<p>My D is going to be a college freshman in the fall of 2012. She has four schools on her "list" that require the CSS Profile.</p>
<p>I've read back through past posts and I'm trying to determine why it is a good idea to fill out the CSS Profile now. I've gleaned that one can amend the Profile after taxes are filed in January 2012. Is this true? </p>
<p>One of the schools (Carnegie Mellon) suggests the following: "*Please note: We encourage families to fill out the FAFSA and CSS PROFILE after January 1. Carnegie Mellon's preferred financial aid application deadline is February 15."</p>
<p>Should we estimate and fill the Profile out now and then wait to submit the application after January 1st? Typically my employer does not even send out W2s until the end of January.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input.</p>
<p>Why would you want to fill it out now and do it again in Jan/Feb? Unless your D is applying ED where you might get an early FA read, I would just wait.</p>
<p>You can’t amend the Profile like you can the FAFSA. How to make changes varies with the school, but often you send in hard copies with the corrections marked.</p>
<p>For fr, deadlines tend to be very early and many parents will file before they do taxes and then make corrections later. I always did mine earlier just due to the crunch of waiting for all the necessary forms and then having to do taxes and FA before deadlines. It really varies with when you get all of your tax information and how complex your taxes are. I would however always recommend getting your estimated Profile in by preferred deadlines.</p>
<p>Be aware that this is just for the first year, deadlines for continuing students are later.</p>
<p>The only reason to do the Profile sooner than later is if your daughter is applying early to a school and they have a Priority Deadline for the Profile for Early Action or Early Decision students. Our daughter applied EA to two schools and they both had Priority deadlines that were early November deadlines for the Profile. We, therefore did it early.</p>
<p>For DS, we had no reason to do the Profile early so we did it in January…meeting his school deadlines.</p>
<p>Last year I did the profile in November for younger S.</p>
<p>Honestly, the numbers were very close to the actual numbers, and the lessened stress of having it done was a good thing.</p>
<p>The FA officers are going to know you are using estimated numbers before the end of the year.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much!</p>