I’m applying to a number of schools which require the CSS profile. I’m 31 years old and have been financially independent for a long time. However, the CSS profile doesn’t seem to give me the option to indicate this. What can I do? It would be a nightmare to try to roundup all the financial information from my divorced parents, only to be ‘penalized’ in my financial aid for support that I’m not going to receive. I hope somebody out there has a solution. Thanks.
What do the schools say, when do they consider a student independent for financial aid?
Are you applying to law or medical school? Some of them require parent information for their students.
@31fresh Hi: The birth date you entered is one of the determinants for independent/dependent classification. Thus, without a doubt, Profile has you classified as independent. However, that’s not the issue; the issue is that some or all of the schools you are sending Profile to require parent information. Furthermore, Profile is built to accommodate individual school preferences. So for example, if you are applying to 4 schools and of those 4, only 1 school requires parental information from independent students, you would then see the questions pertaining to parental info (e.g. financial amounts, etc.). Note that the parent info will be delivered only to that single requiring school (and not to the other 3 schools). Hope that clarifies things a little bit.