CSS Profile Guide for 2026-27

The CSS Profile (College Scholarship Service Profile) is a financial aid application created and run by College Board. About 200 to 250 colleges and universities, most of them private and selective, require it in addition to the FAFSA when awarding their own institutional grant money.

When a college offers a grant from its own endowment, it needs more financial detail than the federal government collects. That is why these schools require the CSS Profile on top of the FAFSA. Submitting the FAFSA alone will not make you eligible for the college's own aid at schools that require the Profile.

Check each college's financial aid page or use the participating institutions list at cssprofile.collegeboard.org to find out whether your schools require it.

Since the 2024-25 aid year, the FAFSA has been simplified under FAFSA Simplification. It now uses the Student Aid Index (SAI) instead of the old Expected Family Contribution (EFC), and the form itself is considerably shorter. It covers basic income and asset information and only asks about the custodial household.

The CSS Profile goes much deeper. Key differences include:

• Home equity. The FAFSA does not count your primary home's equity at all. The CSS Profile does ask about it, and many colleges factor it into their aid calculations. Some schools cap how much home equity they count; others count it more fully. This can meaningfully reduce the aid a family receives.
• Noncustodial parent. The FAFSA asks only about the parent the student lived with most in the past 12 months. The CSS Profile requires financial information from both parents, even if they are divorced or separated. The noncustodial parent fills out a separate section of the Profile online.
• Small business and farm assets. The FAFSA excludes small businesses owned by families and the net worth of family farms under certain conditions. The CSS Profile generally asks about these.
• More detailed income and expense questions. The Profile asks about things like medical expenses, private school tuition paid for siblings, and mortgage payments, giving the college a fuller picture of what a family actually has available.

Because of these extra factors, a family's aid eligibility can look quite different at a CSS Profile school compared to a FAFSA-only school. That is not a flaw; it reflects each school making its own judgment about how to allocate its own money.

Filing the CSS Profile costs $25 for the first school and $16 for each additional school you send it to. If you are applying to several schools that require it, costs can add up.

Fee waivers are available and cover both the application fee and all report fees. You qualify automatically if any of the following apply:

• Your family's U.S. adjusted gross income (AGI) is $100,000 or below
• You have received an SAT fee waiver
• You are an orphan or ward of the court
• You are a first-generation college student in certain circumstances

If you qualify, the fee is waived automatically when you create your College Board account and log in to the CSS Profile. You do not need to apply separately for the waiver. Families earning above the threshold but facing unusual hardship can contact the financial aid office of each college directly.

Unlike the FAFSA, which has one federal deadline plus state deadlines, the CSS Profile deadline is set by each college individually. There is no national CSS Profile deadline.

General patterns to know:

• Early Decision and Early Action applicants typically need to submit the CSS Profile in mid-November, often around the same time as the admissions deadline.
• Regular Decision applicants typically face CSS Profile deadlines in late January or February.
• Many schools set a priority deadline, after which funds may be more limited even if you are still technically eligible.

Submit your Profile at least two weeks before the college's stated deadline. This gives the college time to receive any supporting documents (tax forms, W-2s) through the Institutional Documentation Service (IDOC), which many Profile schools use to collect paperwork.

Always verify the exact deadline on each college's financial aid page, not just the admissions page. The two deadlines sometimes differ.

Gather these documents before you sit down to fill out the form. Having them ready makes the process much faster.

• Most recent federal tax returns for both parents and the student (if the student filed)
• W-2s and records of other income (self-employment, rental income, investments)
• Bank and brokerage account statements
• Records of mortgage balance and estimated home value (if you own a home)
• Business or farm records (if applicable)
• Information about any untaxed income (child support received, workers' compensation, etc.)

If parents are divorced or separated, the noncustodial parent will need to create their own College Board account and complete a separate CSS Profile section. Give them advance notice so they have time to gather their documents.

The process is straightforward once you have your documents ready. Here is how it works.

1. Create a College Board account at cssprofile.collegeboard.org, or log in if you already have one from the SAT.
2. Select the 2026-27 academic year when you start a new Profile.
3. Enter basic household information: family size, student information, and household income overview. The system will confirm your fee waiver status here if you qualify.
4. Work through each section of the form. The Profile has multiple pages covering income, assets, expenses, and other household members. Answer every question as accurately as you can. You can save and return.
5. Add the colleges you want to send your Profile to. The fee (or waiver) applies per school added.
6. Review everything carefully, then submit.
7. If a noncustodial parent is required, they receive a separate invitation and complete their own section independently.
8. Watch your email for requests for supporting documents through IDOC. Upload or mail those promptly.

After you submit, each college's financial aid office processes the information and uses it alongside your FAFSA results to calculate your aid package. You generally cannot see how each school uses the data; the methodology is each college's own.