<p>Why do some schools want CSS instead of, or in addition to, FAFSA?</p>
<p>Regardless of numbers provided by these two services, each school makes their own financial aid decision based on these two services? Any clues how that works?</p>
<p>What, exactly, does a FAFSA of 05638 mean?</p>
<p>The FAFSA is primarily used to determine eligibility for federally funded need based aid (Pell grants, subsidized loans, work study). For FAFSA only schools these schools will also use this information to disburse their own institutional funds but in most cases, these institutional funds are VERY limited.</p>
<p>The PROFILE is used by about 300 or so colleges, mostly private schools but there are several publics that use it too (UVA, UMich, and I think UNC-CH). These schools use the information on the Profile to award their institutional money. Many of these schools have more institutional funds to award. They look more extensively into the income/assets of student families to determine awarding of SCHOOL funds.</p>
<p>An EFC of 5638 would indicate that minimally, your family contribution this coming year for college would be in the $5638 range. With that EFC, you would not be eligible for a Pell grant. You would get a Stafford loan of $5500. </p>
<p>Most schools do not meet full need so your EFC of $5638 should be viewed as the MINIMUM your family will likely be expected to pay for the upcoming school year.</p>
<p>Depending on your college(s), you might also get some institutional aid from them. It would depend on the policies of awarding aid by the school(s).</p>
<p>T1,</p>
<p>Thanks! Any idea what the FAFSA index 05358 indicates?</p>