Should we fill out CSS Profile now?

<p>Does anybody know when you are supposed to fill out the CSS Profile. Can you do it before you even get accepted? Should we just go ahead and do it now and send it to all the schools he applied to? What's the scoop? THANKS!</p>

<p>Check the finaid section on the school website or give them a call. Each school has a different deadline for the Profile.</p>

<p>when my daughter applied to schools only one school required the PROFILE and their deadline is Jan 15th, we did it in Nov.
So check with the school.
FAFSA is done as close to Jan 1st as possible.
Guesstimate and fix numbers later. It is important to get it in early.</p>

<p>Yes do it now, hopefully before year end.</p>

<p>aa how do I convince my parents to fill out all these forms? they still need to do so... I've been telling them forever.</p>

<p>Michele, show them the deadlines for your schools. You may have to check the FinAid section on each of your target schools' websites. Stress that you--and ultimately they--can be seriously screwed out of thousands of dollars of aid if they don't do it. </p>

<p>Yes, at the minimum these forms are tedious beyond belief, requiring work akin to preparing for your tax returns. It is NOT something they can bang out in half an hour.
If either one has self-employed income, it is even worse.</p>

<p>They don't, I told my dad that he has to do the taxes and fin aid forms over break. I'll keep reminding him everyday!</p>

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<p>You need to complete the finaid forms. For the FAFSA you should be indicating "will file" as your status, and you should use the information from 2003 tax returns. This will give the school the estimate it needs. Your parents cannot do their 2004 tax returns over break because they do NOT have their 2004 W-2 forms. Once they receive all these forms (they MUST have these by the end of Jan), they should complete their 2004 taxes as soon as possible. Then you go and amend the FAFSA based on the current return. If your school required the Profile to be completed before Dec. 31 of this year, you would be using 2003 tax information to complete it. The Profile is best done after your taxes are completed. Again...if you did this using 2003, you will need to amend it (I believe). Before you do anything call the finaid office to see its deadline. DS had to have the Profile done before March 1 of his senior year in high school for one school, February 15 for another. The rest of his schools didn't require it at all. In all cases keep in mind that you will also need to complete YOUR tax returns too.</p>

<p>Yea, I think he didn't do last years yet and is behind, thats y I'm telling him to do so, or else I'm screwed for fin aid. So its their own fault if they don't do it after me telling them to do so.</p>