Difference between CSS/Profile and FAFSA

entomom
Wed, 13 Oct 2010 11:36:19 +0000

See this site for an explanation and some very good information:

[FinAid | Financial Aid Applications](FAFSA - Finaid)

While the FAFSA is the same for all colleges you apply to, the information you give in the Profile is used differently at different schools. Each school has their own FA policies and calculations, so your EFC from various Profile schools could be very similar or differ by a substantial amount. The first thing to do is to go to the FA websites of the colleges you’re interested in and find out what forms they require and the deadlines. The Profile is available now, but FAFSA won’t be up until Jan 1.