How to complete the 2024-2025 CSS Profile, a line-by-line guide

How do I know if I have to apply for 2023-2024 or 2024-2025??

Thank you! I am divorced and the wording for the filing parent is very confusing, often using “parents” plural. Or did the question mean “parent’s” in the possessive? This form could have been worded better. Examples could have been provided to make it easier. Thank you so much for explaining everything in this video. It definitely helped!

Excellent and so patience doing this for all of us parents! Thank you so much. Yes is very helpful.

Can I apply after the priority deadline?

How do you add schools for regular decision after you submitted for early action? Do you add it and then refill it out?

Peg, can I still fill out if my daughter is already in university 23/24 freshman Undergraduate?
My daughter did not take SAT.

Thank you for the info. Really a great help. Question if I may, curious how i approach giving the right information when you have separated in 2023. I can give all tax info for 2022 however that is still joint and misrepresenting. Do I just pull the data of the form and it is handled elsewhere or do i adjust everything somehow to be reflective of the custodial or the parent that provides the most financial aid. I want to make sure i fill this out right however i don't want to overstate means that existed in 2022 but not anymore in 2023 and beyond.

I have a question, if I pay the CSS profile fee ($9) and send it to one University ($16), do I have to pay again $9 if I want to send it to another university within 1 month?

I have a question please help me.
I edit the CSS profile . Now I am not able to add colleges in Css profile.
What should I do ?
Please help me
Please reply me

I have one question. In the section regarding parent income they ask for the number on Line 22, which for my parents is 0. However, the wording of “taxes paid” confuses me, as they did pay an amount that is disclosed on line 33- total payments. I was wondering if you know which one I should put for my CSS profile.

How do I add or remove a school from my css profile?

My daughter submitted CSS profile last month and put the zero amount for parents contribution(Student Resources). I am afraid she will get disadvantage from this and it will be negative affect on college admission. Is there a way to change the amount in CSS profile? Should I worry about? please advice

Hello, I am currently filling the CSS Profile, and I am from a really low income. If I have a lot of answers that are 0, like the parent contribution to the student's education, or the parents savings… Is it less beneficial if I have some of those on 0 money? It is the truth, but I am worried that I will get rejected for not having much money.

Do I need to provide my country code while filling phone number?

My child attends a private high school. The CSS asks for information about scholarships, grants, and tuition paid, but it's not marked as "Required" ("If STUDENT attended a private high school in 2023-24, provide the following information. If the student did not attend a private high school, click "Save and Continue" to go to the next question.")

Do you advise that we leave these blank, too, since they are not required?

Can I ask what happens if we make a mistake, and we need to correct it through CSS profile, do we just comment on the mistakes?

Thank you! Very helpful!

I have a question about the SSN u said it’s not required but when I left it it told me that my financial aid could be refused just because I didn’t put it
Now the thing is that I’m a resident in Saudi Arabia and we residents don’t have SSN it’s just for citizens!
From where could I get this number
I explained already this in the circumstances blank but I want to make sure from now if the percentage of refusing my aid package because of the SSN I’m not going to submit the css profile

Thank you so, so much for this! It was a huge help!

Thanks for this great video! Under student resources, if a school is need aware and you include a number that is low, could that hurt the student's chances? I have saved enough to be able to contribute $40K/year, our EFC is $70K - I don't want to ruin my child's chances in getting merit scholarships. Any advice? Thanks!

Silly question maybe: when i put the dollar amounts in the CSS, do i include cents or do I just round up or down?

For the parents' expected income, the hint says "include wages, salaries, tips"... but is that net or gross? It is not clear to me. Both parents contribute heavily to 401k, so the difference is significant! Thanks so much!

Please mum can you help me find the section for dependents? For this year's css profile, I am finding it difficult to find the section to enter the dependents of my parents.

Any suggestions for 529 owned by grandparents?

Hello, thank you for your video !! It is really helpful!! I have a question. For the medical expenses, do i include the medical & dental insurance premium ? In the note, it says we can include but I want to make sure

Thanks. The video was very helpful for us filling out css profile for our 1st year college freshman!

On the css profile how do we report a primary residence that is under construction at the moment and ready next year 2024? As we are currently living elsewhere till its finished.

is this only for US residents or for international students too???

Help! Right around 28 minutes it asks: Parent other Number of real estate owned (required) but your voiceover says it's not required. Can you clear this up for me? Also if married filing seperatly, ( with 2 addresses) we need to have 2 CSS profiles correct?

where do i enter a 529 owned by a grandparent? If I have twins, do I need to put in the amount for both 529's ? Or just the student applying?

when I was filling out the application for the DSAT and CSS profile, I faced a problem that is I had to fill up my first name and last name but the problem was that I didn't have any legal or official last name/surname. It means, my name contains only one single word which is 'Jahiduzzaman'. There is nothing before and after the name on my passport and other documents. As the first name and last name boxes are required and marked with a red star I am unable to apply without filling both boxes. What should I do in this situation?please reply🙏🙏

thank you- very helpful! if submitting dual-household CSS profile to a list of multiple colleges, will the system only distribute the non-custodial parent profile to the colleges that require?

Thank you, very helpful! Especially about leaving non-req fields blank. I was almost done before I saw your video and so changed some of those fields. I do have MANY questions about the fields that apply to military and veterans benefits, though! There is one section we are really struggling to figure out how to answer. Do you have a video on those sections that are applicable to military dependents and veterans? Thanks again!

Retirement assets we’re not a required field when I click through

How do you report a pension for an active duty First Responder?

Where should I enter my business income in the expected income for 2023 below?

Parent 2023 Income and Benefits
Enter the amounts parents received or expect to receive in 2023 for the following:
income from work (required)
Other taxable income (required)
Untaxed income and benefits (required)

I am no longer working, but I have a 401k account from when I did work and I will receive Social Security when I am older. For the question “which retirement plans do you participate in?”, do I answer a) 401K and b) plans to draw on Soc Sec?

Thank you for all the great info! My daughter is going to request her father (the NCP) be waived from the CSS profile. Should we provide his email now? Because even though we have his contact information, he has been abusive to both of us, and she does not want to have to involve him in the future.
If her colleges do not waive requiring his financial information, can we provide his email at that point? Thank you!

There are two times the CCS profile asks about change of employment (expect change and a Yes or No question) and special circumstances. We sold our business and were retired in September this year. The W2 from this year drastically lower than last year when I reported it. To be consistent, should I wait until later for appeal or answer both as none?

Thanks for explaining all the salient points. You rock!

This is hugely helpful. Thanks for these videos. Question- We live overseas and file Foreign Income Exclusion. There is an optional question to include our total Line 8d: Foreign earned income exclusion total. Is there any benefit to including this info. They will see it on my taxes. Thanks again!

Thank you so much for this helpful and informative tutorial!!! I am filling out the CSS Profile for my high school senior. Her sibling is a college freshman this year. When the CSS Profile asks about the amount we have paid for this sibling's college for 2023/2024 tuition, we have only paid for her first semester as of right now. So I can only say I have paid that amount. But we will be billed in December for second semester. How do I account for this additional tuition we are going to be paying for her sibling for the 2023/24 school year? I'm concerned that entering the amount we have only paid so far only tells half of the story of our financial responsibility for her sibling this school year.

How do you submit a CSS Noncustodial waiver form for each college?

This was incredibly helpful, thank you so much!

So grateful for you! Question tho. Home equity - What If I built my home in 2001. Am I using the construction cost as the "purchase price"

does the same parent we use for fafsa need to be the same we use for the main part of the css? my parents have 50/50 custody (and about equal financial support), but one is married and makes significantly more. the css website says to use the parent who makes more, but isn't fafsa just who has primary custody? im a first gen and i'm super confused. what should i do?

also at the beginning of the css profile, i include any stepparents, correct?

Hello Peg. Thank you so much for this. Do I have to fill a non-custodial parent waiver when my second parent is known to be deceased? If yes, could you please describe an outline/template or something on how my third party documentation letter would look like? the person that is available to help me out says he has never written something like this before. so what is it meant to look like basically?

I don’t have access to a copy of my 2022 tax return but have my 2022 tax return transcript from the IRS. Do you foresee any issues with needed info that might not be on the transcript and any issues uploading the transcript to IDOC later? Thanks in advance!

Also, my daughter caddies at a golf club over the summer. Next year the club will be closed for remodeling. Thus, under estimating summer and academic earnings for 2024, we put zero earnings. I selected other to have a chance to explain closure of the club and thus, not feeling comfortable estimating earnings for the summer or academic year, until securing a position. Is this wise to do, or should I simply answer zero earnings without explaining (I just thought that would be weird not to explain, as they will see she previously had a job). Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you, Peggy.