Timeline for submitting FAFSA and CSS profile

Paying for College
1

Does FAFSA and CSS profile where it is required by school need to be submitted together with the application or they can be submitted later? If later then what’s the deadline?

My understand from the friends whose kids went to college already that you get financial terms from the college together with the acceptance letter.

2

Your student needs to look at each college and program s/he is considering and note the deadlines, particularly any priority ones some college have as well as the final ones

Some have said that Thst process is easier when PROFILE is completed first. Make sure assets for you and student are checked THE DAY FILED. It is possible if you selected for verification, financial statements are checked for accuracy of those numbers in that VERY Day. You do not want to pick pay day or another day when you have earmarked funds sitting there that are payments on the way somewhere. Student assets are better zeroed out by giving to parents absolutely and completely in reimbursement of all the expenses paid on stufrnts behalf. Student assets hit up st 20% with zero protection allowance whereas parents have a protection allowance and hit up less than 6%.

YOU CANNOT REVISE THE DATE YOU FILE NOR CAN YOU REFILE so those asset values need to be checked and rechecked before submitting. Don’t guess unless you have such low assets it doesn’t matter.

3

So each school has its own process and deadline when FAFSA/CSS profile can be submitted by?

4

Yes. Also, Early Decision acceptances are accompanied (or you get it soon thereafter) with financial aid awards. Early Action and Rolling acceptances generally do not get FA packages until the spring with everyone else

Early is generally better in getting that info into FA because at many schools, work may be started as soon as info is complete and usually, people are more generous when the pot is full and get stingier as the bottom is getting scraped. Many Schools have limited funds. When it’s gone that’s it.

5

The FAFSA and Profile will both be available for submission on October 1 or so. In most cases, it’s just good to get it done as soon as you can after that date.

  1. There are some kinds of need based aid that are limited funding per school and are awarded on a first come first serve basis to those who qualify. These include federal work study and SEOG.
  2. You must adhere to the deadlines on the school websites, and yes, they vary. But those are deadlines. You absolutely can submit before the deadlines...and let’s face it, if you are completing the FAFSA and Profile for an early deadline...why not just add all the schools and be done with it.
  3. There are some specific reasons why you MIGHT not want to submit earlier. For example, if you sell a house in September and have the proceeds in your bank account on October 1, the those proceeds would be counted as an asset. If you use the proceeds to buy a house on November 1, then that asset would no longer be in your accounts...so filing November 2 would be to your benefit.

But really…timing these sales and purchases is a better idea.

  1. Read the websites carefully. Some schools are very specific that you should apply for financial aid when you apply for admission.

Is there some reason why you wouldn’t want to or be able to complete the FAFSA and Profile near that October 1 date, and just be done with it? @Al73

6

My twins are applying to almost all schools EA (no ED). I anticipate some big expenses in Q1 of 2020 so this will reduce my assets reported for FAFSA/CSS so I may want to delay submitting FAFSA or CSS.

7

Your assets are hit at about 6% after your allowance towards your expected contribution

8

I believe it is 5.6%. My assets specifically for CSS profile as of today will impact my EFC so I hope they will be reduced in Q1 of 2020 and my EFC will drop.

9

We’re submitting right away. There are scholarship applications that are due November 1st and they say they need to have FAFSA submitted before you can be considered for them (must be some need-based component and not strictly merit)

10

Are these scholarships provided by the school you are applying to or outside scholarships?

11

The school. I think there were only 2 with Nov. 1st deadlines, but there are a LOT of them with Dec 1st deadlines.

12

How did you find these scholarships provided by the school itself?

13

After he was accepted the school sent the list of scholarships he was eligible for. Some are from the University and some are from the specific college/department. I think most schools list them on their websites.

14

Do look at what merit scholarships and awards are available at each school on your student’s list and any potentials.

Not all require the FAFSA/PROFILE filed by any earlier certain date but some schools do mention a priority date. Merit money does not usually require any financial aid forms but, yes, some scholarships have early deadlines. Georgia Tech is an example. Pitt is clear that early birds have the best chances for the fattest worms in terms of merit money.

15

You are anticipating expenses between Jan and March 2020?

Frankly you will miss the priority deadlines at most EA schools. And for some schools you will miss the school financial aid deadlines period.

Any way you can pay these bills sooner?

16

What do you mean “miss priority deadline”? My kid is going to apply EA to most schools by either October 15th or November 1st. My question of I can decouple submitting FAFSA/CSS profile from my kid submitting EA application.

17

My kid applied EA to three schools. The applications were due before the 15th of November…AND there was a priority early deadline for financial aid applications for early action students. We adhered to that deadline because the EA acceptances were fine, but knowing if she was receiving any aid at all also mattered. The schools actually sent her email reminders about completing the forms using the priority deadline. So we did.

You certainly don’t have to send in the financial aid application forms when you send the admissions applications EA…but if you don’t…don’t expect the colleges to give you a financial aid award close to when your kid gets accepted.

And look carefully at the deadlines…because if you wait until the end of March (the end of the first quarter of 2020), it’s very possible you will be missing the deadlines the schools have for submission of financial aid forms for their institutional aid consideration.

Also…another thing…best to get this all done early…because if you are selected for verification for ANY reason, that process will take time to complete. If you apply in March, and are selected for verification, your kid might not even have a financial aid award in time to make her matriculation decision.

If it were me, I would try to figure out how to pay those bills a LOT earlier.

18

You can decouple FAFSA/CSS from the EA apps, but what posters are saying is that the deadlines to submit FAFSA/CSS for many schools is prior to Dec 31, sometimes much earlier for certain merit awards, which is where the term ‘priority deadline’ may be used. You have to look on each school’s website to see what the financial aid requirements and deadlines are.
Here is an example: U Richmond EA FAFSA/CSS profile deadline is 11/15, while the EA application deadline is 11/1. https://financialaid.richmond.edu/prospective/need-based/apply.html