<p>I have always despised the Collegeboard. But this CSS PROFILE thing make me SICK. And I have no idea why we even have to file this.</p>
<p>I am trying to get a need-based scholarship and a financial aid because simply my parents are POOR. But I have to pay a few hundreds dollars to let schools to view my records. And what the heck in the world, they need 18 dollars to let colleges to view my records??</p>
<p>Who Got the fee waiver for CSS PROFILE?
Can I ask you what made you a fee waiver candidate?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>You need to make an appointment with the school GC and talk to him about your family finances. He can get you some fee waivers for CSS Profile if you meet the criteria. I am not sure what you are talking about when you refer to the hundreds it cost to let the school view your records. FAFSA is free and there are fee waivers for college apps, again through your GC. All the websites for applications bring this up. The CSS Profile site also has info on getting a fee waiver which is pretty much what I am telling you.</p>
<p>You need to pay the $18 so that the schools can get your information from the college board unless you don't plan on getting any aid (you may not like it, but that's the way it is)</p>
<p>I think you can get up to 4 fee waivers from the colllege board if you meet the criteria (most schools it is whether you qualify for free lunch) If you qualified for waivers for the admissions fees you will qualify for fee waivers for the profile.</p>
<p>For those who will be doing this next year,</p>
<p>keep a spreadsheet
List your school application fee CSS Profile (fee if applicable)</p>
<p>then you will know how much the application process it will cost you tand realize that you cannot afford to apply to 20 schools.</p>
<p>If the schools require the Profile, consider the application fee money well spent. $18 per school is nothing compared to the cost of attendance at most schools. Around here that would be three hours of babysitting pay.</p>
<p>I agree with Thumper. If you are having trouble paying the $18 ( and at this time a few years ago I didn't like paying the application fees either), you are most likely to not be enthralled with the EFC. The numbers that are arrived at for families to pay, is not a number that is "easy" to pay, and oftentimes families need loans just to come up with the EFC before the financial aid package is presented. ( irritating fact- you need to reapply for PROFILE every year you expect to receive aid, even if nothing has changed and the aid package doesn't change)
Be sure you have financial safeties, for while private schools often do have good aid packages, they don't necessarily meet 100% of even your determined need, and often that aid package includes loans as well as work study and grants.
$18 is a week work of latte's,( or half a tank of gas) a drop in the bucket for college costs.</p>
<p>Collegeboard is a bunch of greedy bastards. $18 begins to add up after a while, depending on the number of schools you're applying to. Keep in mind the CSS Profile is only for Private schools, you don't send them to public/state schools.</p>
<p>I don't think that it is an issue of the collegeboard being greedy they are a business, but rather (and someone has to be paid to gather the information and send it to multiple schools for the approximately 2 million kids who apply to college each year, not counting returning students) the issue is that many studnets are not doing thier homework on the admissions and application process, what the school's requirements are and how much it is going to cost to fulfill those requirements. Like most things in life a person has choices, if they don't want to spend the $18 per school, they can look for schools where the profile is not required, don't file the paperwork and don't get the aid.</p>
<p>I can tell you this, my daughter applied to 7 schools and the $131 was a small price to may when the the college that gave her the least amount of need-based grant/scholarship aid gave $30,726 (we are not complaining in our house)</p>
<p>It boggles my mind that students, apply for 15-20 schools and don't consider the cost of applying (application fees, CSS profile fees, releasing scores, postage, etc) because it really does add up</p>
<p>I agree with Sybbie in all of this. If you cannot afford the amounts, you go for the 4 fee waivers and then focus on schools that do not ask for Profile, are free on line and have generous aid. You put in the work to research these school. An excellent resource that you can peruse at no cost at a major book store, or perhaps your school, counseling office or public library is USNews &Worlds Report Ultimate College Guide. An afternoon of going through their lists will give you a master list. You then get on a computer either at the library or at school if you don't own one ands look at specifics of each school. Belly aching about this is a waste of time. Yes, money does buy you more opportunities in everything. But it does not necessarily get you in. The WORK put into academics and life really are the most important things. I don't think applying to so many schools necessarily gives anyone a clear advantage as it does spread you out very thin, Anyone who does that had better have more than the money to pay for the fees to keep all of those balls in the air. </p>
<p>My son was interested in a field that requires auditions. In order to be prepared for these auditions, every kid I met (I know there are some who are outside of this category, but I've yet to meet him), has had tens of thousands poured into him just to be at the point of being able to make the auditions. Since the odds of getting into the programs are so small, you do have to apply to more than the normal number of schools, and by small I mean 3-5% which makes HPY look like safeties. You have to pay an audition fee IN ADDITION to the app fee, and you have to haul your body to the school usually early in the morning on the specified date for auditions. It is an expensive process and I am the first to admit that those who are on very low budgets are going to be particularly challenged and it is unfair. So it is with everything in this countr. But for a college app, I can come up with 8 schools that would end up being fee free if you family qualifies for the waiver, and it would be a spread of super reach, reach, mid range and safety which is all anyone needs. It is more than my girls or my nephews had.</p>
<p>Actually, this year, I believe that Guidance Counselors are not able to give you fee waivers for the CSS profile. It's being done all online.... and I think one of the key questions, if not the key question, that automatically judges if you have to pay for the profile or not is the one that asks if you get free lunch or reduced lunches. I asked my counselor for the waivers and she said that I had to somehow get them online (the four waivers college board gives goes to application fees, not css profile).</p>
<p>So, Basically, I called CollegeBoard up and they said that the preliminary part of the CSS judges if you have to pay the $18 a school or not. Luckily, I get free lunch, so that wasn't a problem for me, but I am curious how they judge home-schooled kids or others.</p>
<p>At the end of the day it is all going to come down to a question of worth. You say you are poor, so it is DEFINITELY WORTH spending the $18 per school to file the profile. There are ways you can EARN the money (part time job, odd jobs, baysitting, hery you may have to return a christmas present and explain that right now the money is better spent paying for your future).</p>
<p>If you are not presently doing anything to earn money, I would suggest that you get started soon because no matter what school you get a package from, there will be a student contribution which you will be expected to pay from your summer earnings. In addition there are cosrt involved with going to college (setting up your room, purchasing books and other miscellaneous items). show that you are worth INVESTING IN YOURSELF.</p>
<p>I know for my own situtaion, I am a single parent and my daughter worked a part-time job to help off set some of the expenses in the college process along with some of the other expenses that come up during senior year (trip, prom, ring, pictures etc)</p>