I gave my email for the CSS and Fafsa.
There are differing opinons on CC about whether a child truly should fill out these foms. This part of the process was too important to us to risk her missing an email or making a mistake she couldn’t detect. I did discuss the forms and info covered, without giving numbers.
I’ve done the Yale NPC. It definitely asks how many you will have in college. The third screen says:
Make sure you are doing the ACTUAL NPC and not the InTuition calculator.
Just use your own email and create your own account.
We live in a high income area, have two incomes and we own (some of) a home in California, which hurts whenever equity is considered. I figured out the calculation for FAFSA, looked at all possible futures and came to the conclusion that no one was giving my kids need-based aid nohow. So I skipped jumping through the hoops of both FAFSA and CSS. I have no regrets. Next door neighbor hired a service to help him jump through those hoops and ended up with zero need-based aid for his trouble. It’s not magic - the basis for “need” is pretty straightforward. The kids did get merit based aid at the places that offered pure merit aid with no need component. If the school says you must fill out FAFSA to be considered for merit aid, make sure there’s not a “need” requirement as well, many times there is.
I agree. In the account creation page it asks for the students email and the parents’ email. Did you put your own different emails for each?
mom2collegekids, I just revisited the Yale NPC and yes, it does ask how many kids will be in college. I looked over the numbers and the NPC assesses my need at “0.” I also just did the Stanford NPC and it seems to imply that I will get about $18000 from them. Go figure (no pun intended).
As for the 529, I believe I counted it as the child’s asset. The NPCs usually ask for assets in the child’s name. My daughter is the beneficiary of the 529.
I just looked (why do I still have a box of all this?) I put mine as student’s email and as our “permanent email.” But the last time we applied for aid was 5 years ago, for the 2nd kid’s final year.
@LMK5 A 529 is a parent asset. Do the NPC again.
My late father left some money in a trust in which the kids are the beneficiaries. Does the CSS profile ask to divulge this type of thing as the student’s asset or do I have to divulge it some other way?
Yes and most trusts, even if restricted, have to be reported on FAFSA
Some schools require FAFSA for merit scholarships, even if you don’t qualify for need based aid. That said, Stanford and Yale don’t give merit aid so for those schools you don’t need to worry about it.
FWIW, after running NPC at a bunch of places and we opted not to bother either.
Most NPCs said I’d get nothing but the Stanford one seemed to imply I’d get some cash.
From memory, it took a couple of hours to fill out the CSS. Even if you were awarded $1000s that’s a pretty good hourly rate.
Yale, even though they consider home equity, offered considerably more financial aid than Harvard who supposedly do not. I 'd fill the form in.
Yale considers home equity, but caps it at a small multiple of income. I think 1.2 x.
I filled out the CSS Profile last night. Took me about 1.5 hours. Extremely invasive process. They even ask about your retirement assets even though it’s not supposed to be considered in their calculation. Why do they ask for it? The irony is that the information is going to a school that may have no intention of admitting my daughter. My rational mind is somehow telling me I should have waited to see if she got admitted before divulging such sensitive data.
Most schools allow you to apply FA after admission. So you can do it later. That is my understanding. FA at MIT told me we probably would not have gotten any money even if we qualified since we were talking to them about applying in April after admission and CPW…they implied that they would have run out of FA money. That is a risk you deal with if you apply later. You have to compare that risk with sharing your information unnecessarily.
We only applied FA after the admission. We applied at U Chicago after EA admission. And @momofsenior1 was correct, we filled out something for GT, as D was interviewing for Stamps there. Those are the two schools who had our info.
Yeah, I never understood why people just fill out FA without knowing if their kids can get in, especially those highly competitive schools.
If a school is need aware…and you apply ED or REA or SCEA, the school might assume you plan to be a full pay family if you don’t complete the financial aid forms on time. Need aware schools DO consider your financial need when they consider your application for admission. Some are very clear that you need to apply within their early deadline for that reason.
Are there really “need-aware” schools? I thought they all claim to be “need blind.”
Those not need blind can be various sorts of need aware.
In the past, there was an explanation about the retirement funds question: it’s just to guage future security. Protected funds (Qualified Retirement Plans/QRP) are not considered in the family contribution formula.
There are plenty of need aware schools.