<p>I’m still a little confused on how exactly what does what, so I’m going to I guess explain what I know and hopefully someone can tell me if this is right or not.</p>
<p>There are two basic “categories” to pay for college:</p>
<ol>
<li>Need</li>
<li>Non-Need</li>
</ol>
<p>So need based.</p>
<p>For need you must have filled out the CSS Profile (if the school required it) and the FAFSA.</p>
<p>CSS Profile…this includes all the money the school gives you because of your family income and understands you may not be able to pay 50k a year.</p>
<p>FSA…this includes all the money from loans, grants, and work study and it also tells you how much your family is expected to pay.</p>
<p>Non-Need.</p>
<p>School - Includes all the money school will give you because of your academic, athletic, or other notable achivements.</p>
<p>Non-school. This is all outside scholorships from third parties.</p>
<p>So that’s bascially how I understand how paying for college works…is it right?</p>
<p>FAFSA is required to receive Federal Aid. The EFC from FAFSA is what the federal government <em>thinks</em> you can pay and determines your eligibility for federal grants and loans.
CSS is a more comprehensive financial form that some schools use to help them decide how to award your institutional need based grants.
Not all schools use the CSS - many will award need based grants from the information on your FAFSA.</p>
<p>The expectation is that the first source for paying for your college education at any colleges is your parents. Also if you have money yourself then you are expected to contribute.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No, the CSS Profile is a very long, involved document that you fill out. It contains all information about all sources of money you might have to pay for colleges. Schools use it to determine how much need-based assistance you might be eligible for.</p>
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<p>The FAFSA is the same type of form as the CSS Profile but it is a federal form. Some schools don’t use the CSS Profile, only the FAFSA.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’re so confused. You seem to have the big pieces in the proper place.</p>
<p>Really the difference between the FAFSA and CSS Profile is that FAFSA is a free application from the Dept. of Ed that determines whether or not you are eligible for certain government aid. That aid can be in the form of grants, loans, and workstudy. It generates a number called the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) that is the minimum amount it determines you can afford to pay based on the information you provided.</p>
<p>This gets a little tricky because sometimes people see that and 1) they’re shocked because they believe they can afford no such thing, or 2) they think, ‘swell, I can pay that, and so the rest of the money to pay for college will come to me in some form of aid so I’m a-okay!’ The latter is often not true. Your EFC number may be manageable but neither colleges nor the government is obliged to supply a student with the rest of the necessary funding.</p>
<p>FAFSA is just a place to start the process of putting all the pieces together.</p>
<p>CSS Profile is a private enterprise service provided by the CollegeBoard. Some schools use this service and require the Profile application, but not all do (in fact most do not, but the “big name” privates and other schools that award a lot of aid from their private endowments do.)</p>
<p>The Profile asks more questions, probes more deeply about finances, non-custodial parent income, certain assets, etc.</p>
<p>But, yeah, I think you’ve got the big picture pretty right.</p>
<p>1) Need - determined by FAFSA and Profile (if Profile is req’d). The award is a Financial Aid package that might includes grants, loans, work-study, etc. (can include gaps)</p>
<p>2) Non-need - Merit - determined by desired stats (academic, athletic). The award is a scholarship. (Some schools may require FAFSA submittal for consideration.)</p>
<p>3) Family - expected to pay its Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and likely more.</p>