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College Admissions » CSS Profile

CSS Profile

Students and their families may qualify for additional financial aid through the CSS Profile application. In contrast to the FAFSA, which qualifies students for federal financial aid, the Profile application qualifies students for nonfederal institutional financial aid. Colleges that use the CSS Profile have billions of dollars of their own scholarship money to award, beyond what the federal government can offer. Not all institutions use the Profile application, so students should check with their colleges or programs whether they need to complete the CSS Profile.
 
 

DO I NEED TO COMPLETE A CSS PROFILE?

 
Only if the particular university requests it!!  You can look at the list of universities that require completion of the CSS Profile on CollegeBoard's website.
 

FAFSA vs. CSS PROFILE

WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO COMPLETE A CSS PROFILE

 

What’s Needed:

  • Previous and current year income tax return(s), if completed
  • W-2 forms and other records of money earned in the current and previous year
  • Records of untaxed income and benefits for the current and previous tax year
  • Current bank state statements
  • Current mortgage information
  • Record of savings, stocks, bonds, trusts, and other investments
  • The student's noncustodial parent's email address, if applicable
 

It is recommended that a student who has already created a College Board account for the SATⓇ use the same username and password for the Profile application, especially those students who are eligible for a fee waiver

 

While completing the CSS Profile application, students will have help within the application in addition to easier access to the Contact Us page where students can chat with customer service. For most questions, yellow help boxes will appear to the right of the question with more specific information about how to answer the questions. The CSS Profile has integrated skip logic, so applicants answer questions based on their responses. Students can also save and log out multiple times during the application if they don't have certain information readily available