<p>mike, the Parent PLUS loans are **not **offered as part of your need-based award. They are offered to help cover the family’s excpected contribution.</p>
<p>The IMPORTANT thing to remember is that USC uses the CSS/Profile to distribute USC grants, NOT the FAFSA EFC. So your expected contribution at USC may be more than your FAFSA EFC.</p>
<p>If you go to the CollegeBoard website and do the financial aid calculators using the institutional methodology, that will give you a better idea of what your expected contribution will be at a school that uses the CSS/Profile (most private universities use the CSS/Profile).</p>
<p>USC uses the CSS/Profile for their own funds to prevent a situation where someone who passed the “simplified needs test,” on the FAFSA and has an EFC of “0” - and yet has hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds) of thousands of dollars in protected assets because of the simplified needs test - from receiving university grants that should go to students that actually need them.</p>