<p>Hey everyone, </p>
<p>1) How many CSS profiles can I have?</p>
<p>2) Can I send different financial information for different colleges? I mean can I change the information in CSS for college 2 after I have sent it to college 1 ?</p>
<p>Your help will be very appreciated.</p>
<p>No, once you submit the CSS profile you cannot make changes. What I would be the difference between the financial information that you send to college one vs the info you send to college two?</p>
<p>I actually have gotten this question a lot. I haven’t filled out a PROFILE in ages, but it seems some people send out an estimated PROFILE and then the actual numbers are different. When a lot of colleges are involved, and only one has gotten the estimate, it’s logical to want to correct to the actual numbers, especially when one knows the info is not correct, that there is a glaring error or miscalculation, or something happened that is not reflected on that one submitted. I guess the answer is that each school needs to be notified of those updates.</p>
<p>Which brings me to the question of whether that estimated PROFILE required for ED is the very same one that one has to continue to submit to RD schools if student is not accepted ED? </p>
<p>Yes, actually each time you add a college, you can update the CSS and that new college will get the updated info. We did this because the EA app was all estimated. The RD apps were actual numbers. For the first school, you have to check with them but usually you will have to print it to send them corrections.</p>
<p>After submitting our CSS to the EA school there was a message on the screen explaining that changes can be made when you add another school. </p>
<p>@cptofthehouse well I also would like to know the answer of your question.</p>
<p>@sybbie719 for example my parents have a property, so I report how much I can pay after we sell the property, but there’s a possibility that my family fails to sell it in the near future because the economy of my country is in a bad condition.
Or another scenario is that my father won’t be able to work anymore ( he works online with his office in my country )</p>
<p>How does properties work for the CSS profile. Does it affect my financial aid? If we have a property should report it as a property or the amount of money I can pay for tuition?</p>
<p>smilyowl, the way it works for assets is that it’s a snapshot of what they are on the day you file the form. If you own property, you need to to report it at a net market value of what you could expect to get for it. If you sell the property the next day it doesn’t change that asset value you report The same when you report your bank account has $X and you realize it included money you used for your roof repair the next week, you can’t adjust for that. THe assets are a snapshot of what you have on a given day and you can’t change that unless you made a mistake in the amount of that day. It’s always smart to file these fin aid forms on a day other than pay day and to wait until big payment has been made.</p>
<p>If your father loses his job, it’s not going to matter either, because your PROFILE and FAFSA will be corrected with actual income for the 2014 year as reported on the 2014 tax forms with certain adjustments as stipulated. If he loses his job next year, the info is related to the fin aid office and they will consider a Professional Judgement about the situation, usually if another job is not found after a period of time You are expected to pay for college costs from income earned the prior year, as well as with savings and loans if necessary.</p>
<p>Property is reported as the net market value as of the date you file the form. What you could expect to get for it net if you were selling it that day. Asking a few realtors what you could reasonably expect to get for the property if you were to want a sale within 3 months and averaging the numbers is one way to get the sales value, and then subtract out what expenses, liens.</p>
<p>Thanks, that was a great help. I don’t qualify for FAFSA, but I will be filling the CSS Profile.</p>
<p>Even if you don’t believe you will qualify for the federal/state grants that the FAFSA offers, you will still need it to access federal student loans. Even if you choose not to borrow the student loans, it won’t hurt you to take the extra 20 minutes to fill out the FAFSA just to have those funds available in case. </p>
<p>@kgos16 Sorry, my comment caused a misunderstanding. I don’t qualify because I’m not a citizen, so I guess I don’t qualify for the federal loans either. </p>
<p>Smileyowl, since you are not a citizen, if your father is not in this country, the way his retirement accounts may be set up out of country may not be the same as we have them The way it works here in the US in many cases, is that people have retirement money they put away themselves in vehicles like IRAs and 401Ks, as examples. THey get tax incentives for putting away money into these plans. They have to pay taxes on them when they take them out. Those plans are not assessed for fin aid purposes most of the time, though PROFILE asks for the balances, but any withdrawals made are counted as income for tax purposes and fin aid purposes. On the other hand, if the company owns the plan and pays out a pension benefit, the balance may not have to be reported, but again the pension amounts do.</p>
<p>Of the retirement accounts are just plain old ordinary accounts that someone is using to stash retirement funds and is drawing from the, those accounts may have to be reported as ordinary assets, but if they are, then they don’t get assessed as income as they are withdrawn.</p>
<p>If, again, if your father has a situation in another country, it’s not so easy to make a parallel to what we do here, and you may need to work with fin aid on this… Countries have their own types of investment and retirement vehicles so how they are treated can vary widely.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse This was valuable information. I think you’r right that I might have to talk to the fin aid people. In general we don’t have things such as 401K, as long as I know people only have normal accounts, so I think the second situation applies to me.
Thanks a lot for clarifying different options !!</p>
<p>If a CSS is due December 1st for an EA school, we are estimating for 2014 correct? And then correcting with actual numbers in January? And then I can note which schools I want it sent to as I need to? </p>
<p>I am terrified of getting started on this!</p>
<p>^ I’m not good source to answer, but I think you can correct it with the actual numbers in January. Once you fill the form you can send it to any school you want. My only question is that I applied EA and they sent me the 2013-14 form. I’m wondering if that’s the correct form.</p>