Our public HS had a College Application and Financial Aid night meeting for parents, in September, and while open to everyone, they specifically invite families of freshman through junior years - they made the point that high school seniors could/should have attended in prior years, and should be well along the way of getting their college finalized, having completed some visits where possible, gotten rec letters lined up, etc., as admissions process is well underway at that point.
They talked first about applications in general, and had the school head GC talk about GAP and weighted GPA, AP classes, and SAT / ACT scores.
They had an FA officer from directional state discuss the FAFSA.
They had a retired former FA officer from a neighboring LAC discuss the CSS Profile. Also went through merit vs. need based aid, but this was too high level for my perspective.
They had a fee-based college application consultant discuss the overall application process - he handed out business cards, and many 2-income, no time families became his customers. A good amount of his presentation was also spent discussing the FA appeals process, but he also talked too much about his test-prep review courses.
The panel was available afterward for general questions. Each presenter made the point about not giving financial advice, but general information only.
Overall, there was a lot of information made available in 3 hours (from 7-10PM), and it was helpful especially to families completely new to the process.