<p>While researching, several articles have said that after being accepted to more than one college you should compare how much financial aid theyre offering. But where do i get that information? Will it come with the acceptance letter or will forms need to be filled out?
Help Please.</p>
<p>The standard form to be filled out is the FAFSA. Another form than many schools use is the CSS Profile. Each school specifies both its own admissions deadlines and its deadline for filing for financial aid. For many schools, it is January 1 for admissions, and somewhat later for financial aid.</p>
<p>Key point–if you wait until you are admitted to ask about financial aid, the deadlines will be passed, the money allocated and you will be up a creek.</p>
<p>Unless you are only interested in merit-based awards, you will need to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the CSS Financial Aid Profile (if applicable, depends on the school) by the appointed deadlines. Each college has this information on their website. The announcement of need-based offers may come with an acceptance letter, or may not, depending on when you sent in the forms. If you are eligible for automatic, merit-based scholarships, then you will most likely find out about this aid when you receive your acceptance materials.</p>
<p>Dittoed everything from post #2 (sorry for the duplicate info) – one thing about merit awards and deadlines: many schools have earlier application deadlines if you want to be considered (as early as Dec 1). Check with each school on their policy regarding this.</p>
<p>Early Decision process also has different deadlines for the CSS profile. Check with each school’s website, or call the admissions office.</p>
<p>So would I fill out the FAFSA forms for each school, then use the results to help me decide which to attend, or do i have to confirm that i’ll be attending that school before i’m able to fill out the FAFSA or similar forms?</p>
<p>You fill out the FAFSA once, and you fill out the Profile once, and then they are sent to all of the schools you list. Both forms will require a lot of information from the parents’ tax forms, as well as assets (real estate, investments, etc.) Some schools–not very many–have supplemental forms as well.</p>
<p>But you have to carefully research each school and figure out what their process of applying is. It easily takes as much time to manage the financial aid applications as it does the admissions applications. But for many families–including mine–it is essential to being able to attend.</p>