College Board, the same organization that administers the SAT and other tests. Close to 400 colleges use the form. “The schools that ask for both forms will typically use the FAFSA calculations in determining any federal aid they offer to a student, but use the CSS Profile information in determining their own institutional resources,” said Steven Sirot, co-founder of College Benefits Research Group (CBRG) in Roseland.
Colleges will use the form to determine your Expected Family Contribution (EFC).
The EFC is a measure of your family’s financial picture, and the FAFSA and the CSS Profile calculate this differently.
For the FAFSA, the federal government uses a formula called the Federal Methodology, while colleges use their own formulas, known as Institutional Methodology. Both formulas figure out your EFC by looking at your assets, income, family size and more.
While the CSS Profile may take time to complete, the aid you may receive makes it worth it. (pixabay.com)
Because colleges consider more items than the FAFSA application, the CSS Profile will take you longer to complete.
It will ask for information the feds don’t require, such as your primary home, your retirement accounts, and non-custodial parent income. Think giving overall this additional information will make your family look wealthier, and therefore not eligible for more aid? Wrong. Colleges that require the CSS Profile are typically the schools that are more generous with aid, Sirot said.
If you have ignored certain schools because you think they’ll just be too expensive, think again. You never know what you may be offered, especially by schools with large endowment funds.
Unlike the FAFSA, the CSS Profile isn’t free.The fee for the initial application is $25, according to The College Board, and additional reports are $16.The group does offer a fee waiver for students who qualified for fee waivers when they took the SAT. Waivers are also available “if the student is an orphan or ward of the court under the age of 24 or based on parental income and family size (e.g. family of 4 would qualify with the income of $45,000 or less),” it said. Make sure you don't miss your college's deadline for the CSS Profile. (pixabay.com)
You don’t want to miss the chance for this aid, so don’t delay in completing the form.
So when do you need to complete it? The sooner, the better. There will be only so much money available in each college’s coffers, and most awards are given on a first-come, first served basis. Importantly, individual colleges will have different deadlines, so you need to check with the school’s financial aid office to be sure. Also note that if the student is applying for Early Decision or Early Action, the deadlines could be earlier, too.
There are several items you will need to complete the CSS Profile. If you don’t have all your documents when you start, or if you need to double-check something, that’s okay. You can save your progress and return to the application later.
You’re going to need:
- The most recent tax return for the parents and the student
- The current year’s income records
- Recent statements from bank accounts, brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, and any other investment
- College savings account statements
- The value of your home and other real estates, plus mortgage information
Your student, assuming she took the SAT, will already have a login with The College Board. Parents need to create one, too.
After entering your basic information, you’ll need to choose which schools to which you want to send the form.
This does several things. It makes sure the school will get your information, yes, but it will also customize your CSS Profile so you receive whatever supplemental questions your colleges require.
Unlike the FAFSA, which allows you to make corrections by certain deadlines, once you send the CSS Profile, you’re done.
If you realize you made an error, you’ll have to contact each college to see if it has a process for you to submit corrections.
So double-check and make sure you don’t mistype important information such as Social Security numbers. Also, don’t leave any blanks on the form. Be sure to write “0” or not applicable to questions that don’t apply to you. Also, pay attention to fields for explanations/special circumstances. This will give you a chance to offer additional information about certain questions.
While the FAFSA must be submitted every year, the CSS Profile may not be required annually. Or it may.
Confusing, right? Each college sets its own requirements here, so when your student accepts admission to a school, be sure to understand what the school’s expectation. Not all aid awards will automatically renew for all four years of school, so be sure to understand what the college is offering. You don’t want to have lots of aid as a freshman but have no guarantee for the remaining three years.
All the form requirements are a lot to take in, but The College Board offers some additional help.
This link offers a step-by-step slideshow about how to complete the form.
Click here to see the 2019-2020 CSS Profile Student Guide.
This link has information for divorced or separated parents.
And you can learn more about CSS Profile fee waivers here.