1. CSS Financial Aid ProfileTM
CSS Profile 101 for IECA Members
Thank all of you for the opportunity to talk with you today. My name is Susan McCrackin, and I am joined by my colleague Andy Kokkinis, who will be helping me with the questions today. We are pleased to bring you this presentation that looks at the CSS Profile for

2. Agenda What Why How When Common mistakes
And what else do you want to know?
CSS Profile
Today, we’re going to focus on the CSS Profile. We’re going to talk about what it is, why it is required by some colleges, how the student completes it, when it should be submitted, and then we’ll take some of your questions.

3. What…
A financial aid application used to determine the family’s financial need for institutional financial aid
Used by about 400 colleges, universities, and scholarship programs
A supplemental aid application to the FAFSA for most students
FAFSA is always required for federal student aid
CSS Profile required only if the institution requires it
May be the primary application for international students
Supports international students applying for institutional aid at some colleges in the US
Allows international applicants to report in home currency, which is converted to US dollars for institutions
…is the CSS Profile?
The CSS Profile is an institutional aid application. Rather than the colleges that use the CSS Profile having their own institutional aid applications, they have worked with us, at the College Board, over the years to develop the CSS Profile. One application is completed and the student’s information is sent to all of the student’s CSS Profile schools.
The CSS Profile is used by many selective private colleges and a few public universities. You should think about this application as a supplemental application to the FAFSA. For student’s eligible to apply for federal student aid, such as the Pell Grant, the FAFSA is an absolute MUST, since only the FAFSA can be used to apply for federal student aid. But federal aid is often not enough to allow a student to go to some colleges. Institutional aid can be really important, and the way to get access to that aid is to file the CSS Profile if required by the student’s colleges.
While there isn’t a good rule for which application to do first, students probably want to do the FAFSA first, then complete the CSS Profile, but if a college advises otherwise, the student should follow the college’s advice.
I do want to add, that while the CSS Profile should be considered as a supplement to the FAFSA, it may be the primary aid application for international students. The CSS Profile serves students all over the globe, and allows families to report their financial information in their home currency. Unlike the FAFSA, the Social Security Number is not required in order to submit the CSS Profile. This makes it possible for students who are not US Citizens, and regardless of where they live, to use the CSS Profile to apply for institutional financial aid.

4. Why colleges require the CSS Profile
Colleges require families file the CSS Profile to
Understand the family’s true financial need
See a larger picture of the student’s family
Colleges use the CSS Profile to ensure that institutional financial aid is awarded
To the students who truly need it
In a fair and equitable manner
Colleges can also use the CSS Profile to separately collect information from each of the student’s parents if the parents are no longer together
…does the student need to complete the CSS Profile?
Why would a college require the CSS Profile? Simply because the FAFSA does not ask enough questions. The FAFSA is trying to understand who needs the Pell Grant; the CSS Profile is trying to help the institution understand who needs the college’s money. To put this in perspective, the FAFSA is used to determine who gets up to about $6,000 in Pell Grants. Colleges that use the CSS Profile can easily award amounts up to and beyond $60, When looking to award that amount of money to a single student, or to multiple students, you want to make certain you understand the full financial picture of that student and their family. This requires a deeper understanding of the family, which the CSS Profile allows the college to do.
Colleges want to have a much bigger look at families so they can understand who really needs institutional aid and to award that aid in a fair and consistent manner. And if the student’s parents are no longer together, that might mean collecting CSS Profiles from each of the student’s parent’s.

5. Why Students Should Complete the CSS Profile
To make certain that the student applies for all of the aid that an institution might award
…does the student need to complete the CSS Profile?
Student
CSS Profile
Institutional Aid
And why would a student complete a CSS Profile? If the student is going to one of the colleges that use the CSS Profile, the student should make certain that they do what is needed to do to open that door to the institution’s financial aid. Simple as that!

6. Find out if the student’s college(s) require the CSS Profile:
How…
First, check each of the student’s college’s website for application requirements
If required, complete the application online at
cssprofile.org
Students, and in most cases their parents, will need to provide information
… does the student complete the CSS Profile
Find out if the student’s college(s) require the CSS Profile:
/participatingInstitutions.aspx
We have the What and the Why, so now lets talk about the How.
The first thing to do is make certain the student’s college requires it. To do that, the best place to go is to the college’s website. If the student has more than one college on their list, then all of the colleges’ websites should be checked.
We also provide a list of participating institutions. The link for that is here on the left.
If the student’s college requires the CSS Profile, the application can be found at cssprofile.org.
As with the FAFSA, the CSS Profile will require financial information from the student, and in most cases, the student’s parents.

7. How… Log in with a College Board account
Many students already have a College Board account
Parents can create their own, if necessary
Select the proper application year!
High school seniors who will graduate in June apply for financial aid for
Same rule as for the FAFSA
…does the student complete the CSS Profile
Since the CSS Profile is a College Board service, the student can use his or her College Board credentials to log in and start their CSS Profile. However, if a parent feels strongly about controlling access to the information they provide in the CSS Profile, a parent can create their own account.
To create an account, the parent simply clicks on “Sign Up” under “Don’t have an account” to create one. However, for reasons I will discuss in a moment, we strongly recommend that the student starts their CSS Profile with their own College Board credentials, if the student has one.
Now, a very important thing to remember is that once the family logs in, they should complete the CSS Profile for , not You may or may not be surprised to hear that selecting the wrong year is a common mistake students and their parents make. When that happens, the information can’t simply be transferred. The family will need to do the application all over again.

8. This is normally the student’s log-in credentials
How…
Fee Waivers and the CSS Profile
Fee waiver eligibility is determined automatically
SAT fee waiver = CSS Profile
CSS Profile does a fee waiver calculation
Family of 4 – no more than $45,500 in total income
Amount changes for different family sizes
Based on 2017 National School Lunch Program Reduced Price Income Guidelines
Fee waivers cover all colleges selected
…does the student complete the CSS Profile
IMPORTANT
The student’s College Board account must be used for the CSS Profile for the SAT fee waiver to be awarded
This is normally the student’s log-in credentials
Just with the SAT, the CSS Profile has a cost.  The cost is fully waived for the application completed by the student and their custodial parent if the student is eligible for a SAT fee waiver. For students without SAT fee waivers, a fee waiver calculation tied to the Reduced Price Lunch income guidelines is run on all entering student applications. 
We use the National School Lunch Program Income Guidelines for the Reduced Price Lunch to determine the income limit for a fee waiver, which is sensitive to the size of the parents’ family.  To give you an idea, the income limit for a fee waiver for a family of 4 will be about $45,500 for
If the student is fee waiver eligible, regardless of whether it was an SAT fee waiver or one was awarded by the CSS Profile, the fee waiver pays for all of the schools selected by the student.  In other words, CSS Profile is free for eligible students.   
And [click] we are extending emergency fee waiver eligibility to applicants in the Individual Assistance areas designated by FEMA as the result of Hurricane Florence. This includes large areas of the southern North Carolina and middle-to-northern South Carolina coast, and some inland counties of both. We continue to monitor the FEMA site to capture areas as they are designated, as has been the case with the extreme flooding experienced in the weeks since Florence.
Breaking news! – Fee waivers automatically awarded to applicants living in Hurricane Florence FEMA Designated Areas of the Carolinas

9. Costs of the CSS Profile
How…
Costs of the CSS Profile
Cost for the CSS Profile
$25 for application and first college selected
$16 for each additional college selected
…does the student complete the CSS Profile
Otherwise, the student and the custodial household’s CSS Profile cost is $25 for the application and the first college selected, then $16 for each additional college selected, regardless of when the college is added.

10. CSS Profile for the Noncustodial Parent
Cost is $25 regardless of the number of school reports sent
Schools are selected by the student on the application the student completed with the custodial parent
Noncustodial parent cannot select or alter student’s college list
Fee waivers are available
Calculated based on the information provided on the noncustodial parent’s information
Emergency fee waiver eligibility determined
I am going to talk more about the CSS Profile for the Noncustodial Parent in a minute, but since we are on fee waivers and cost, let’s talk about them for the noncustodial household.
The cost is $25 for the noncustodial household, regardless of the number of colleges the student selected.
Fee waiver eligibility is also calculated in the noncustodial parent’s CSS Profile, using the same rules as are applied to the student and custodial parent’s CSS Profile. There is no SAT fee waiver eligibility for the noncustodial household. That’s because the SAT fee waiver is tied to the student’s College Board credentials, and those should only be used to start the CSS Profile that is completed by the student and custodial parent. However, the emergency fee waiver eligibility also will be determined by the CSS Profile for the noncustodial applicant.
In short, both households can qualify for fee waiver eligibility by the income test or for the emergency fee waiver, but only the student’s and custodial parent’s application can receive the SAT fee waiver.

11. 2 CSS Profiles? Really? Yes. Well, maybe.
Applies to students whose parents are still alive and who are not together
Divorced or separated and not living together
Never married and not living together
Only if required by the student’s college or colleges
Now we will discuss when a student might have two CSS Profiles required.
{click} If the student’s parents aren’t together and both are alive and {click & click} their college or colleges requires it, {click} both of parents will have to file CSS Profile applications for their households. The student will complete a CSS Profile with his or her custodial parent – the parent the student lived with the most – and the other parent will complete the CSS Profile for the student.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

12. 2 CSS Profiles? Really? CSS Profile Waiver for the Noncustodial Parent
Common waiver form available on cssprofile.org
May not be accepted by every college
Check each college’s website
Decisions about the second CSS Profile requirement are made by the colleges
If the student has a situation where the other parent cannot complete the form, the student can appeal the requirement with each college. Colleges make the decision about whether to waive this requirement. The College Board does not.
A number of colleges have worked with us, in large part because of the feedback received from the counselor community, to create a common waiver form that is posted on the CSS Profile website. For the colleges that accept this form, it makes it easier for the student to access and submit an appeal to their colleges.
I want to be clear that each college makes its own decision about whether it will accept this form or not. We recommend that any student planning to submit an appeal check the college’s website for instructions on how and what to submit.
Let me also say that colleges are usually cautious about waiving this requirement. They make certain there is a very good reason to do so such as an abusive relationship, total abandonment, or when the student’s safety is at risk. Please recommend that the student have a conversation with each college so they will understand how to properly submit what the college requires.

13. Completing the CSS Profile
Be a successful aid applicant!
Let’s talk about actually completing the CSS Profile. I’m not going through the entire application, but I’m going to point out a few key areas to help you as your help your students. 13

14. Getting Started Get it right from the beginning! The student’s name
Enter as listed on the student’s legal documents
Social Security Card
Alien Registration Card
Date of birth
Social Security Number (if the student has one)
Must match the number entered on the student’s FAFSA
Critical to matching your file correctly at your institution
This sounds rather simple, but encourage students to get their names right! Encourage students and parents to have the student’s Social Security Card handy and use that to report the student’s name exactly as it is printed on the student’s Social Security Card. This also applies to how the FAFSA should be completed.
And tell them to get their date of birth right! Double check that date of birth. And – this might sound silly, but it isn’t – they should make certain it is the student’s birthday and not a siblings birthday or even a parent’s birthday. It happens! Trust me.
Notice that we ask for the student’s Social Security Number. This is really important information – for colleges! Many colleges use this to match students with their FAFSA application, so not entering the student’s Social Security Number or entering it incorrectly could cause a serious delay with the student’s application. Please instruct students to report their Social Security Number and to report it correctly. And please help them understand that their information is secure, and that we respect the sensitivity of all of their personal information, especially their Social Security Number.
I want to note that earlier I said the SSN isn’t require in the CSS Profile, but if a student has one, it should be reported.

15. Confirm Demographics A chance to check it all again New for 2019-20
Applicant is asked to confirm accuracy of critical student information
Because the information provided in the “Getting Started” section is so important, we show the applicant the information and ask that it be confirmed by checking the box you see here. This is a great chance for the family to review the information and make certain that everything is entered correctly.

16. Student Status
Questions are asked about the student – not the student’s parents
These questions are critical to setting the application correctly
Not getting these questions right can seriously delay the student’s application
Common mistake is for parents to answer these questions for themselves and not for the student
These “Student Status” questions often cause problems with the application. Not because these are hard to answer, but because parents often start off answering these questions for themselves. See the first question – “The student has legal dependents (not including the student’s spouse).” Well, parents have legal dependents, but most high school seniors don’t. And parents love to answer this one for themselves. So right off the bat, the question is answered incorrectly, and the application is in trouble.
These questions are important for determining if parents will also provide information on the form. Answering these questions incorrectly means that the questions that follow will not collect information properly for the parents which means that the information needed by the institutions will be incomplete. The colleges will have to follow up to correct the application. That takes more time and no one wants that.

17. Student Status
Questions are asked about the student – not the student’s parents
Many students will answer no to all of these questions
But let’s look at what happens if the student answer yes to this last question
Most students are going to answer no to all of these questions. But let’s look at this last question here that asks about homelessness.

18. Student Status
Questions are asked about the student – not the student’s parents
These are the same questions on the FAFSA
Answers here should be the same as the student report on the FAFSA
If student is or can be certified as homeless or at risk of being homeless based on one of these questions, the student will be treated as an independent student
If the student responded “yes” to that homeless question, they would see these additional questions. These are the same questions that were asked on the FAFSA and these should be asked in the same way.
Students who are officially certified as homeless or at risk of being homeless will be treated as independent students by the CSS Profile, just as they are by the FAFSA.

19. Report the student’s parents
All of them!
All parents are reported
Biological parents
Current stepparents
Current parental partners
Current legal guardians
Up to four parents can be reported
Reporting Parents on the CSS Profile tutorial
/getting-started-your-css-profile- application
Everyone who completes a CSS Profile will be asked to report the student’s parents. And by this, we mean all of the student’s parents – biological and adoptive parents and those parents’ spouses or partners. If one of the student’s parents is deceased, that parents is reported and the deceased box checked.
This is important to understanding the family as it exists when the student applies for aid.
We have a tutorial to guide students through reporting parents. The address to access the Reporting Parents on the CSS Profile is provided on the left, but for our presentation today, let’s look at a couple of examples.

20. Report the student’s parents
All of them!
Example 1: DeeCee’s mother is deceased
Father reported
Stepmother reported
Mother reported and marked as deceased
In this example, we see that our student, DeeCee reports her father and her stepmother. She also reports her mother, and reports that her mother is deceased.

21. Report the student’s parents
All of them!
Example 2: DeeCee’s parents are divorced and both have remarried
Father reported
Stepmother reported
Mother reported
Stepfather reported
In example number 2, DeeCee’s parents are divorced and both have remarried. She reports her father and stepmother and her mother and stepfather.
The good thing is that only four parents can be reported. And students should not report a stepparent or a partner who is no longer in the family.
Parents are ALWAYS reported, regardless of whether that parent is a biological parent, an adoptive parent, or whether the parents are not together.
Why else is this important? As we discussed earlier, some colleges will ask for both parents to submit a CSS Profile for the student when those parents are no longer together. When this happens, it is really important to understand which household the student mostly lives in and which is the other household so that we set up each application correctly.

22. Report the student’s parents
Which parent(s) does the student live with?
Only asked if the student’s biological or adoptive parents are not together
Divorced
Separated
Never married and not living together
Important to properly report the parents
The student lived with the most
Or who provide the most support
If in doubt, report the FAFSA parent(s) here
And the way we would do this is for the applicant to tell us which parent the student lived with or which parent provided the greatest amount of support because that would be the parent who completes the CSS Profile with the student. The other parent would complete a second CSS Profile, but that application would not contain student financial information.
Think about it as a two-step process: First, the parents the student lived with the most or who provided the greater support are identified. This establishes which parents will be completing the CSS Profile that will also include the student’s income and asset information. Second, the parents who will be reporting their financial information on the application are identified.
If the same parents that the student lives with are reporting their information, this becomes the student’s CSS Profile and both the parents’ and the student’s financial information will be reported on the form. If the parents who are reporting their information on the form are NOT the parents the student lives with the most, then their CSS Profile is the second CSS Profile and no student income or asset questions will be asked.
A common problem for families is deciding which student the parents live with because parents share everything equally. If that is the case, the parents reported as the parents the student lived with should be the parents who will also complete the FAFSA with the student. We all know that only one set of parents can complete the FAFSA, so the FAFSA parents will file the CSS Profile with the student. The student’s other parents will complete the second CSS Profile for the student.

23. Report the student’s parents
Which country do the parents live in?
Report the country your parents are living in now
Don’t report
Country of birth
Country of citizenship
It isn’t uncommon for parents to be from another country. But notice that this question under Residence asks the country where the parents live, not where they were born or their country of citizenship. This question is important because the CSS Profile is a global application. Students all over the world complete the CSS Profile and when they do, they can report in their country’s home currency.
If the parents came from another country, but they live here now, and they earn money in the US and live in the US economy, the student should report that the parents live in the US.

24. Selecting the colleges
Make certain to select the correct college
High school seniors should never select a graduate school!
Law School
Medical School
Business School
Make certain the college selected accepts the CSS Profile from undergraduate applicants
Selecting the wrong college can delay the student’s application
Another important decision students need to make is to which colleges to send their CSS Profile. Now, this doesn’t sound like a difficult thing to do, but some colleges have both undergraduate and graduate programs and that is when it might be harder to pick the right college.
For example, notice that each of these colleges indicates whether the CSS Profile is accepted or not. {click} Notice that only one of these colleges reports that the CSS Profile is accepted from an undergraduate applicant. Students should be careful to look for that when they select a college and get multiple colleges in the list.
{click} Also, as you can see, the box to select the college is underneath the college’s information and not above.
Encourage students to take their time and pick the right college to get their CSS Profile.

25. Reporting income and assets
Income from the student’s and the parents’ tax returns
Questions will match the type of tax return filed
Non-tax filers will not see tax form questions
Untaxed income
Assets
Values and debts
All assets reported
Parents are asked about dependent family members
Details about businesses, farms, and other real estate collected
The student and the parents
Students and parents provide information
Parents provide more
But it is all important!
Once the student’s name is right, the parents fully reported, and the colleges properly selected, the rest of the application is about reporting the student’s and the parents’ financial information. The parents will also be asked for important information on the dependent family members they support and who else might be in college. The important thing families need to remember is that they should take their time and answer the questions carefully and accurately.

26. Special Circumstances
Important opportunity for family to tell its story
List is provided as a guide
Other is on the list for a situation that isn’t
Free-form box accepts up to 2,000 characters to explain financial issues
Encourages the financial aid office to communicate with the applicant
Encourage students not to be afraid to tell their story
Encourage students not to be embarrassed
Here is a secret. This is a favorite question of the financial aid officers. This question, almost more than anything else, can help the aid officer understand the family, especially when there are issues that can impact the decisions the family might make about the student’s college career. Students should not be afraid to be honest in this section. Whatever is told to the aid officer is confidential.
But I will say that if a student or their parents have information they don’t want to put in the application, they can write directly to the aid officer. If they have a lot of colleges in the student’s list, they will need to communicate with each college independently. Doing so here will help with that, but it is the family’s choice.
I will also say, neither the student or the parents should be be embarrassed or afraid to be honest. The aid officer is there to help, and if the family has something they need to share, they should share it. No one can help if the family stays silent.

27. When….
No later than the first deadline of the colleges in the student’s college list
Recommend treating a deadline like
College’s deadline date
– 5 days
= Student’s deadline
…should the CSS Profile be filed?
Almost every college will have a different deadline date
Different dates for
Early decision
Early action
Regular decision
When should the CSS Profile be filed? The college deadlines should drive that decision. If the student has multiple colleges with multiple deadlines, the deadline is the earliest deadline. And rest assured that every college will have its own deadline. If the student meets that earliest one, the rest will be covered.
And please tell your students and parents not to leave getting that application submitted at 11:59 PM on the very last day. Families should leave themselves plenty of time to look up information and make certain to get the application submitted on time. Actually, a good rule of thumb is that the deadline target should be the first deadline date minus five days. Meeting that deadline means that the family’s efforts will be less stressful!

28. Common mistakes Applying for the wrong academic year
Entering important information incorrectly
Not reporting the student’s name as shown on legal documents
Not reporting the student’s Social Security Number when one is available or entering it incorrectly
Entering the student’s date of birth incorrectly
Parent entering a sibling’s date of birth
Parent entering their own date of birth
Answering questions about the student’s status incorrectly
Reporting the student has dependents
Reporting the student is married or is a veteran
Reporting the student is a ward of the court
Students and parents make
It is a student application – with parent information
Parents have to remember that it isn’t about them
We’ve talked about most of these, but let’s do a quick review of some of the common pitfalls we have covered during this presentation.
Applying for the wrong academic year: Because many families are completing the form in the academic year, that is the one they want to select, but the application is for the next academic year. So is the application year that families want to select.
Entering important information incorrectly: The student’s legal name and social security number are critical in the financial aid world, so students need to be careful when reporting this information.
Entering the student’s date of birth incorrectly: It seems so easy to get this right – but it is also easy to get it wrong. This is a great place to check and double check to make certain that the date of birth is the student’s and not a sibling’s or even the parent’s.
Answering questions about the student’s status incorrectly: This happens when the parent starts answering for themselves and not for their student. It is really important for parents to read carefully and make certain they know who they are answering for.

29. Common mistakes
Reporting parent information in student questions or vice versa
Not properly reporting the student’s parents
Parents, current stepparents or partners
Living and deceased
Selecting a graduate school instead of the undergraduate college/university
The family not telling the financial aid office their story in the Special Circumstances section
When parents are no longer together, both parents reporting that the student lives with them, or neither reporting that the student lives with them
Students and parents make
Reporting parent information in student questions or vice versa: This happens when the parent reports their own income and assets in the questions that ask for the student’s income and assets. Unfortunately, this can make the family look financially stronger than they are.
Not properly reporting the student’s parents: It can be easy to fail to report all of the parents, and this can mean that the application questions that are seen are incomplete, causing the aid office to have to follow up. This can cause delays with the student’s application.
Selecting a graduate school instead of the undergraduate college/university: When the wrong college is selected, the information is not sent to the student’s real college, and that might mean that the college doesn’t know the student applied for financial aid.
The family not telling the financial aid office their story in the Special Circumstances section: If the family has something that impacts their financial situation, they should tell their story. Being embarrassed to do so can hurt them and that shouldn’t happen.
When parents are no longer together, both parents reporting that the student lives with them, or neither reporting that the student lives with them: Parents, whether together or not, are the student’s parents, and many of them share everything about the student’s life. But only one of those parents can complete the FAFSA with the student, and that is the same with the CSS Profile. By helping parents understand why both sets of parents should be careful to identify themselves appropriately, they will get their applications set correctly from the beginning, and that will be beneficial to everyone.

30. Resources PowerPoints available for download and use
Branded, but not copyrighted
rces?program=221&topic=All&type=186
Before we end, I want to let you know about three PowerPoints that are available on the Resources page for counselors. These PowerPoints are available as PowerPoints and not as Adobe versions of the recorded tutorials we have for students at cssprofile.org. You can download and use these PowerPoints for presentations or for your own use. They are complete with speaker notes to give you the full context of the slide.
These are branded, but they are not copyrighted.
If you use them, we hope you will find them helpful.

31. And what else do you want to know?
Thank you!
Susan McCrackin
It is your turn now
Thank you for listening. Now, we are going to answer some of your questions.