You may have heard of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), but to score more free money for school, you may also need to submit the CSS Profile.
The CSS Profile is an additional financial aid form offered by College Board. Hundreds of U.S. colleges require students to submit the CSS Profile in order to qualify for institutional grants and scholarships. You can access the form on College Board's website.
Compared to the FAFSA, the CSS Profile allows families to share more information about unique financial challenges that may affect their ability to pay for college.
Here's everything you need to know about the 2026-27 CSS Profile.
What is the CSS Profile?
Like the FAFSA, the CSS Profile collects details about your family's income and assets to estimate what your family can afford to pay for college. The FAFSA turns those numbers into a figure called the Student Aid Index, which drives federal aid. The CSS Profile works differently: each college runs your information through its own formula and uses the result to build your aid package.
You should submit the CSS Profile if the school(s) to which you're applying require the form — even if you’ve already submitted the FAFSA.
When is the CSS Profile deadline?
The CSS Profile opens each year on Oct. 1.
Each school or program sets its own CSS Profile filing deadline. Many fall between Jan. 1 and March 31. Some schools have early filing deadlines in November or December. Submit the CSS Profile well before a school’s priority filing date in order to qualify for the most aid possible.
Like the FAFSA, you'll need to resubmit the CSS Profile for each year you're in college.
What kind of financial aid can I get with the CSS Profile vs. the FAFSA?
Schools use the CSS Profile to decide who qualifies for their own grants and scholarships to pay for college. It may allow colleges to see a fuller picture of your family's finances than the FAFSA alone.
The FAFSA can also be used for institutional aid, but its main use is to help you qualify for federal aid, including grants, work-study dollars and student loans.
How much financial aid will I qualify for with the CSS Profile?
Both the CSS Profile and FAFSA give colleges information they need to determine your financial aid offer, but each could produce a different result because they use different methods. Here’s how the CSS Profile determines aid:
- More information is considered. The CSS Profile collects more detailed information about your family’s finances, such as medical expenses. It also considers assets that the FAFSA doesn’t, including home equity, and the value of family farms and small family businesses.
- Your school may have unique questions. Colleges that use the CSS Profile can also add their own questions and adjust how they calculate aid.
- Divorced or separated parents’ income may be used. Some schools using the CSS Profile ask for income from both parents. This applies even if the parents are divorced or separated. The FAFSA only considers one parent’s income in those circumstances.
How much aid you get can differ from school to school.
How much does it cost to submit the CSS Profile?
The CSS Profile costs $25 to submit to one school. Each additional school after that costs $16 each.
However, undergraduate students living in the U.S. can submit the CSS Profile for free if they qualify in any of these ways:
- Their family's annual adjusted gross income is less than $100,000.
- They qualified for an SAT fee waiver.
- They're an orphan or ward of the court under the age of 24.
Why should I still submit the FAFSA?
The CSS Profile only covers aid from your school, not the federal government. That's why you should still submit the FAFSA — it can unlock Pell Grants, work-study, some scholarships and federal student loans.
And if you do need loans, consider how much you can afford to borrow for college.
How to complete the CSS Profile
The CSS Profile opens Oct. 1 each year. Before you get started, note your schools’ CSS Profile deadlines.
1. Create a College Board account. You might already have one if you took the SAT. You can create a College Board account or log in on the College Board website. Custodial parents will use the same account as their student; only noncustodial parents need to create their own separate account.
2. Gather your financial documents. Gather your financial documents ahead of time to make the application easier to fill out. Have the following documents on hand:
- Your most recent federal tax returns.
- Your most recent W-2 forms or other records of current year income.
- Records of untaxed income and benefits.
- Bank statements.
- Mortgage information.
- Records of savings, stocks, bonds, trusts and other assets.
3. Register for the CSS Profile. This process includes filling in basic details and selecting the schools where you want to send your CSS Profile. Your CSS Profile questions will be tailored based on your answers during registration.
4. Complete the application. It takes roughly 45 minutes to three hours to complete the application, depending on your financial situation. You don't need to finish the form in one sitting.
Many of the questions concern your parents' finances. If your parents are divorced or separated, the application will ask which one provides the majority of your financial support — that parent is generally treated as your custodial parent and completes these questions. If you're a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, this should be the same parent who completes your FAFSA.
College Board warns that only one parent or household should indicate they provide more than half of your support, and processing is delayed if both do.
5. Have your other parent complete their own CSS Profile, if necessary. If your parents are divorced or separated and a school requires it, the parent who isn't providing the majority of your support will need to submit a separate CSS Profile application. Unlike a custodial parent, who uses your College Board account, a noncustodial parent has to create their own account to do this.
6. Find out whether you’re eligible for a fee waiver. The College Board automatically determines if you qualify for a waived application fee based on your responses. If you don’t qualify for a fee waiver, you’ll have to pay the $25 application fee before you can submit the form.
7. Submit the application. Check your work first. If you need to correct your CSS Profile after you’ve submitted it, you can update it by clicking “Correct Your CSS Profile” on your College Board account dashboard.
