1. Completing the CSS Profile as the Noncustodial Parent
Welcome to Completing the CSS Profile as the Noncustodial Parent.

2. The student’s other household
Why and how?
Creating your College Board account
Getting Started as the Noncustodial Household – and getting it right!
Reporting the student’s parents
Reporting your family members
This presentation will address the why and how of the CSS Profile. We'll talk about how you will create your College Board account, then step through important sections of the application. We'll also focus on how you will report all of your student’s parents and the family members in your household.

3. Why and how
Many colleges require the CSS Profile from both of the student’s biological/adoptive parents
Regardless of the current marital status
Regardless of the current relationship
Based on the belief that the parents are first responsible for their student’s educational costs
Two CSS Profiles allow institutions to determine contribution for each parent when they are no longer together
Why? It is an institutional requirement
When a college is making decisions about financial aid, it first looks to the student’s parents. When those parents are no longer together, some colleges will require that each of the student’s biological or adoptive parents complete the CSS Profile for their own households. Having each parent complete a CSS Profile allows the college to determine the financial aid eligibility of the student while ensuring the confidentiality of the information provided by each household.

4. Why and how Both parents are the student’s parents
This rule only determines which parent provides information on the CSS Profile application with the student
Otherwise, the CSS Profile experience is similar for both households
Custodial parent is the parent
The student lived with the most during the past year, or
Who provided the greater financial support
If parents share all things equally
Custodial parent is the one who reported or will report parental information on the FAFSA
Noncustodial will not
How? Which parent is which?
1st CSS Profile – Custodial household
Parent and student provide financial information
Parental information reported on FAFSA
2nd CSS Profile – Noncustodial household
Parent provides financial information
No parental information reported on the FAFSA
Although both parents complete a CSS Profile at the same website, one parent completes a CSS Profile that also includes the student’s financial information, while the other parent completes a CSS Profile that only requests that parent’s financial information.
The CSS Profile application determines which questions to display by asking which parent the student lived with the most during the last year, or which parent provided the greater financial support. If everything is equally shared, then the answer to that question is the parent who will complete the FAFSA with the student. This is often referred to as the custodial parent. For ease of reference in this presentation, the 1st CSS Profile is the one that the student and the custodial parent will complete while the 2nd CSS Profile is the one the other parent, or the noncustodial household will complete.

5. Why and how
Each household goes to cssprofile.org to access the CSS Profile
Each logs in with a College Board account
First CSS Profile = probably logs in with the student’s College Board account
Second CSS Profile = College Board account must be created by the parent
Each household must start CSS Profile with their own unique log-in credentials
Provides privacy
Ensures confidentiality
How? Each household starts their applications in the same manner
Most families will log into the CSS Profile using the student’s College Board account to complete the first CSS Profile. For the second CSS Profile, the parent must create his or her own account.
It’s important that each household keep their log in accounts confidential in order to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of each application..

6. Creating your College Board account
For the parent!
Instructions are available at
Creating a CSS Profile
Account for Parent Use
A parent completing the 2nd CSS Profile must create a College Board account.
Instructions for creating an account are found on ccsprofile.org or by clicking on the “Creating a CSS Profile Account for Parent Use” on the left.

7. Creating your College Board account
For the parent!
Yes – it says student, but parents creating their own account enter their information when creating their account
James Faron is completing a CSS Profile for his daughter
James enters his own information here to create his account
He will create his own user id, password, and security question
He opts out of notifications
When you, as the parent creates a College Board account, the most important thing to understand is that even though you are asked for your student’s information, you should enter your own here. That’s because accounts at the College Board are considered “student accounts” so we ask for the student’s name, date of birth, and so on. But when it is you creating your own account, you must create an account with your own name, date of birth, and so on
James Faron is completing a CSS Profile for his daughter, Eliza Faron. He starts by creating his College Board account, and he does so by entering his information . He enters his name, his date of birth, and even his own high school graduation date!
Once done, he will be able to use his log-in credentials to start his CSS Profile application. As long as he does not share his log-in credentials, the information he provides will be private and confidential.

8. Financial aid applications are year specific
Get the year right!
Two application years will be available to select
High school seniors will apply for financial aid for the year they will enroll in college
For most current high school seniors, that will be
Seniors can apply for financial aid
Juniors cannot and should not apply until their senior year
is the financial aid application year for current high school seniors
Financial aid applications are year specific
Cannot use the CSS Profile to apply for aid for the academic year
Once you're ready to complete your CSS Profile, the first thing you have to get right is the year! CSS Profile will have both and available. Remember, however, that you are applying for your student’s college, so you want to apply for the year in which your student will be in college. For most current high school seniors, that will be
By the way, because the applications are academic year specific, if your student is a junior who will not enroll in college in , do not submit the CSS Profile. You will need to wait until your student’s senior year to apply for aid.

9. Costs and fee waivers
Cost is $25, regardless of the number of schools selected
Fee waiver eligibility is determined by the application
Family of 4 – no more than $45,500 in household’s total income
Amount changes for different family sizes
Based on 2017 National School Lunch Program Reduced Price Income Guidelines
For the 2nd CSS Profile
For the 2nd CSS Profile, the cost will be $25, regardless of the number of colleges your student selects. As with the 1st CSS Profile, a fee waiver eligibility calculation is done to determine if you qualify for a fee waiver. The 2017 National School Lunch Program Reduced Price Income Guidelines is used to determine the income cut-off based on the size of the family. For , for families of four, the total income cut-off is about $45,500.

10. Getting Started as the Noncustodial Household
And Getting It Right!
Now that we have done the overview on the CSS Profile, let’s take a closer look at completing the application itself.

11. Getting started You are completing the CSS Profile for your student
It starts with your student!
A very critical section to get right
Information here is used to match your CSS Profile to your student’s CSS Profile
Critical information that must be reported alike in both CSS Profile applications
Name
Date of birth
James’ daughter, Eliza, is applying to a number of colleges. James and Bria, Eliza’s mother, are divorced, and Eliza lives with her mother and stepfather. Her mother and stepfather provided their financial information on the CSS Profile that Eliza completed with them. As we know, her father, James is completing his own CSS Profile application for her.
As with many aspects of filing paperwork for college, the CSS Profile starts asking questions about Eliza. James knows that all of these pieces are important to get right so Eliza’s CSS Profile can be properly matched with his own CSS Profile application. He takes care to report Eliza’s full name and her date of birth correctly. Eliza is often short for Elizabeth, and James should have reported Elizabeth if that was the case. However, in this case, Eliza is her given name.
In the CSS Profile, it's important to pay attention to whether the questions are asking for information about the student or about the parent. If the section is identified as a student section, as it’s here in “About the student,” only student information is provided.
For the 2nd CSS Profile, there are fewer student sections, so it is important to take the time to notice who the questions in the section are about.

12. Getting started You are completing the CSS Profile for your student
Enter the CBFinAidID if you have one
Included in the notification from the College Board (if you received one)
Not every high school senior completing the CSS Profile will already have a CBFinAidID assigned to their 1st CSS Profile, but if that identifier is available, it is helpful to enter it here. If you received an notification about completing the CSS Profile from the College Board, your student’s CBFinAidID was in that .
If it isn’t available, don’t worry. Just keep going.

13. Getting started Confirm Demographics Check the starred data carefully
If information differs, your CSS Profile may not be matched to your student’s CSS Profile
Check and double check!
After completing the demographic information on Eliza, James is given the opportunity to double check everything, and double check he does! He carefully checks each question. When satisfied that everything is correct, he checks the box at the bottom, and selects “Save and Continue.”

14. Student status It is still about your student
Answer these questions for your student, not yourself
One of the biggest mistakes parents make is to answer these “Student Status” questions for themselves and not for their student. Most high school seniors will not have legal dependents they support. Most high school seniors will not be veterans. Remember, you will need to answer these “Student Status” questions about your student, and not about yourself.

15. Reporting parents All of the student’s parents are reported
Student’s biological/adoptive parents are reported, even if deceased
Stepparents/current partners are reported for each household, as appropriate
James reports Eliza’s mother and her current husband
Since James has not remarried or re- partnered, he only reports himself
Now, it might seem odd to report all of the student’s parents, stepparents, and current partners of the student’s parents, but it’s really important to do so. Because when a student has parents who are no longer together and the student's colleges require that both of the student's parents file their own CSS Profile, it’s important for us to know who the parents are and to which household those parents belong. To do that, we start by asking for all of the parents.
Here, James reports himself, and Bria and Sean Windsor, Eliza’s mother and stepfather. He selects “father” to describe his relationship to Eliza, “mother” to describe Bria’s, and “stepfather” to describe Sean’s.

16. Application determination
Putting the right parents in the right households
Very important questions to setting the application correctly
Determines whether this application is 1st CSS Profile or 2nd CSS Profile
Both households should select same parents in “Parents Student Lived With”
Each parent report themselves in Parent’s Information Provided
Include stepparents/partners, as appropriate
This section is crucial to properly identifying which application is the 1st CSS Profile and which is the 2nd. Think about this as a two-step process.
First, we determine which parents the student lived the most with or which parents provide the greater financial support. Remember, these are the parents who will also provide their financial information on the 1st CSS Profile and the FAFSA with the student. Both CSS Profile applications should have these parents identified in the “Parents Student Lived With” question.
Second, we ask which parents will be completing the rest of this application. If it’s the parents the student lived with, the application becomes the 1st CSS Profile. If it’s the other parent, the application becomes the 2nd CSS Profile.

17. Application determination
Is it the 1st CSS Profile or the 2nd CSS Profile?
James reports that Eliza lives with Bria and Sean
He reports that he will be providing information on this application
He then reports that is current marital status is “Divorced or no longer in a domestic partnership”
James reports that Eliza lives with Bria and Sean. He then reports that he will be providing information on this application. Finally, he reports that his current marital status is “Divorced or no longer in a domestic partnership.”
At this point, this application is the 2nd CSS Profile.
A common mistake is for both households to identify as the parents the student lives with because they share everything equally. When the applications arrive at the college, the financial aid officer will have to do extra work to designate one CSS Profile as 1st and the other as 2nd. This can delay the financial aid process unnecessarily, and cause other issues in how the student is asked to provide additional information.

18. Application determination
What did Eliza’s CSS Profile with Bria and Sean look like?
Eliza and Bria reported that she lives with Bria and Sean most of the time
They also report that Bria and Sean are reporting their information on Eliza’s CSS Profile
Let’s take a minute to look at how the family completed the 1st CSS Profile. Eliza and her mother Bria reported that Eliza lived with Bria and Sean. Their answer to this question is the same as James answered.
But in the second part, they reported that Bria and Sean will provide their information on the application and reported that they are currently married. Their application is now clearly designated as the 1st CSS Profile. Eliza will also answer questions about her own income and assets. Further, Eliza will select the colleges to receive the information from her CSS Profiles. The 2nd CSS Profile cannot select colleges.
Once both applications arrive at the financial aid office, the aid officer will have two CSS Profiles that give a clear picture of both households and allows the aid officer to determine the contribution of Eliza’s biological/adoptive parents, and Eliza’s eligibility for institutional financial aid.

19. Application message?!? Oops! What happened?
Message shows when application is not matched
Student has not yet selected colleges to receive their CSS Profile
No college on your student’s list requires the CSS Profile from you
Discuss with your student
Check student demographic information is the same
Confirm student completed the college selection and selected a college that requires a CSS Profile from you
If James had seen this message, it would have been important for him to understand that critical information was reported differently in his CSS Profile than in Eliza’s CSS Profile, or that Eliza had not yet selected her colleges, or that none of the colleges she selected required James to complete a CSS Profile.
If James had gotten this message, he would have contacted Eliza to check both the demographic information he provided and to review her list of schools and their CSS Profile requirements.

20. Parent income and assets
James will be asked for income about his household
Income
Assets
Application experience is similar for both households
Student’s income and assets will not be requested in James’ application
Similar questions, regardless of which household
For more information on how CSS Profile will ask questions about parental income and assets, see the CSS Profile tutorial
Once James starts to report his income and assets, his CSS Profile experience is very similar to what Bria and Sean experienced. The questions will be based on the kind of tax return James filed and the assets he owns.
The CSS Profile tutorial is available to walk you through reporting income. To access that tutorial, click on CSS Profile tutorial link on the left of this slide.

21. Reporting the family members
Who is in James’ family?
(It may not be quite who you think)
When James was asked to report his dependent family members, he initially thought that he would only count himself. After all, Eliza and her sister Margaret live with Bria, and based on the rules for the 1st CSS Profile, you might assume that Eliza and Margaret would be counted only in Bria and Sean’s household.
But it isn’t quite like that.

22. Reporting the family members
Who is in James’ household?
(It may not be quite what you think)
Even though Eliza and Margaret live with their mother most of the time, James still includes them when he completes the Dependent Summary. James is their parent, so he is instructed to report both of them in his household. In short, the biological/adopted children that James and Bria share are reported in both households.
This is very different from the way the federal government instructs families to report shared children on their tax returns. That’s because the tax returns are trying to determine which tax return gets to claim tax credits for each child. Tax credits are per person, so parents can’t both get tax credits for their children. But that is not what the CSS Profile is trying to determine. Both parents are expected to provide for their children, so each parent is expected to report shared children in each of their households.
The CSS Profile has already accounted for James and for Eliza, so he now reports Margaret.
If anyone else lived with him and he provided more than half of their support, he would add them to his CSS Profile. Since that isn’t the case, he now clicks on “Save and Continue.”

23. Student resources From your household to your student’s
James reports the resources that he plans to provide for Eliza
Amount he expects to pay for Eliza’s educational expenses for
Any known support from other relatives
Tuition benefits if provided by James’ employer for his dependent children
The Student Resources sections asks James about his support for Eliza or about other sources of support he's aware of. In the student’s parents question, he is asked how much support he expects to provide. He should also report support from any relatives he knows of.
Finally, James is asked to report the value of any tuition benefits provided by his employer for his dependent children.

24. Special circumstances
Allows the story to be told
Important opportunity to tell the financial aid office your story
“Other” option if list does not contain your issue
James did not have any unusual circumstances, so he selected “None”
James didn't have any special circumstances to report when he submitted his CSS Profile, but if he had, this would have been his opportunity to tell the financial aid officer his story. This can be one of the most informative sections of the CSS Profile for the aid officer, so any information that needs to be shared with the aid office should be reported here. If the exact condition is not in the list, “Other” can be selected.

25. Application review
James has a chance to check everything before submitting
Opportunity to see all of the questions asked and the responses given
Should be reviewed carefully
Application review can be printed or saved as a PDF
One of the last steps was for James to review all of the questions and his responses in his CSS Profile. This section can be printed, or can be saved as a PDF. Regardless, it is good opportunity to stop and check everything one last time to make certain that the information being submitted is correct.

26. Dashboard Real-time application status
Your Dashboard provides the status of your application
Once you have submitted your application, you will see
Submit status
Payment receipt
Opportunity to download your application
Your submission date will display on your student’s own dashboard
The Dashboard give real-time application status for the CSS Profile you're filing. Each dashboard is personalized to the applicant.
James’ dashboard for the CSS Profile he completed for Eliza will list the colleges that will receive his information and their important dates. Once he submitted his application, his submission date was displayed as were a payment receipt and an opportunity to download his application responses to save or print.
Also, Eliza’s dashboard will display the date James submitted his CSS Profile. Eliza will also know if James needs to submit any documents in support of her CSS Profiles. It will be Eliza’s responsibility to let James know what he needs to provide and how. But Eliza and her mother will not be able to see the information James reported on his CSS Profile as long as James does not share his log in information.

27. Common mistakes Applying for the wrong academic year
Getting the student demographic information wrong
Reporting that the student lives with different parents on different applications so that the student questions are asked twice, or never asked
Remember, 1st CSS Profile includes student’s financial information
2nd CSS Profile does not
Not reporting the shared biological or adopted children in the household
Of the noncustodial parent
Take your time
Read the questions and the help
Take the time to review your questions and your responses during Application Review
Before we finish, let’s review a few of the more common mistakes that parents completing the CSS Profile often make.
Applying for the wrong academic year is a big one. Because the student is enrolled as a high school senior in , the inclination is to select the CSS Profile. But the CSS Profile is for the year the student will be in college, so that will be
Getting the student demographic information wrong. Getting the student’s information right seems easy, but being off a day or a year on a birthday or using the student’s common name rather than the legal name can make a huge difference in matching the student’s two CSS Profiles. Check and double check!
Remember that the purpose of our questions about where the student lives is to make certain the CSS Profile applications are properly classified. The student will fill out the 1st CSS Profile with one parent; the 2nd CSS Profile will not have any student income and asset information. If the student’s school gets two application with student information or two applications, but no student data, this can seriously delay the processing of the student’s financial aid application
Many noncustodial parents fail to report the biological/adopted children they share with the custodial household. These children should be reported in both households since both parents are expected to provide for them.

28. Thank you! cssprofile.org CSS Profile tutorial
Help link/customer services
Resources for you
This brings us to the end of our presentation. We hope this information helps you to be a successful applicants. For more information, please visit the links provided above.