Seniors across the country have been working so hard this fall, making the best out of new adaptations to their extracurriculars, and especially on college applications. As your senior wraps up their application work, there is another phase of college planning fast approaching: Funding and Financial Aid!
We could talk for days on this topic, but a few SUPER important things to note are related to the documents each student and family must fill out in order to ensure full consideration for funding at the schools they’ve applied to.
First is the FAFSA, which is definitely the document with the most buzz surrounding it, and for good reason! The FAFSA is extremely important because it does ensure full need-based aid consideration, but it is also often the red tape universities want to see before they will even consider students for some merit-based aid. It is crucial to fill this document out and send it to every school your student applies to! Deadlines for this document are typically in January-March. We encourage all students to submit, early!
The second is the CSS profile. This document is a little trickier, because only certain schools require it, and some of those schools even require it in conjunction with when the students apply via early action application (think: November!) in order to consider full financial aid consideration. AND if a school requires the CSS turned in at the same time as the student’s application, they also will typically require the FAFSA as well. For this reason, it is crucial that if your student is applying to CSS profile schools, you look into the specific financial aid deadlines at each school to make sure you aren’t left out in the cold when it comes to potential aid!A few last tips:
– You will be filling out both of these documents for the 2022-2023 school year and you will use your 2020 tax information.
Got more questions than we have answers? Give us a call! We’re currently booking through the year and into early 2022.
