<p>Do RS Applicants need to submit a CSS Profile or just FAFSA? Or do they need both?</p>
<p>I am fairly certain its both. CSS is a service of the college scholarship program tied in with the SAT and common application. They overlap each other (with FAFSA) but they are not identical. All applications at Fordham are reviewed for scholarship potential. All financial aid applicants are required to submit the CSS and FAFSA. So unless you are going to be paying “the full monty” so to speak (LOL), then you need to submit it.</p>
<p>As a EA applicant I received a letter in acceptance package stating that if I used the company Fordham recommends for completing FASFA that I would be exempt from CSS.</p>
<p>However, when using this company they still asked about mortgage and property value.</p>
<p>Now I received another letter asking for tax returns & w2’s from parents.</p>
<p>What gives?</p>
<p>You always have to provide W2’s and tax returns. That is the primary method of verifying income. </p>
<p>I don’t buy into that crap about “the company Fordham recommends” because the CSS is utilized by most colleges as a preliminary methodology to estimate your award, to be finalized by the FAFSA (if financial aid is needed). Some colleges award scholarships on a needs blind basis and some don’t. The CSS is like the common app and can be used over and over at all the schools you apply to. In other words, it doesnt change with different schools, its the same financial data.</p>
<p>In a perfect world every school would be like the Ivy League and only give aid to those who need it. That is the most just. But academic credentials (which I scoff at because its really about the SAT score which determines scholarships, which I view as bogus and a very poor measure of one’s creativity and true intelligence…let alone hard work) are used by schools to “lure and recruit” top students to get their average SAT scores higher and thus a higher USNWR ranking. In essence its “the business” of colleges to recruit top students so that the school gets a better reputation, which then equates into recruiting more prestigious faculty etc etc. </p>
<p>Life isnt fair, it just is what it is. </p>
<p>College is very very expensive. We could argue for decades on whether its a worthy “investment” of your parents hard earned money/student’s loans. Many believe we would be better served sending kids to trade schools to learn something useful. We have serious structural economic issues in our country and we are not the manufacturing power we once were. But those arguments are for another day and another thread.</p>
<p>Paying for college is the rudimentary issue here and only you and your parents can decide if you can afford Fordham (or any other school). Its the cold glass of water in the face. Most schools say they “meet your financial needs” but in reality they are piling on student loans to reach that end. </p>
<p>In my humble opinion, I would not take on more student debt than the national average over four years, which is about 25-30k on graduation from undergrad. Grad school, law school and med school are another kettle of fish.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>