Introduction to the CSS Profile

The College Scholarship Service (CSS) Profile is a financial aid application that is designed for both domestic (American) and international students. The profile is managed by College Board, (the same organization that conducts the SAT) and is an excellent opportunity for international students to receive aid.   As such, the profile is one of the few options available to international students when it comes to financial aid in the US. While domestic students have access to federal aid (government funding through the FAFSA), the choices for international students are limited at best.

You can fill in the CSS Profile here: Apply for College Financial Aid – CSS Profile | College Board

The CSS Profile is divided into two distinct sections. The first is the common profile which is shared by all the colleges. This is the largest chunk of the application.  The second sections are the college/institution specific questions. The CSS Profile for one college costs $25 and additional colleges cost $16 each.  This article will focus on the common profile. 

Note: Since the CSS Profile was designed keeping a domestic audience in mind, a lot of the financial terminologies are based on the US economic and banking systems. Thus, when filling in the form, you need to look for Indian alternatives (such as W-2 forms or tax returns become the ITR (Income Tax Returns).

The rest of this article will assume that you are an international applicant with your sponsors (parents and other family members/sources paying for your education) being based in the Indian financial system.

The major document you will need is the ITR for the previous financial year depending on when you apply.  You will need ITRs for all your sponsors separately so please keep that in mind. Since US universities do not have access to other financial statements, the ITR is treated as the base for all financial aid calculations. Please have access to the relevant ITR documents before you fill in the application. There are a few other documents that may be required by certain institutions on a case-by-case basis. These are:

• Bank Statements: In rare cases, an institution may request bank statements. (Usually over the period of the last six months) This usually happens when students indicate that their sponsors have come under extreme financial circumstances. (Medical emergencies, bankruptcy due to external circumstances like the Covid pandemic etc.) Many institutions may request that the statements be converted into USD. In such cases, you may convert the amounts yourself and have the conversions attested (signed by a designated bank official) as an additional page on the bank statement. 
• If you indicate that you are the recipient of an external fund (such as a trust fund or a scholarship from any source other than a US agency/bank/philanthropic organization) then you need to provide a certificate/proof of this funding. 

Usually, most institutions use the IDOC (Institutional Documentation Service: IDOC: Institutional Documentation Service - College Board) portal to collect your documents. Once you submit your profile to a particular college, they will enable the login and send you a notification. You can then upload the required documents. The login activation process may take up to a week or more so please be patient. 

https://profile.collegeboard.org/profile/ppi/participatingInstitutions.aspx

An alternative way to check if a particular institution accepts the profile is by visiting the financial aid section usually found on the undergraduate admissions page. 

CollegeBoard uses the ‘Institutional Methodology’ framework to determine financial aid eligibility. There are a few basic expenses that are tracked under this:

• Application fees
• Test/entrance exam fees (e.g., TOEFL)
• Visa/SEVIS fees
• Tuition and fees
• Room and board (accommodation and food)
• Books and supplies (including laptop, CDs, paper, etc.)
• Travel to the United States
• Travel within the United States
• Health and medical insurance
• Personal expenses during term-time for on-campus accommodation (including clothing, telephone charges, entertainment, and leisure); and personal expenses during term breaks for on-campus accommodation (including travel, food, extra housing fees, telephone charges, entertainment, and leisure)

(Taken from NAFSA – a major nonprofit working for international student exchange)

These factors create the Cost of Attendance (CoA).  The other important term is the Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) which is the amount of money a student’s family intends to put down for a student’s education. In very simple terms, the formula for financial aid is:

CoA – EFC = Financial Aid Amount

Within IM however, there are several other factors:

1. Demographic Parity and Exchange Rate Bias: One of the principal factors that determine your priority in terms of aid is the concept of demographic analysis.  All American institutions categorize students based on their home countries. This differentiation seeks to prioritize students (with demonstrated merit in their applications) from low-income regions as well as those countries which are either conflict or post-conflict regions. Furthermore, they consider the exchange rate (usually the consular/diplomatic exchange rate) and the relative parity of your income and assets.  This means that they will assess how financially sound you are compared to the average cost of living in your city. 
2. Number of dependents and expenses: The CSS Profile includes a detailed section where you can put down essential family expenses (food, clothing, house rent etc.) as well as other expenses on things like entertainment etc.  The profile also considers the number of people in the family that the stated income needs to support. For instance, if you declare a family unit of six: parents + two children (one being the applicant naturally) + grandparents, then specific values such as the cost of schooling and eldercare expenses will become factors in the analysis. 

NOTE: While it may be tempting to ‘play’ around with your expenses to try and show that you have limited margins to support your child’s education, this may backfire. The CSS experts try and understand the financial soundness of your income vs stated expenses. If they feel that your expenses are too high, they will declare you in the red in terms of financial soundness. This nearly doubles the pressure on the student as the student’s profile will be put under greater levels of scrutiny, and given the existence of demographic bias, may even lead to an overall rejection. 

While this is always going to be case-specific, there are a few guidelines that one can adhere to:

• Remember: CoA – EFC = Financial Aid Amount. In this, you should always try and keep the EFC amount to around 90% of your available income. The available income is the amount of money (per annum) that is available to your family after deducting all expenses. So, let us say your family income is 30L and total expenses are around 10L, then you have an available income of 20L. In the EFC, you should put down 18L. This indicates better financial soundness which adds positively to the chances of your aid application. 
• Expenses are structured into two distinct types: essential (Food, clothing, housing etc.) and non-essential (holiday, entertainment etc.). As a rule of thumb, try and keep non-essential expenses down.  When mapping out essentials, please note that the number of people in the family play an important role. Your expenses need to seem reasonably proportional to the number of people in the family unit. Gross discrepancies here will negatively affect your application. 
• If you own property, you are not technically obliged to declare it on the profile. However, if you pay house tax or the value of the property has deprecated (for whatever reason), you should consider declaring it. Taxation is the most important factor of leniency in the financial aid application. This means that any form of tax documented is considered as a financial burden that adds positively to your case for financial aid. 
• In the profile there is a section for a retirement corpus/savings. This section is not counted in the available income/funds of a family and thus is a good place to adjust values. Please remember that the retirement corpus should also be proportional to the number of people declared in the family. 

Again, there is no one solution fits all approach here. However, in general, the base EFC should cover the cost of living (room + board) of the student. It is VERY unlikely for a student to receive an aid package that will cover this cost.  Apart from this, the EFC should be designed using the information given in the previous question. 

7. What is the impact on my application?

In simple terms, applying for financial aid increases the scrutiny on your application. Apart from the general selection criteria a college/institution may have, they will apply additional criterial to evaluate you. The severity of these criteria is based on a wide array of factors, but it boils down to:

• The Level of Aid requested. The higher the aid amount, the more difficult and numerous the factors become. Thus, it is HIGHLY advised that aid amounts be kept as realistic as possible. 
• Your Application’s Fit: The more displayed merit (higher grades, more engaged and intensive activities etc.) the better your chances of receiving aid. 

This concludes this introductory article. For all follow up questions, please drop a mail to info@collegelab.in.