<p>Seriously, do I really have to list when we purchased and how much I paid for a 2001 Honda??? I don't remember! Do I really have to add up all my credit card debt and detail why I have each credit account? Do I really have to add up how much in whole life insurance (not term life) policies we have??</p>
<p>Our income is probably too high to receive much financial aid - do I really have to spend all this time telling them every single detail of our financial life? What's next - where we went and how much was spent for our family vacation the last 5 years??</p>
<p>Ok, I feel better now - the glass of wine helped too ;-)</p>
<p>It’s quite silly isn’t it…we drive ancient cars so I just put 1993 Blah blah blah and 0 and If the college really wants to know more than that about the two 1993 vehicles, the one 1999 vehicle and the 1991 truck we own they can send me an e-mail. I would be willing to donate all 4 vehicles to the college in exchange for a year’s tuition if that interests them.</p>
<p>Different colleges ask for different information. My D applied to seven colleges that require the CSS profile. At the end of the form, it tells you which schools will get the answers to which questions. I quess that is one reason that our CSS profile is taking so long to complete. I’m going to need to call some banks, insurance companies, etc. tomorrow before I have all the needed data.</p>
<p>If your paid your credit card off every month, it would be easy to add up!
These all appear to be questions asked by an individual college, because we didn’t see any of them on our application. I agree with RunsWScissors - eliminate the school that is so intrusive! They want to whole life insurance, because it has a cash value - it’s an asset! And be glad they’re asking about credit card debt - that means they’re taking that information into consideration (unless they’re comparing it to some average, and your number is low - but I somehow doubt that’s how they use it).</p>
<p>I’m sure they would be glad to let you skip the questions, and just pay full-freight.</p>
<p>No one is going to check when you actually bought a 2001 vehicle. Just take your best shot at the year you bought it, guess at the month, and you’re done. If you need to determine the value, you can calculate the value in about 5 minutes on [Official</a> Kelley Blue Book New Car and Used Car Prices and Values](<a href=“http://www.kbb.com%5DOfficial”>http://www.kbb.com).</p>
<p>For you the exact date and value on the car is not much of an issue. But let’s say that you bought a 2011 Lexus LS 460 in September 2012 for around $55,000. Now that might make the school notice that your cash balance is low because you made the decision just a few months ago, right before your child applied to college, to buy a high-end car for cash. On the other hand, if you had bought a 2001 Honda in September 2012, it would not appear that you are making an attempt at spending down your cash in order to qualify for financial aid.</p>
<p>I’m not completely certain, but if you order a free credit report online it might have your account balances.</p>
<p>I see the questions on CSS as annoying, but necessary. The schools have a limited amount of money available, and they want to make sure it gets to the students who are most in need.</p>
<p>Okay, can someone please tell me the relevance of the student’s cell phone number??? (Yes, this is one of the supplemental questions on Profile.)</p>
<p>I use one e-mail and our home land line for all phone number information on all forms - applications, financial etc. The college will have all the information on the student needed for what they need to accomplish. Once my older kids decided which college they were going to attend they went into their on-line accounts and added actual contact information, their cell phone numbers, emergency contact info, and our cell phone numbers.</p>
<p>dodgersmom- they probably want to call or text our kids to see if they can verify some info with them about us…(you know how kids can’t always keep a secret) JK :)</p>
<p>marybee333 - And the kid’s answer (to whatever question they’re asked) will almost certainly be something along the lines of, “Gee, I don’t know, but I’ll make sure and ask my folks as soon as they get back from that really expensive trip to the Bahamas!” :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Well, I think these questions are just fine for the school to ask. They basically are trying to undo all the FAFSA “manipulation” some college planners advise their clients to do to look poor and get more financial aid. Buy a nice new car and empty your bank account. Buy single-pay whole life with a high cash value which doesn’t show up on FAFSA. Pay down your mortgage.</p>
<p>FAFSA only schools are usually NOT the ones giving huge, generous NEED based institutional aid. CSS schools don’t want to give that need aid to families that could easily have had the $$$ to pay much more but “stashed it” in some non-FAFSA asset. Is it hard to guestimate the value of a 2001 Honda? Not really. The exact value isn’t important anyhow. As was said, it’s the $55k new Lexus in 2012 they care about really - as they should. Remember, it’s THEIR money we’re asking for some of. </p>
<p>btw, I have no problem with families doing what they can LEGALLY to have their finances “FAFSA ready” … just don’t expect the schools that meet all or most need to fall for it; nor should they.</p>
<p>Yes, those supplemental questions can be rather irritating! </p>
<p>I have to put down our vehicles every year & they want to know if the student has a car and if so, what make, model & cost & so on. The schools are looking for luxury cars! Well, I gleefully put down our 1998 Dodge Dakota truck & 2006 Mini Van (which we owe on) Your vehicles represent a life style choice! If you are driving Jaguars, Lexuses etc the financial aid office wants to know this!</p>
<p>I know a kid to whom it was suggested to sell his junker car when he ran short on money. Few kids on campus had cars. He needed his for work, however.</p>
<p>Wow I didn’t expect so many responses to my rant! Regardless of the purpose of all the CSS profile questions, it is nonetheless annoying and time consuming to detail everything. I am a meticulous record keeper so I don’t need to consult a free credit report for my consumer debt (which I realize I wrote credit card debt but it actually wants to know all consumer debt which would include auto loans). I actually have the information for when we purchased and how much we paid for the 2001 Honda (and it doesn’t ask for the value of our current autos - it asks for purchase price) - but I had to go dig through the filing cabinet. </p>
<p>I certainly agree that the information is necessary - it wouldn’t make sense to give the same amount of FA to a student whose family drives late model luxury cars vs the student whose family drives older Hondas (given that everything else is the same). It would be interesting to see exactly how each college uses these details to determine how much they will offer each individual student. I know our EFC from FAFSA is going to mean almost no FA at the majority of colleges to which my D has applied. Merit aid and some money from this CSS profile is going to be the only shot my D has at attending some of the more expensive private elites (if she even is admitted too!)</p>
<p>The CSS can easily be manipulated too, which is the funny thing. I mean really if you have two really old cars, and one nice car that you just purchased, how will they know? Unless they are going to run a DMV check, they have no way of knowing the cars you own. Same with your house,unfortunately we are a bit upside down in ours, due to the downturn of the market. However, whats to stop someone from saying I owe 100k on my house, and its worth 75k? Its not like they verify your mortgage balance, or maybe some schools do. Fortunately my son only applied to a couple of CSS schools, and he went to a FAFSA school. My daughter however has mostly CSS schools, so I may be back on here venting in a few weeks. One of her schools has a 2/1 deadline, so I wont have time to file our taxes, since we dont normally have our W-2s until the first week of February.</p>
<p>You can always lie on the forms. And, yes, people do. . If you get selected for verification, however, the examination can be thorough. </p>
<p>There are always ways around these things. The system assumes that most people will be reasonbly honest about these things, but the do but some verification is also done. People cheat on their taxes too and a lot of info come from the tax forms.</p>
<p>Yes, we were selected for verification at my sons FAFSA school. It was fairly painless, I assume because it is a FAFSA school. If my daughter attends a CSS school, I am not looking forward to the verification process.</p>