<p>In all the rush of filling out my paperwork to apply to college I missed the fact that, at some schools, they want EA applicants to submit the CSS profile sometime in November for financial aid purposes. </p>
<p>I applied to two of these colleges early, and both have early CSS deadlines; they are Nov 1 and 15. I know I could probably get FA from both of these schools, and obviously I'd like any help that I could get, but I'm wondering what to do here.</p>
<p>Should I call, explain my mistake, and humbly ask if I can still send in CSS forms for early consideration? Should I quietly submit the forms and see what happens? Should I ask to be deferred so that I can still be considered for FA in the regular round, or can I just see if I get in early and then ask if I can submit the CSS form? Is this even a big deal?</p>
<p>Sorry for asking so many questions. I'm sure the best idea would be to call as soon as possible but I want to make sure that I wouldn't be doing myself a disservice by bringing attention to myself. Perhaps CSS is much less important than I am guessing and it doesn't matter either way, but I just don't know. Any advice is appreciated.</p>
<p>Call the colleges and ask them. In the meantime…get the Profile,submitted to these schools ASAP.</p>
<p>If you applied early action, you don’t have to make a matriculation decision until May. You might not get a financial aid award with your EA acceptance. But what you want to know is IF you will receive an award prior to making the decision to matriculate in May.</p>
<p>And…please…get the FAFSA done ON TIME…which would be ASAP after it is released in January 2014. You will be completing it with excellent estimates for 2013…and then updating ASAP after February 1 when your taxes should be able to be completed.</p>
<p>OK, I will get the CSS done and call them tomorrow (I doubt there are people there to answer phones at this hour). I guess surreptitiously submitting the forms is not recommended, then.</p>
<p>So you don’t think that not having the CSS will affect my aid, but only when I know my aid? I really have no problem with waiting to commit to a college until mid-April while I work out all my scholarships and aid, though of course earlier is better. </p>
<p>While on the topic of FAFSA - do you think that doing FAFSA in groups of related schools like one parent’s child did (H + P; Caltech + MIT; Duke + Vandy, etc.) would help increase aid / admissions chances?</p>
<p>In my opinion, just submit the FAFSA to all of your schools. The financial aid and admissions departments are not together. I seriously doubt that admissions has the time to call finaid and inquire about schools listed on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>Kelsmom, who is a financial aid officer, says she doesn’t have the time to bother looking at other schools. Her job is to prepare financial aid packages. </p>
<p>But there are others on this site who swear that sending separately leveraged their aid. Just remember…you have to wait a few days for EACH submission to be processed. In addition, if you file in January with estimates, you will have to update when your taxes are completed. It will take a LOT of time to do,this separately for each school.</p>
<p>OP, no one who isn’t inside a school’s inner circles for admissions/aid can tell you for sure at what schools your missing of deadlines and asking for aid will do to your file. </p>
<p>As a rule, admissions and fin aid are completely different departments. You can see if any of your schools have one dept doing both. From the schools you have listed, I doubt that is the case. So your info for fin aid is likely to go to the fin aid dept, whereas your app info will go to Admissions.</p>
<p>Some schools do have internal first dibs goodies for those who apply EA and some of those goodies may have need component to them. I don’t know if the schools on your list do or not. Anytime you miss a deadline, you do run the risk of being last in consideration for some goodies. That is a given. You might be lucky and there is not line drawn, but if there is, then you are on the other side of it. </p>
<p>There are some schools that are need aware, and for them, there is IMO a higher chance that if you file FAFSA separately and keep other info out of the picture that maybe, maybe it would affect your chances. Augustana College, for instance, claims that it has done the study and knows that if it is listed first on the FAFSA, then the student is far more likely to come to their school, that it is first choice for them. I don’t think MIT, NW or any number of the schools that meet full need or those that are need blind in admissions which most schools are, will bother to fool around with this sort of thing. IF you have some [Oops</a>, there was an error! | American Girl Playthings!](<a href=“http://agplaythings.proboards.com/thread/104954/doll-therapy-effectiveof]Oops”>http://agplaythings.proboards.com/thread/104954/doll-therapy-effectiveof) those wanna be schools that are suspect of doing this sort of thing, treat them accordingly.</p>