What’s the difference between FAFSA money and CSS Profile money.
Some grants and loans (and sometimes merit aid that may or may not have a need-based component) are based on information provided on FAFSA; other need-based aid (primarily institutional distributed aid) is based on information provided on CSS Profile.
There is NO “FAFSA money” or “Profile money”. The FAFSA and Profile are financial aid application forms.
The information on the FAFSA is largely used to determine your eligibility for federally funded need based aid, like the Pell Grant, and SEOG, and federal work study.
Some colleges use the FAFSA as their only financial aid application form. These schools use the FAFSA info to determine the awarding of their institutional need based aid also…but the only FAFSA only school that guarantees to meet full need for all is University of Chicago.
The CSS Profile is a more detailed and comprehensive financial aid application form. It is used by a few public colleges (UVA, U of Michigan, UNC-CH, and I think GA Tech) and also by some private universities. These schools use this data to determine eligibility for their own institutional need based aid.
Some colleges only require Fafsa. Some colleges require both Fafsa and CSS. NO college requires ONLY CSS – any college asking for CSS also requires Fafsa.
In general, colleges that require the CSS (in addition to Fafsa) have the most institutional money to give and are the most generous.
Principia College uses ONLY the Profile.
http://www.principiacollege.edu/applyforaid
There could be others, but not very many. This is one I know about.
Bottom line is…check the college websites for EACH school!
Why would they do that? Wouldn’t they want to see what kind of Federal aid the student is eligible for before giving out institutional aid? Besides, wouldn’t the STUDENT want to apply for federal aid?
@brantly I know virtually nothing about Principia College, but perhaps Principia, like Grove City College, wants institutional autonomy for religious/ethical reasons and doesn’t want to be held accountable to the federal government.
@brantly there are a small number of schools that don’t want federal involvement, so they won’t use FAFSA.
I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point, Harvard won’t use FAFSA. They may come under fire for what might be discrimination against Asian students, so perhaps to continue their admission practices and avoid federal pressure, they may choose to use only their funds (which they can afford to do.)
I think that a school would have to stop accepting ALL federal funds (not just tuition assistance) in order to avoid such federal pressure. There’s no way that Harvard will do that, as there are too many federal dollars at stake, even with their huge endowment.
OK, I get it. I suppose Hillsdale is in that category as well. I’d think those schools are the exceptions and would be considered by most people as out of the mainstream.
I know a very mainstream family whose kiddo attended Principia where she got a terrific undergrad education, and decent merit aid.
The school awards it’s own institutional aid and does not require the Profile.
I don’t believe this school accepts federal funds for need based aid.
But I also don’t know if a student “can” file a FAFSA for entitlements like the Pell, or to get a Direct Loan. I just don’t know, but I do know…the Profile is required, and the FAFSA is not.
If the school doesn’t participate in FAFSA, the student can’t get Pell or loans. Those can only go through the school. The student could file FAFSA but there is no code for the school and the school will never get the info.
There really are only a few, mostly religious, schools that are truly independent from the feds for FA. Wyoming Catholic College gives only institution aid, and hopes the students will also have outside scholarships.
The college has to participate in the program. So the student cannot file Fafsa if the school doesn’t participate. That would be a shame for the student, unless the student is full pay or the college offsets what might have been lost in federal aid.
The kid I know who went to Principia was very happy with the aid this school offered.
Of course, that might nit be the case for every student and family.
so there’s two types of financial aid you could receive? federal aid and institutional aid.
Well…in CA you can receive state aid as well…the Calgrant…if you qualify.
You can also receive local scholarships but those take a separate application.
You can also receive large outside scholarships like Questbridge if you apply and qualify. You might want to look into this one. Your income sounds sufficiently low, and your SAT and GPA are good. But do it SOON. I believe that application is due maybe by September.
There are several types of aid… Federal, state (not all states offer), college/institutional, outside/private/local.
State aid is usually only available to instate students who attend college in their state. Again, many states do not offer any state aid.
Some states, such as Florida (Bright Futures), Georgia (Hope), Tenn (Hope), have a merit award for every instate student who meets certain GPA/ACT/SAT requirements.
States like Calif (Cal Grant) and New York (TAP) have a need-based award based on income.
And Colorado gives a credit on instate tuition to most students. It’s not merit and it is not need based, just a resident credit of about $75/credit. Why not just reduce the tuition by $75/cr? Because the credit is limited to something like 150 credits in a lifetime, and there is a lesser amount for students at private schools ($35?).
There are lots of types of financial aid. Just gather as many as you can.