CSS Profile misinformation

Paying for College
1

<p>Hello!</p>

<p>I submitted a CSS Profile to my college that I will be attending in September. </p>

<p>To begin, my parents are divorced. My dad filled out the CSS profile for my mom and himself. My mother was too busy and he offered to do it for her. </p>

<p>Now, he accidentally combined his and my mom's income and assets on my mother's form. Apparently, you are only supposed to report your custodial parent's income on the custodial form (despite it saying "parents'"). My father is very frustrated because of this and we're looking for some answers.</p>

<p>Instead of my mom's income reading as $x, it reads as $x+y, where my dad's income is $y. My dad makes a bit of money to significantly inflate the figure, and we want to make sure our ducks are in a row. Since our school is need-based, they may be anticipating my mother to pay quite a bit, when, in reality, she can't.</p>

<p>Now, I know I should have checked this detail earlier. But it hadn't crossed my mind, and I figured my father had accurately entered the information. Now, I am wondering if 1) my research is correct (about not adding the income) and 2) how I can go about fixing them if my research is correct. </p>

<p>While I can't imagine it having a big impact on the aid we receive, I'd like to make sure that all our information is accurate. </p>

<p>Thank you for your help!</p>

2

<p>Contact the FA office at the college about how to correct this. If the college requires NPC info it may make little difference. If it doesn’t it could make a huge difference (or they may be double counting your dad’s info). Call them ASAP.</p>

3

<p>Your custodial parent…the one with whom you reside the most…is supposed to complete the Profile when parents are divorced. The non-custodial parent completes the non-custodial form.</p>

<p>You need to contact the college to see how this should be corrected. </p>

<p>On the FAFSA, you should ONLY have put your custodial parent. Did you do that correctly?</p>

<p>If the school requires information from both parents AND they expect both parents to contribute, they will only look at what their calculation says the parents should contribute. It won’t matter that one or the other parent can’t pay…just a heads up on that.</p>