Financial Aid Applications

There are various required applications in order to achieve financial aid eligibility. The three required applications will typically be:

  • The FAFSA – The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is administered by the U.S. Department of Education and uses the government’s methodology to determine your financial need.
  • The CSS Profile – The College Scholarship Service (CSS) Profile is the financial aid application services of the College Board and is used primarily by private schools to determine financial need for scholarship allocation purposes.
  • Financial Aid Supplements – Many colleges and universities will require that you submit an additional supplemental application that is specific to their school. The information required may be redundant (from the FAFSA or CSS Profile) or may request additional information.

Since each school often requires its own financial aid supplement, a student applying to 6 schools can easily be required to submit 8 different financial aid applications. Furthermore, accuracy and timeliness are crucial.

Accuracy

Making sure that consistent information is sent to the schools where you apply, the Government, and the College Board is very important. Schools often cross-reference the information obtained from the FAFSA with the information submitted in their proprietary financial aid supplements. Discrepancies could cause for a delay or for suboptimal financial aid packages.

Timeliness

Submitting the applications in a timely manor is very important since a lot of financial aid is given on a first-come-first-served basis. Unfortunately, each of the financial aid applications has its own due date, and none of them coincide with tax day. In order to get their applications submitted early, many families estimate their income and other tax line-items from the previous year. This can easily be done using the last pay stub from each of your jobs; however, this often creates more work as you will have to correct the applications once you file your taxes.

There are many FAFSA Tips and Tricks that may be useful for submitting all of the financial aid applications.