Unless you’re very wealthy, when you apply for college you need to explore financial aid opportunities. But the process can seem confusing, and before you seek the assistance of your college financial aid advisor you should know how the system works.
Two of the terms you will hear are “FAFSA” and “CSS Profile.” Both are applications that you fill out with your financial and personal information. The information is used by the college to help determine how much financial aid you will receive. But what’s the difference? Do you have to submit both?
FAFSA The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (known as the FAFSA) is a form that you fill out annually to determine your eligibility for federal student financial aid including Pell grants, Stafford loans, PLUS loans, and work-study programs. The program is administered by Federal Student Aid, which is an office of the U.S. Department of Education. Its mission is to ensure that all eligible individuals can benefit from federally funded or federally guaranteed financial assistance for college education. The form is available online at the FAFSA website. As its name implies, the application is free. It may be filled out either on paper or online.
Many of the colleges you will find on Education-for-Careers.com are eligible to administer federal Title IV education grants, and they will ask you to fill out the FAFSA before your first tuition payment is due.
The CSS / Financial Aid PROFILE The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. The association includes more than 5,400 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations. This is the same organization that administers the SAT tests.
The College Board administers the CSS / Financial Aid PROFILE (or as most people say, the CSS Profile). It is similar to the FAFSA but the information is used differently. Schools use the CSS Profile information to determine how much non-federal financial aid you will receive. This includes institutional grants and scholarships – that is, money that the college basically pays to itself to help you lower your cost of attendance (COA). Your COA will include tuition, room and board, books, travel expenses, and other expenses associated with attending college.
The CSS Profile is an Internet-based application system. There is a charge to fill out the CSS Profile application – an initial fee of $25 that includes sending your application to one school, plus a fee of $16 for every additional school or college that you want your information sent to.
Which Colleges Use the CSS Profile? Almost 600 colleges, universities, graduate schools, and professional schools use the information collected on the CSS Profile to determine eligibility for nonfederal student aid funds. Many private colleges, which have institutional financial aid funds, rely upon the CSS Profile to assist them in determining how much institutional financial aid to award. It is likely that a private college will ask students to complete both the FAFSA and the CSS Profile applications.
Many career colleges and public universities do not have institutional funds to distribute, and these schools may not require the CSS Profile.
How Is the Information Used? The FAFSA and the CSS profile use two different methodologies when calculating your expected family contribution (EFC) – that is, the amount of money they expect the individual or their family to contribute, and how much the school will award in grants and scholarships.
The CSS Profile asks for different financial information than the FAFSA. For example, the Profile collects information on estimated academic year family income, medical expenses, elementary and secondary school tuition, and unusual circumstances. In contrast, the FAFSA ignores assets of siblings, all assets of certain families with less than $50,000 of income, and both home and family farm equity.
The CSS Profile is generally due earlier than the FAFSA, and the due dates are set by individual colleges. Plan ahead! Go to the College Board website and go through the list of colleges and get the due dates for the one(s) you want.
The bottom line? Search Education-for-Careers.com, compare colleges, and apply to the ones that are a good fit for you. When you are accepted, immediately contact the school’s financial aid office and find out which applications they require.
