To take advantage of the two best ways to obtain financial aid, families should submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the College Scholarship Service Profile (CSS Profile). Submitting the FAFSA greatly increases the likelihood that a student will receive financial aid because it’s the only means of obtaining it from the Federal government. Many colleges also require the FAFSA in order to consider applicants for their institution’s financial aid programs.
Some colleges require an additional financial aid application called the CSS Profile. This is an online application used by colleges and scholarship programs to award non-governmental financial aid. The Profile should be submitted by students applying to colleges or private scholarship programs that request it.
The FAFSA for Student Financial Aid
The Federal government allocated $120 billion for student financial aid in 2021, yet 47% of college applicants didn’t even submit a FAFSA — the only way to access their share of these funds. Although 53% did submit the FAFSA, this was 5% less than the previous year. College-bound students leave billions of dollars in aid funding on the table every year.
The FAFSA is managed by the U.S. Education Department (ED). The ED uses it to dispense the funds allocated by Congress to Federal financial aid programs. The ED sends also FAFSA data to states and colleges that use it to determine award in their own aid programs.
The FAFSA became available online at studentaid.gov and FAFSA.gov on December 1st 2024. The Federal deadline for submission is the June 30th after senior year, but most colleges have earlier deadlines. Deadlines for states vary widely. Sixteen states list their deadline as “ASAP after October 1st”. Students should research the deadlines for their state and the colleges to which they’ll be applying.
For those planning to begin college in fall of 2025, the FAFSA became available on December 1st 2024. It is often submitted within a few days of availability by students who seek funds from programs that are on a “first-come, first-served” basis.
A student’s first task in securing financial aid should be to open a FAFSA account with the ED on their financial aid website at studentaid.gov or on FAFSA.gov. Students need only provide their name, social security number, home address, and either an email address or mobile phone number to set up an account.
Information Needed for the FAFSA
The FAFSA requests information about the financial circumstances of the student and, if applicable, their spouse or family. The following basic information is required:
- Social Security number,
- Social Security number of a parent for dependent students,
- Student driver’s license number,
- Alien Registration number for non-citizens,
- Federal tax information for the student if independent, with their spouse if married and filing jointly, or for the student and parents if dependent, and
- A summary of assets such as bank balances, investments (including securities and real estate other than the primary residence), and family business and farm assets.
For students applying to colleges who will start in Fall 2025, the IRS tax information required from them and their families is from tax year 2023. The IRS Data Retrieval Tool automatically transfers tax information to the FAFSA from the IRS. Students and families are advised to use this tool.
Within three weeks of submitting the FAFSA, applicants are provided with a Student Aid Report (SAR). The SAR provides the Expected Family Contribution (EFC), which is the amount that the ED calculates that a family can afford to pay towards the costs of college. SAR data is provided to the colleges designated by the student on the FAFSA, to appropriate state agencies, and to other designated sources of financial aid.
Often, the EFC is higher than the amount of an applicant’s anticipated college costs. This means that the applicant needs to secure external funding to bridge the gap between the total cost of attending college and what they can realistically afford to pay from their own savings, investments, and cash flow. External funds may be from the Federal and state aid programs available to them, the college they attend, or private sources.
Applicants typically receive a financial aid award letter from colleges around the time that they receive their college admission decisions, but they may receive it any time from October to April. Financial aid award letters are created by each individual college to provide information on their cost of attendance and to detail the amounts available to them in grants, scholarships, work-study opportunities, and loans that the student is eligible to receive from the college and governmental agencies.
The CSS Profile
Students seeking financial aid from any of colleges in the CSS program must submit an application form known as the CSS Profile. These are selective institutions with resources that enable them to offer extensive student aid.
The CSS Profile is a product of the College Board, the non-profit organization that administers the PSAT, SAT, Advanced Placement, and the College Level Examination Program. It is an association with over 6,000 secondary schools and colleges as members.
The CSS Profile becomes available on the College Board’s website on October 1st of a student’s senior year. Deadlines for submission vary by college. Rather than wait, many applicants submit their Profile as soon as possible because college financial aid programs are on a first-come, first-served basis.
Families should brace themselves for the CSS Profile. The Chronicle of Higher Education calls it the “Most onerous form in college admissions.” Families should anticipate that questions of a personal and detailed nature will be asked. They range from the value of a family’s primary residence and family-owned business to the cost of private primary and secondary education for siblings. For families with students who aspire to attend a CSS college and need outside financial help to do so, it’s worth some unpleasantness and discomfort for a chance to receive substantial financial aid via the CSS Profile.
What if I am not applying to colleges this year?
Even if your student is not applying to colleges for Fall 2025, you can still get an estimate of the federal student aid your student may be eligible to receive. The Federal Student Aid Estimator (https://studentaid.gov/aid-estimator/) provides an estimate of how much federal student aid your student may be eligible to receive. The form takes 5-10 minutes to complete and will give you your student’s Student Aid Index (SAI). Where your SAI falls within the SAI range (from –1500 to 999999) helps schools determine how much financial support you may need.