Hi CC!
I’m posting this for my friend who doesn’t have account. She was accepted RD to Northwestern University.
In order to attend, she needs financial aid.
Her dad did her FAFSA but has yet to finish it. She did not fill out the CSS Profile. She plans on applying for outside scholarships.
What else can she do? Is it still possible to receive financial aid after the deadline?
She needs to contact Northwestern and ask. They’re the only ones who can tell her. Either they’ll say no, it’s too late, or they’ll agree to let her submit a late FA application. But she needs to contact Northwestern ASAP and find out.
And she can forget about outside scholarships. Even if she gets a $1,000 scholarship (or two) that’s not going to cover one year at Northwestern, much less four. Northwestern generally meets full need for admitted students, so if they’re still willing to consider her FA application, she may be okay. But if they refuse, then she needs to cross that school off her list - she’s not going to cover the cost of attendance with outside scholarships.
Worst case scenario, she’ll need to take a year off and reapply next fall - and, this time, get her financial aid applications in on time!
Thank you @dodgersmom! I’ll pass on this information to her. 
Can your friend read school websites? There are deadlines she has clearly missed for financial aid application submission.
Having said that…NU meets full need. She should contact them ASAP to find out what the implication of late applications has on her financial aid prospects. Only the school can answer that question.
Her parents can use estimates to submit the FAFSA and profile NOW…like today. They should use the best possible estimates for the 2015 tax year.
The likelihood of her finding outside scholarships that will fund NU in full is zero at this point in time.
This is going to be an issue at every college to which she applied. So…she needs to contact them all.
And you and your friend both need to understand that “meeting full need” doesn’t necessarily mean that Northwestern will be affordable. If her family’s income is very, very low, then the school will likely cover her full cost of attendance. But what if her parents make $100k/year, and just don’t have any money saved for college? The school is going to expect them to pay something, and it’s entirely possibly that the expected payment will be more than they can afford. In other words, what the family thinks they need, and what the college thinks they need may not be the same thing.
Your friend should have some idea of what her family finances are . . . does she get free lunch at school, or are both parents driving BMW’s? Or, more likely, is she somewhere in between? That’s what the net price calculators (NPCs) on each college website are for - to help estimate what her actual cost of attendance will be at that college.
So, first thing she needs to do is finish up the FAFSA and Profile - today! Then, first thing tomorrow, call Northwestern. Finally, when everything else is done, she should sit down and run the NPC for Northwestern and figure out how much of the total cost she can reasonably expect the college to cover for her.
Could she ask to defer her enrollment until fall 2017 and in the meantime work, full out next year’s FAFSA first thing in October 2016, and apply for scholarships at NU and externally?
** moderators note**
Please have your friend set up their own account and post for his/herself
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She did not fill out the CSS Profile
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?? Why not??? She wont’ get any aid beyond tiny federal aid if she doesn’t.
If she really wants to go to NU, and wants aid, she needs to follow the rules/instructions.
For us, the NU financial aid matched the NPC number pretty well. However, not submitting the required forms on time is a killer for anything. Unless the student’s parent does not need or care about financial aid, I don’t see how would this happen. By not submitting CSS profile, she is basically telling NU that she does not need FA.
For outside scholarships, it is rather late to “plan” for it now. Also, most outside scholarships are small and non-renewable.
She ended up calling Northwestern’s financial aid office and they said the deadlines are very strict and they will happily review any materials she sends them and provide her with all the need they see fit.
Thanks for the help!
What the heck does that mean???
Oh well, I guess she’ll find out soon enough.
@dodgersmom Sorry, I meant /not/ very strict.
Since she contacted them, she should get everything in to them as soon as possible. Parents need to wrap up fafsa and get on the stick with the profile. It’ll take several hours to do, but you shouldn’t delay. Otherwise they may “see fit” not to grant her much aid.
It’s a blessing that Northwestern is financially generous and forgiving with the deadlines, but that generosity shouldn’t be presumed upon.
Closing thread. Question answered, and we really discourage the “asking for a friend” thing.