I’m applying to 11 schools, and I do not qualify for financial aid one bit (both my parents are wealthy physicians). I’m not trying to boast, I just know that there is no way I qualify for financial aid. I’m just confused as to schools that have the CSS profile as “required”? I will list out the schools I’m applying to, and I would really appreciate if anyone could let me know if it is required for financial aid or merit scholarships. Thank you!
Lafayette college
Lehigh university
The college of New Jersey
University of Delaware
University of Miami
University of Pittsburgh
New York university
Muhlenberg college
Northeastern university
Skidmore college
Monmouth university
We got merit aid at a similar school and the FAFSA was required for the university’s federal reporting. CSS was not required. Financial aid is a different game than merit aid. Press on with merit aid opportunities.
Do not ignore financial aid — try out the net price calculators at your favorite colleges, just to confirm your impression.
You have to go to every school’s FA website and look at their FA process for freshman. Looking at your list, I expect most will require the CSS profile if you are applying for need based aid. My advice is to start a list (a spreadsheet is great) of each colleges, what forms they need, and due dates for each. Unfortunately, this is not a very uniform process across colleges, and there is a lot to keep track of if you are applying for need based aid.
Check the web sites of the schools you’ve listed. I checked two and both don’t require financial info for admission. The school will let you know if you need to file FAFSA or the Profile for merit aid. Look on the web site to see. For instance here is one from TCNJ:
You obviously know how to use the internet. As intparent says, you need to visit the financial aid web page for each school on your list to see what they require for awarding need-based financial aid and what they require for merit based aid. If you are sure you won’t qualify for any need-based aid, than don’t worry about those requirements. If you want to be considered for merit aid, you need to satisfy the requirements of each school. This is something that you need to do, it is not a task to be assigned to a bunch of random people on an internet chat site. If you are talking strictly about the process of applying for admission without any consideration of need-based or merit aid, no school is going to require an applicant to submit the CSS Profile.
I can help you with a few of them. Either my own daughter or someone we know quite well received full tuition or near full tuition at all the following schools without filling out the FAFSA or CSS: Lafayette, Pitt, Northeastern, UDel, and TCNJ. However, @ErinsDad makes a good point - there may be specific scholarships (like the one at the above mentioned TCNJ) that require filling out the CSS. I’m not sure how well those would work in your favor given your high income, but I suppose if you look into them, you may decide otherwise.
If you saw some language somewhere about the Profile being “required”, it was probably in the context of applying for need-based aid. But you really need to look at each school’s website closely and make no assumptions. All the info you need on a variety of admissions procedures is on each website, and if you are confused by anything you read, the best way to get clarity is to call the Admissions office, rather than posting here. So read carefully and thoroughly to be sure every application is handled properly.
Those are merit scholarships. The OP has not given us stats, and does mention need based aid in the original post. Also, colleges sometimes change their requirements from year to year. Go to the websites to research.