CSS Profile for Divorced Parents

True; the emotions surrounding a divorce can run quite high. Hopefully, the best interests of the child will prevail over any impulse to mentally litigate the divorce.

It could also indicate a mistake was made by the NCP when he/she entered the information. There is no way for the CP to know why the award is low unless the parties talk about it. The student could be stuck because the school will not release info about the NCP, but also will not issue a bigger award because, well, the NCP filed a form with information showing there is plenty of money for college (true or error).

“I’m not talking about a student portal that CSS maintains; I’m talking about a portal that a school might have. That being said, if CSS establishes and maintains a student portal that makes available to the student (and potentially by extension the custodial parent as well) the private and sensitive financial information of a non-custodial parent, that’s the same kind of failure that I’m referring to in the post that you quote above.”

I’ve been referring to the Profile Student Portal the whole time. In my very first reply on 12/13/17 to the original poster I said ‘Profile Student Portal’.

As for sharing ‘private and sensitive financial information’ of an NCP, that potential outcome is disclosed to the NCP upfront before he/she completes NCP Profile process. Thus, if he/she decides not to provide info via the Profile Student Portal (for sensitivity and privacy reasons), he/she can, instead, send documentation via traditional means directly to the school financial aid office. The FAO would then update the student’s Case in the Profile Institutional Portal and flag the student through his/her Profile Student Portal that the NCP’s info has been received and all documentation requirements have been met. FWIW, approximately 99.999% of NCPs will use the Profile Student Portal to upload their documents; very, very few will decide to go the other route.

"Reverse engineering can be done without access to the other parent’s financial documentation.

For example, if one parent know his/her own finances and the student’s financial aid package, it should not be difficult to make a reasonable guess at the other parent’s finances by putting in the one parent’s known finances and guesses of the other parent’s finances in the college’s net price calculator until the one parent finds a guess that produces a net price calculator result similar to the student’s financial aid package."

Fortunately for all, none of that is possible in Profile. Once the student answers -at the very beginning of the Profile- that the parents are divorced, Profile will then only provide input fields for the custodial parent (CP) household. There’s nowhere for the CP to input reasonable guesses about the NCP: no data-entry fields will appear; no questions about NCP household finances, etc., will be asked. There’s simply nowhere for the CP to enter data or info for the NCP -not at the time when completing the Profile, nor any time after.

With the Profile, it doesn’t matter whether or not the CP has NCP financial and household information -be it guesses or actual figures. That’s because once the student answers -at the very beginning of the Profile- that the parents are divorced, Profile will then only provide input fields for the custodial parent (CP) household. There’s nowhere for the CP to input reasonable guesses about the NCP: no data-entry fields will appear; no questions about NCP household finances, etc., will be asked. There’s simply nowhere for the CP to enter data or info for the NCP -not at the time when completing the Profile, nor any time after.

Not the whole time. You have made references in this thread to “Student Portal” without using the “Profile” qualifier, which has introduced some ambiguity about what, specifically, you are referring to. And I’ll continue to say it: if CSS has implemented a Profile system that allows NCP financial information (or anyone’s financial information, for that matter) to be seen by an adversarial party, that’s a major oversight.

I believe that the posts about reverse engineering had to do with entries in a school’s Net Price Calculator, not a Profile app.

Reverse engineering approximations of the other parent’s finances can be done by using the college’s net price calculator; access to the other parent’s part of the CSS Profile is not needed.

Of course, sometimes it is too obvious. E.g. if one parent is poor enough that the student would get full financial aid if just that parent’s income and/or wealth is used, but the student actually gets no financial aid after both parents put in their parts of the CSS Profile, then it is not hard for the poor parent to see that the other parent has lots of income and/or wealth.

But remember…some colleges treat non-custodial parent income and assets differently than custodial parent income and assets.

So, we’re quibbling over typing? FWIW, once I established in the very beginning that I was speaking to the Profile Student Portal, that vein of topic continued consistently throughout my posts. Besides that, it was the defacto title topic of the entire string.

As for ‘major oversight’, you’re entitled to your opinion. Perhaps you should bring this to the College Board’s attention; there are loopholes in all legalise.

FWIW, I participate in CollegeConfidential specifically to the Profle because I’m part of the people behind the curtains machinery of the Profile process hairball, Because of this access, I believe I can provide clear, specific, and accurate info straight from the horse’s mouth to those who suffer from Profile’s confoundedness, complexity and confusion.

Not quibbling; I’m simply pointing out that you haven’t been referring to “Profile Student Portal” this way the “whole time” (as you claim), and one result has been a misunderstanding about what kind of portal you are talking about.

@Politipotamus

If you have inside Profile information…could you please find the several threads where posters are having difficulty completing or even starting a non-custodial parent Profile…and help them with doing so?

And could you maybe explain why this year, for the first time, there isn’t just a plain old non-custodial parent Profile for the NCP to complete as was done in the past…with no difficulty?

Trying to help D’s NCP with this and am totally stumped! Has anyone successfully completed one, or figured out where and how to do it?

Never mind - found it. Nice (that’s sarcasm) that they totally changed it this, her last FA year. Sigh.