Send CSS Profile PDF Directly to the College

Paying for College
1

I’m an international student who’s applying to a college in the US, and I’m also applying for financial aid. I asked the college’s office of financial aid for a CSS Profile Fee Waiver code since application fees have greatly burdened my family’s finance, but they said that they didn’t have any currently. Instead, they told me that I could send a PDF copy of my CSS Profile directly to their email, so that no application fee would be charged. Unfortunately, I have previously submitted my form to other universities, so their data shows up on my form too (that I will send to the college). I don’t think I could remove them once I have submitted them.
I’m afraid this will hurt my chances of getting accepted, and it feels sort of impolite too to the officers (who have kindly given me an alternative).

If I make another account solely for this college, would that work? Is that allowed, or would that do some harm to my financial aid application?

Or, are there any other methods I could take?

Thank you very much for your help.

2

Don’t make another account.

Is there NO way you can afford to submit ONE Profile form directly from the College Board?

3

You can’t make another Profile account.

You should be able to edit the pdf copy to remove the information about other colleges you are applying to. If necessary, you can print out the pdf, remove the information from the hard copy version, then scan the edited document in pdf format and send that.

4

I have yet to discuss that with my parents, because when the college told me that I could send the PDF copy directly to them, neither of us considered this effect.
Maybe we could somehow manage that, but I have already contacted the financial aid office and I’m afraid it would be awkward if I suddenly tell them I could afford a form directly from the College Board at last. I have applied to 5 other universities, 4 of which required the CSS Profile and don’t issue fee waiver codes either, so I feel that I have burdened my parents too much.

Could I hear your opinion?

Also, if you don’t mind me asking, why shouldn’t I make another account? I know it feels wrong, but I’ve never really heard of any consequences of doing it (although I believe they might exist).

Thank you

5

Do,you plan on getting a new Email account, Birthday, and other identifying information?

If not…you will get a nice pop up from the CB telling you that you already HAVE an account.

6

“It feels wrong,” but you’re wondering why you shouldn’t do it? Really?

First of all, the Profile system probably won’t let you make another account. You already have one. I’m sure there are safeguards in place to prevent two different accounts for the same person. Second, it’s like cheating. You don’t want to start your college career as a cheater.

Thumper is right. Doing it the conventional way costs $16 more. This is not an extravagant amount of money.

7

After further consideration, maybe I shouldn’t make another account indeed.

I will discuss this matter again with my parents later, and perhaps in the meantime I might try to somehow edit the pdf (if I could).

Thank you guys for your opinions

8

If financial aid is that critical to you, I would not try anything else but submit the profile in the official way. Who knows how they would handle the PDF file and enter into their system. Do you want to take the risk? That $16 would be a very small percentile of your total cost as an international student in the next 4 years if admitted.