<p>hey say you wanna apply for financial aid to all your universities and they all use the CSS profile. Can you change the contributed amounts (ie the total amount you/you parents can pay), according to which university you want to get into and how competitive it is to gain admission?</p>
<p>Are you an international student? If you’re a US citizen/resident, I don’t think it matters much what you say your family’s willing to pay: the school decides what your family should pay. Therefore, unless you’re applying to multiple need-aware schools, it wouldn’t make any sense to change the contributed amounts. If you’re an international student, I don’t know.</p>
<p>yea im an international student … the financial aid apps are real confusing. thanks nyways =)</p>
<p>Hmm, you’ll have to check out the financial aid information from each school to determine how they use that information with your application. I know if you use the search there should be some information from previous international students, even if it is dated a year or two. But I’d be really leery of adjusting your “need” too much: I assume you applied to “reaches, matches, safeties,” but if you significantly change what you “need” you may be making all those schools reach schools (even less prestigious schools, if they don’t have a lot of financial aid to give, can’t afford to take in very many full-scholarship international students. So they may not be very selective statistically, but for your situation they could be).</p>
<p>*Can you change the contributed amounts (ie the total amount you/you parents can pay), according to which university you want to get into and how competitive it is to gain admission? *</p>
<p>If you can honestly put that your family can contribute X dollars (say $25k per year), why would you put any other figure on various apps?</p>
<p>If you’re thinking that if you put a larger number - say $45k - just to help your chance for acceptance, then what will you have achieved if you do get accepted? You’ll have gotten into a school that you can’t afford.</p>
<p>To be honest, I don’t think anyone here can say with certainty how that question about what your family CAN contribute (on the Profile) is used in the finaid formulas. If it were me…I would put the same amount. The reality is you get to complete ONE Profile and it cannot be amended online like the FAFSA. So if you intend to submit your Profiles to multiple schools at one time…only one amount can be put in the blank. Just put what your family CAN pay and call it a day.</p>