<p>Yeah, unfortunately many schools require the official score to be sent from CBoard. We called all the schools our S applied to & they all said they required the official report, even tho the HS transcript listed the score (entered by the counselor & mailed by the school). ARGH!</p>
<p>Our kids private HS requires each student to take & pay for all the AP exams corresponding with all AP courses taken @ $83/test. Since my son took 13, you do the math. Oh well, it made S happy. So far, D hasn't indicated any interest in taking ANY AP exams. It sure does add up & I can't imagine surcharges on top of that + probably conversion charges. What a racket!</p>
<p>This topic seems as though it is ripe for a newspaper article about the "hidden" costs of applying to colleges - specifically, the costs of having to use The College Board. :(</p>
<p>As others have stated, it differs from family to family as well as college to college as to how the information in required by Profile will affect your contribution, but I, like you, found that using a college calculator, our family was entitled to slightly more aid than using FAFSA alone - and that was born out by reality with the financial aid offers we recieved from each of the colleges that used Profile. There was not too much disparity among the offers from the various Profile schools either.</p>
<p>I need your help. How do I apply for FAFSA and PROFILE? Is there a website, or do I go to the college board website? We own our own business-we do not know what our "earnings" will be for 2006-do I just guess?
thank you for you guidance</p>
<p>Here are the websites for those two services. You can provide your best estimate when you complete the forms & then make any needed corrections as soon as you become aware of the need to do so. There are often calculators & worksheets to help you estimate what your expected family contribution will be.</p>