<p>When there is a good likelihood that a 17-year-old applicant will be granted a dependency override, how should the CSS Profile be filled out? The form had no question about this status, but it asks for parental information and finances. Parents are not deceased but are not in the student’s life in any way (they are bad news) and cannot be relied upon to provide financial information. the student told his guardian that he does not want to be declared an emancipated minor. But that looked like the closest category to use on the form. Also, once he turns 18 during his freshman year of college, then how would he file this form?</p>
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<p>I would suggest you call the college(s) and ask what to do. They will likely want more significant verification that this student does not have any contact (in any way) with the parents…and for how long…etc. If it were as easy as just writing “parents are not involved and cannot be relied upon to give financial information”…a lot of students would use that option to circumvent the financial aid process. I’m not saying you are doing this…I’m just saying that you will need to be prepared to provide significant verification of this status.</p>
<p>Does this student meet the new definition of independent on the FAFSA? If so, what is the reason for independent status? Schools use the Profile to award their institutional funds … they will use FAFSA for federal funding that is not campus-based (like Pell). For the FAFSA this year, you are allowed to send an incomplete FAFSA, omitting parent info even if you don’t meet the requirements of independent status … but this does NOT mean that the student WILL get a dependency override. It simply allows the FAFSA to go through without parent info. If a school decides to give a dependency override, I can’t imagine that they will require parent info on the Profile … but again, the dependency override is not guaranteed.</p>
<p>As thumper1 suggested, contact the school to discuss the situation.</p>
<p>Student meets criteria for independence on FAFSA (is in legal guardianship). But the Profile asks the questions differently and prompts for parent’s information regardless of guardianship. Just wondering how, when override is granted (as it unquestionably will be), CSS should be completed so as not to have to fill in parents’ information. Has anyone filled out the form with similar circumstances?</p>
<p>I did a search for Profile info, and it looks like you have to provide the info for the GUARDIAN: <a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/PROFILE_Student_Guide.pdf[/url]”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board; (pg.3, “Understanding who we mean when we say parents.”).</p>
<p>I would definitely call the school! I don’t work with Profile, so I don’t know …</p>
<p>Does anyone know whether a legal guardian will be treated the same as parents for purposes of determining institutional funding via the CSS Profile? Is a guardian expected to support the student’s college expenses to the same extent that parents would?</p>
<p>I tried to find the Profile to see what their questions are for dependency status. I can’t get into it without signing in, though. For those who have access to the new form, are the questions for dependency status the same as the ones on the FAFSA or not? If so, I would think that no legal guardian info is needed. HOWEVER … since Profile schools look more carefully at each student’s financial situation, I wouldn’t be surprised if the dependency questions are the old, stricter questions … in which case, I assume the legal guardian info is necessary.</p>