I’ve been filling out my d’s CSS this morning and am at the point where it asks what college my son will be in (entering in 2020), the total cost to attend, and type of school) public or private. At this point these are all unknowns. How is this supposed to be filled out? I likely won’t know those answers until April or May of next year.
On the CSS, I believe that there is a place that you can see which colleges require which information. I would fill in that information based on which college is asking (ie, if it’s “College A,” put in whatever stats would match up with “College A.”
Hmmm, I have no idea what you mean. It’s just a section that asks the school younger sibling will be attending for 2020-2021 year, plus additional information about cost and what type of school (public or private). Not sure what you mean by different colleges wanting different information. I will also need to fill this out for my son, and I won’t have the above information for my daughter either as she’s hoping to transfer next year.
Also, an unrelated question. Do meet full need schools use your FAFSA EFC, or do they determine their own EFC?
Most schools that guarantee to meet full need for all use the data from the Profile or their own financial aid form to determine awarding of their need based aid. Your FAFSA EFC really isn’t what is used. The Profile and school forms (e.g. Princeton) delve much more into detail about finances than the FAFSA does. There are things on the Profile that are not on the FAFSA…primary home equity, values of businesses if you own a small one, income and assets of non-custodial parents if parents are divorced.
The exception is University of Chicago which uses the FAFSA, and a very short Chicago form. Chicago uses the data from the FAFSA to determine need based aid.
It may have been once you get to the IDOC part of the CSS that it shows which colleges want what information. I would put down an amount similar to the colleges that use the CSS profile that she has applied to. If most of the private schools that she’s chosen are around $50k-65K, I’d say $60,000. I don’t know if any public schools use the CSS Profile, so I’d say private would be the best answer for type of school. If you look on each school’s website, you can find out if they just use the FAFSA or if they use the FAFSA and the CSS Profile.
Each full need school uses whatever formula that they want to use. There is no uniform method. If you name the specific schools, someone may be able to help. If your financial situation is simple enough, the NPC for each college should be able to give you a reasonable estimate as well.
I think this is bad advice. Don’t guess or make up the numbers. If you don’t know the answer, don’t enter anything. If you’re filling out Profile now for your daughter, it should be obvious to any financial aid person with half a brain that you probably don’t yet know where your high school senior son will be going to college next year or how much it will cost.
I don’t disagree, as long as it will allow you to submit the form with incomplete answers.
I didn’t notice until now that this is a CSS Profile being filled out for the daughter and it is asking about the son who isn’t in college yet–I would definitely leave those questions blank if possible.
It won’t let me leave it blank. Well, I can leave the college and tuition blank, but not the type of school (2 yr 4 yr etc) and public v private (applied at both). I guess I could put private (higher price point) and call it a day and just leave the rest blank.
Use your best judgment, and explain any unknowns or discrepancies in the ES section at the end.
Your daughter is a returning student, correct? What is her school’s deadline for submitting Profile for academic year 2020-2021?
@Belknap Point D is going into her junior year but may be transferring schools. S is going into freshman year and no idea where he’s going. He has applied to a few schools EA and rolling admission. Not sure what deadlines are for either student for the profile. This is my third year filing this out, but first with two students.
Really? This is information that you definitely want to know, and it plays a key part in strategically applying for need-based financial aid. The deadlines are easily obtained from each school’s website.
I never knew there was a different deadline for each school, no. I just do the CSS when I do the FAFSA. I just checked the one school for my D and two for my S and the earliest (his) is December 1. The others are next year. So I’m fine in terms of timing. Guess I’ll need to fill that section in and explain somewhere else. I’m surprised there aren’t a lot of people who have run into this issue before.
When our twins were applying to college and we were filling out the CSS before we had their acceptances/decisions, we just made our best guess at the time. We based it on where they had applied, where they wanted to go, and where we thought they might realistically end up. We filled out the CSS once very early in the process and sent it to all CSS schools at the same time. I don’t think schools use that number blindly. Just because you choose to send the other kid to a $70K school, doesn’t mean they’re going to make up the difference.
I would be afraid that leaving it blank would hurt you in terms of financial aid. Just my thoughts – I’m no expert.
I would put down private. The info gets verified later by certain schools and financial aid gets adjusted accordingly. Sometimes a kid takes a gap year and doesn’t even end up at college. I would cover the most expensive contingency and then let the colleges adjust when they and if they actually start putting together the financial package and verify the information
I remember my friend’s DD getting a call from NYU financial aid asking about sibling college info one spring. I don’t know if they verified further directly from sibling’s college, but they did ask for the specific college name. They called before the young woman got her NYU acceptance, I remember
The timing part of strategically applying for need-based financial aid has more to it than just making sure the paperwork is submitted by the school’s deadline.
Where I can find this important strategic information because I have no idea what you’re talking about. All I’ve ever heard is to complete the forms as soon as possible. My son just finished sending in his apps last week, so I couldn’t have filled the CSS out any earlier as we didn’t have a final list of schools to which to send. My D is applying for readmission as we speak so that is why I’m doing hers now. Beyond that I’m unfamiliar with the specific way one should go about applying for FA.
You don’t have any way today to change your reportable income from 2018, which is what is used on FAFSA and Profile as paperwork is submitted now for academic year 2020-2021. But you do have plenty of ways to control what is reported for assets, as the asset figures are based on the circumstances that exist as of the day the forms are completed. Basic example: you have $30k cash today that you are going to use to buy a new car in January. The school’s deadline for FAFSA and Profile is January 15th. If you complete the forms today, you will need to report the $30k as part of parent assets. If you buy the car on January 10th and submit FAFSA and Profile on January 12th, the $30k is gone and is no longer a reportable parent asset. Any major expense can be substituted for the car in the example above, and the same principle applies to the receipt of assets (submit the forms prior to receiving a reportable asset).
Sometimes this can be good advice, but not always. It normally only pertains to government aid programs that have limited resources which might be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.
Yes, you could have filled out the Profile as early as October 1st, if that was the best date for your family from a financial reporting standpoint. You can always go back later, after initial completion/submission, and pay to have it sent to whatever schools need it.
What does “readmission” mean in this context?
The FA forms are completed in Oct/Nov. No one knows for sure where their student will go or where the sibling will go the next fall. The question is always an estimate of what tuition will be and what FA will be or even if the sibling will be in college and if there will still be merit aid. The system is designed that these sections are estimates.
Sometimes, and maybe for a majority of the time by new applicants (high school seniors). But it’s not at all unusual for returning students to complete the forms at the beginning of the calendar year or even in the spring, depending on when the college deadlines fall for returning students applying for financial aid.