Six of the schools I’m applying to require the CSS Profile for financial aid, but my parents don’t think it’s worth filling it out. They don’t think we’ll qualify for any type of aid due to their income (I haven’t gotten any need-based rewards from my FAFSA). Do I have any chance of getting some aid from the Profile? Will it be worth the application fee?
I will tell you that is a pain to complete, College Board has bad directions and little help, and it costs money for every school that you send it to. If net calculator says no aid, it’s not necessarily worth doing. We may get a little aid at a couple schools but no aid at most. I’m hoping for enough merit aid for me to not have to do PROFILE the next three years.
More information needed. What is the annual household income? Any significant non-retirement assets? If your parents own your primary home, how much equity is there in the property? What are the six schools you are applying to that require Profile?
Generally speaking, if you and/or your parents are worried about spending $25 on the first school and $16 on each additional school to submit the Profile, there’s probably a pretty good chance that your family’s finances are such that you are eligible for need-based aid at Profile schools.
Addition: It’s a pain to complete if your taxes or more complex which is likely if your parents say they won’t get aid.
What are your parents saying? that they’ll pay all costs?
I’ll disagree with the complexity of completing the Profile. If you have completed the fafsa, and your parents have decent records for investments, assets, or online access to get the info…the Profile is NOT hard to complete. It just takes some time.
If the schools require the Profile…you won’t even be considered for it if you don’t complete the Profile.
I think it’s worth doing…unless your parents are wealthy enough to fully fund all four years of your college studies at these Profile schools.
If you own a business or portion of a business it is more complex, even if the business has little revenue and no profit. FASFA exempts small family businesses. Profile does not.
Stocks are easy. Log in to your brokerage on the day you complete FASFA or Profile.
@Sportsman88 MANY business owners complete the Profile each year. It’s actually better now because the schools use prior prior tax year…so their actual taxes will be complete (business owners sometimes get extensions for filing to October).
Even business owners should have NO difficulty completing the Profile with their completed tax return in hand.
@BelknapPoint am I missing something??
Valuation on a business that doesn’t trade on open markets is a tricky question and it is on there. I’ll back out because we disagree. My point isn’t that parent’s including business owners shouldn’t complete it. Parents who are not likely to get aid ($150k plus not at HPY) may be wasting their time. I can do taxes all day. Profile has poor instructions and poor customer support when you call about questions. Not a fan of Profile or College Board. I completed Princeton’s own application and it was a breeze. FASFA is less than 30 minutes.
EDIT: Harvard had an extra section on Profile that dove into businesses more and triggered an after the fact request for more forms and questions. Given Harvard’s generous grants, if my D is fortunate enought to be accepted and chooses to attend, I will gladly complete said forms annually.
I can’t say; I’ve never completed the Profile as a business owner.
^ I have. It’s not a huge deal (though my business isn’t huge either). Especially this year, using prior-prior year info it’s not bad at all.
I agree that if the net price calculators say they won’t get anything then skip it.
I disagree, conditionally, because the OP has not listed which schools are being considered.
Don’t at lease some Profile schools also provide merit aid, not just need-based aid, and want the Profile to be completed by anyone who might be considered for merit aid?
Even though the NPC may indicate that OP does not qualify for need based aid, he might be in the running for merit aid, so he should still consider completing the Profile. The school’s FA section of their websites should help clarify this.
OP, I think we all want to know whether your parents are prepared to pay costs of around 60k per year if you do not get any aid? Do you have in-state options that are cheaper just in case?
The only thing the FAFSA does is determine your eligibility for federal aid. Many deep picket schools use the CSS profile or their own forms when it comes to distributing their own need based aid.
Just because you were not eligible for federal aid does not mean that you are. It eligible for institutional aid.
I recommend that you sit with your intents and run the net price calculator to see if you are elsewhere bible for any need based aid.
If not are your parents willing to pay ~$65k/year for the next 4 years ( not counting increases)?
If you don’t fill out the CSS profile then you pretty much have close to a 100% schance if not receiving any institutional aid.
Yes, but we’re only hearing it from the kids perspective. It’s possible the parents won’t qualify for financial aid and don’t want to share all their financial details with their kids.
@roethlisburger , I understand your point, but by the time a child will begin to attend a college that requires a CSS Profile, they would know if their kid is smart enough to figure some things out, like how much income / assets the parents would have to have in order to NOT qualify for any aid.
I would love to have that problem, instead of being one of the rest of the 99% of families who struggle to pay for their kid’s college.
Some parents can afford to be full pay, but even among those, it is not uncommon for those families to want their child to take loans, so they have some “skin in the game”. If I am not mistaken, don’t some Profile schools require the Profile application before they will sign off that the student is taking an undergrad loan?
^There’s some frugal but wealthy people who don’t want their kids to know how much they potentially stand in line to inherit. They’re afraid their kids will get trust fund syndrome. There’s other people who view their income as very private. Whether that’s smart or not is outside the scope of the thread, and there’s a large range within the group of those who can’t qualify for need based aid.
Generally only Fafsa is required for non-school based lender loans.
My guess is they see no reason bc they don’t think they will get anything. There is no reason to “why not? Let’s see what happens!” When your income is just to high. Total waste of time/money.
Do you need financial aid to be able to afford these schools? If so, you need to jump through the hoops to apply.
Federal aid based on the FAFSA (Pell grant) is only given to very needy students. Private colleges that use the Profile can still give their own aid to families that are more middle class.
Have your parents run Net Price Calculators at these 6 schools’ websites. That will give them a quick read on whether they should do the Profile. NPCs are free.
The schools that require the Profike are Harvard, Yale, Duke, NYU, Canegie Mellon, and Northwestern. I’ve also applied to some other less expensive schools where I’ve been offered presidential scholarships for my grades, but nothing need-based.