The maze of forms that are required can be daunting. We encourage all parents to complete the FAFSA. This is an absolute, regardless of your income, family status, or net worth. Some private schools will also require the CSS profile. This is a questionnaire that delves further into your financial situation, especially if you own a business, have equity in your home or own a farm. If your college is requiring the completion of the CSS profile, you are automatically embracing another level of complexity that will affect your financial aid. Please ask us about our assistance in this domain.

Many private schools also have their own forms that need to be completed. These forms are created by the schools themselves and address issues important to those schools. If the schools on your list require their own form to be filled out, this of course adds a third layer of complexity to the process.

It is essential that these forms be consistent with each other. In other words, parents will often experience challenges when the data they list on the FAFSA form is inconsistent with the data on the CSS profile, which may be inconsistent with data on the college’s individual form. It is imperative that consistency is maintained. College Funding Systems can help with this.