<p>Hi, I'm currently in my senior year of high school. On the collegeboard, bigfuture website it is stated that for the 2014/2015 school year, the CSS is available on October 1st. When is the FAFSA available for 2014/2015 which would be my freshman year in college?</p>
<p>Jan 1, 2014. You can apply for PINs now, however, one for you and one for one of your parents.</p>
<p>I see. However, because I am not a U.S. resident I do not have a SSN and therefore am not eligible for a PIN. What should I do?</p>
<p>FAFSA is a federal aid program for US citizens and eligible non citizens. If you are not a citizen or an eligible non citizen (such as a green card holder), you are not eligible to file FAFSA. If you are a citizen or eligible non citizen, you should apply for a social security card. (my son was born overseas, but we had no problem getting a SSN for him as he is a US citizen).</p>
<p>Thank you for replying. But if I am not eligible, how will the universities assess my financial situation and my need for financial aid? Are there any other applications for non U.S. citizens? Also do all the universities in the United States require FAFSA or are there some who use a different process?</p>
<p>You need to contact each of the colleges/universities that you will be applying to, and ask what you need to do in order to be considered for financial aid. If aid is offered to international students, they will tell you how to apply.</p>
<p>Some colleges and universities do use a version of the FAFSA for all of their applicants. If that is the case at any of the places that you apply to, they will give you the specific information needed for getting access to that form.</p>
<p>You do need to check with each school you are interested in. Many schools do not offer financial aid to international students at all. Those that do will let you know what forms they require.</p>
<p>Thank you for your answers. About the forms universities require, as I understand it, about 400 schools accept a CSS profile from collegeboard, as an alternative to FAFSA. However the FAFSA is free and a CSS is not. It would costs quite a lot if I were to apply to multiple universities. Is there a fee waive application for the CSS for an international student? The reason I am asking is because there is also an SAT fee waiver but only US citizens are eligible for it.</p>
<p>CSS is *not *an alternative to FAFSA. It is in addition to FAFSA. If a school requires CSS, you have to complete it to be considered for any institutional aid from that school. Even US citizens do. Schools that require CSS will also require FAFSA for eligible students. They use FAFSA to award federal aid and CSS to award institutional aid (their own money). </p>
<p>I believe there are CSS waivers. I don’t know whether they are available to Internationals.</p>
<p>I have seen CSS fee waiver forms for individual colleges. It will be on the college website. I do not know if internationals are eligible for them.</p>
<p>You need to check each college website for the forms they require for applying for aid.</p>
<p>There is an International Student Financial Aid Application(ISFAA). I don’t know anything about it but googling ISFAA turns up a number of schools that require it for internationals.</p>
<p>You should visit the internationals forum here at CC:</p>
<p>[International</a> Students - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/]International”>International Students - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>The College Board does NOT provide fee waivers for the Profile to international students.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine that any college would be able to provide Profile fee waivers since the Profile is NOT administered by the colleges but is administered by the College Board, which is NOT affiliated with the colleges.</p>
<p>And, if you are going to do the FAFSA, fill it out as soon as possible on or after January 1 in order to meet deadlines for all possibilities.</p>
<p>^I don’t think OP can do the FAFSA (online) because he/she is an international student.</p>
<p>Even when you know you are not eligible for federal aid, you still fill out FAFSA. right? Because many colleges use FAFSA to determine what your EFC is.</p>
<p>Bella…no. Every college has a procedure for international students who want to apply for financial aid. Most do NOT use the FAFSA for this purpose.</p>
<p>Posted in error.</p>
<p>
No, Dept of ED will not compute an EFC for international students’ FAFSA filing.</p>
<p>Guys, </p>
<p>I was not talking about International student. Talking about US Citizen and FAFSA in general.</p>
<p>Since this thread is about an international student, it would be better to post your unrelated question in your existing thread and not hijack this one. The responses you got show the confusion that happens when you pose a question in an existing thread that isn’t applicable to the OP.</p>