Preparing for FAFSA & CSS Profile: What to Do Now So You Can Submit Your Financial Aid Apps ASAP
Updated: 6 days ago
Note: The information below is intended for general educational and information purposes and is NOT financial, tax, accounting, or legal advice. I am an Independent Educational Consultant providing college planning and financial aid process information only. This article is intended to help students understand and prepare for financial aid applications. Students and families should always verify information with Federal Student Aid (for FAFSA) and College Board (for CSS Profile), as well as individual college financial aid offices for their own deadlines and procedures. This is especially important as financial aid rules, procedures, applications, deadlines, and requirements change from year to year. The information in this article is current as of September 2026.
By October 1st, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will open for all students applying for financial aid for the 2027-28 academic year, including current high school seniors. The FAFSA is required by all colleges and universities for students requesting need-based aid in order to attend college.
In addition to the FAFSA, some colleges and universities require the CSS Profile, which is used to determine eligibility for institutional (non-federal) financial aid. Like the FAFSA, the CSS Profile also opens by October 1st.
For both the FAFSA and the CSS Profile, students and families should plan to submit financial aid applications as soon after October 1st as possible, while ensuring accuracy and completeness.
Why submit FAFSA and CSS Profile early?
Typically, completed financial aid applications -- both FAFSA and CSS Profile -- are due on or soon after a student's college application deadline. So, if Joey is applying Early Decision to College X and has an ED application deadline of November 1st, then he will need to finish and complete his FAFSA and CSS Profile (if College X requires it) around November 1st. College X will specify an exact deadline that Joey can find on the Financial Aid Office website.
If Joey is also applying to Colleges Y and Z in the Regular Decision round, then his FAFSA and CSS Profile deadlines for those schools will be later. However, he'll have the forms completed and submitted already because he finished them by the ED deadline for College X. For both FAFSA and CSS Profile, Joey will submit once and list all of the colleges and universities that should receive a copy of his forms (Joey can add more colleges later if he wants to).
Like Joey, if you are applying for financial aid, you'll need to complete and submit your FAFSA and CSS Profile (if your colleges require it) before your earliest application deadline. If your first application deadline isn't until January 1st or later, then you should still plan to file your financial aid applications before November 1st.
Why? Federal student aid is not "first come, first served" -- if you're Pell eligible, you'll still get your grant, even if you apply before a later deadline. However, there are limits to some state and institutional grant funds. Money doesn't grow on trees, neither for families nor for colleges and universities!
Applying earlier maximizes your chances of receiving some of the limited funds available and, in some cases, maximizes the amount of money you're awarded. In fact, many institutions set early application deadlines for priority financial or merit aid consideration, which often coincide with the colleges' Early Action deadlines. Filing FAFSA and CSS Profile early also gives you time to submit any additional or supporting documents, resolve any unexpected issues that arise, and correct any mistakes made when completing the applications.
In the month of September, there are a few things students and families can do to prepare for the launch of the FAFSA and CSS Profile in October.
How to Prepare for FAFSA & CSS Profile: What to Do Now So You Can Submit Financial Aid Apps ASAP
The order in which you do these is not as important as getting them done before you're ready to complete the FAFSA.
Student should create their own Federal Student Aid (FSA) account.
The FSA account, or FSA ID, is also known as a StudentAid.gov account.
To create an account, the student will need:
Their Social Security Number (SSN)
Their own email address (it's best to use a personal email address and not a school email address, as the FSA account will stay with the student past high school and college)
How and where to do it: https://studentaid.gov/fsa-id/create-account/launch
Why do it early?
Identity verification can take a few days (or longer if you run into problems)
Leave yourself time to resolve other potential issues, such a name/SSN mismatch
Remember that this is the student's FSA account and not the parent's FSA account. The student and each contributor will need their own accounts in order to contribute to the student's FAFSA.
Student should identify who is a "contributor" to their FAFSA.
A "contributor" is anyone who is required to provide their information, signature, and consent to have their tax data transferred from the IRS to the student's FAFSA. The student is a contributor, and other contributors might include the student's spouse, biological or adoptive parent(s), and/or a step-parent.
In families in which the dependent student's parents are divorced or separated, or in the case of students who may qualify as independent, determining who will contribute may take time.
Resources for determining who is a contributor:
Student should prepare contributor(s) by explaining "consent" and requesting information.
In order to invite contributor(s) to their FAFSA, the student will need each contributor's:
Legal name
Date of birth
Email address, and
SSN (if they have one) or
Mailing address (if they don't have an SSN).
Gathering this information now can expedite the process of inviting contributors to the FAFSA later. (The student will invite contributors only after completing their own portion of the FAFSA).
Each contributor should also be aware that they will need to provide consent in order for their federal tax information to be transferred from the IRS to the FAFSA. If any contributor does not consent, then the student will not be eligible for federal student aid.
Student should remind contributors that providing consent and sharing information does NOT obligate the contributor to help pay for college. Additionally, the student will not see or have access to the contributor's tax information (and neither will any other contributor). The student's and each contributor's sections are separate from one another. However, consent from all contributors is required in order for the student to apply for and be eligible to receive federal financial aid.
Making sure that contributors are aware of this process may help you save time and potential complications later, when you're ready to complete the form.
Each contributor should create their own FSA/StudentAid.gov account (if they don't have one already).
When it comes time to complete the FAFSA (after Oct 1st), the student will invite their contributor(s), and each contributor will receive an email with a link to the student's FAFSA form to complete their required sections.
Then, each contributor will log in to the FAFSA with their own FSA ID, which they can create ahead of time if they do not have one already. If the contributor already has an FSA ID, or thinks they might have one, now is a good time to make sure it's active and in working order so it's ready to go when the FAFSA opens!
Like the student, in order to create an account, each contributor will need:
Their SSN
Their own personal email address (not the student's email address, and ideally not a school or work account, which may be disabled before or during the student's college enrollment)
Reasons to do this early, before Oct 1st, include the reasons listed above: identity verification can take time (especially if a contributor does not have an SSN) and potential issues may arise, such as name/SSN mismatches or problems with existing FSA accounts.
Student and each contributor should gather relevant documents.
In order to complete and submit the FAFSA, contributors will need:
Tax returns for the "prior-prior" year (that is, 2025 tax returns for the 2027-28 FAFSA)
Records of child support received
Current balances of cash, checking, and savings accounts
Net worth of investments, businesses, and income-producing farms
Government-issued photo ID (for the student)*
Even though each contributor's tax information will be transferred electronically from the IRS after the contributor provides consent, you may want to consult tax returns in order to provide accurate information on the form. That said, if anything has changed since your prior-prior year tax return (for example, the size of your household or the student or parent's marital status), you should provide the updated information in the FAFSA.
*New this year: Students will be evaluated for fraud during the FAFSA completion process, after they finish their portion of the form and invite contributors. There is nothing to worry about here. However, if the student does not have a government-issued photo ID, now is the time to get one!
What about the CSS Profile?
The College Scholarship Service (CSS) Profile is used by many colleges and universities to determine institutional (non-federal) financial aid. Not every college requires the CSS Profile to offer and disperse financial aid, but all colleges that require the CSS Profile also require the FAFSA. This means that if you need to complete and submit the CSS Profile, then you ALSO need to complete and submit the FAFSA.
Typically, the CSS Profile and FAFSA are due by the same financial aid deadline for any given college or university. You should check with individual institutions for specific deadlines. You can find the list of institutions and programs that participate in the CSS Profile here.
The CSS Profile includes more questions than the FAFSA and typically requires more information about the family's assets, income, and expenses. Colleges and universities decide which questions to include on their own application, with some institutions requiring more or less information than others.
To complete the CSS Profile, you will need the following:
most recent federal tax returns
W-2 forms and other records of current year income
records of untaxed income/benefits, assets, and bank statements
a College Board account (the student can use their existing account if they have one)
To complete the CSS Profile, the student logs in to their College Board account and completes the form with their parent's help. Unless the student's parents are divorced or separated, the parent does not need to create their own account. In the case of divorce or separation, the non-custodial parent will need their own College Board account and will log in to complete their own CSS Profile.
Like the FAFSA, the CSS Profile is available by October 1st for the following academic year. So, the Profile for students applying for admission and financial aid for the 2027-28 school year will open by October 1, 2026. While you wait, you can gather your documents and make sure your College Board account(s) are active and in working order. You can find more information and instructions for completing the CSS Profile here.
Need more help applying for financial aid? Here are suggestions for additional resources:
Your school counselor or school counseling office (including the counseling office website, which often links you directly to helpful resources)
Your local college access professionals (for example, in northeast Ohio, the Lake-Geauga Educational Assistance Foundation (LEAF) serves many area high schools via in-school advising, informative presentations and webinars, and a robust website full of helpful resources)
The Federal Student Aid website, as well as their YouTube channel
CSS Profile Frequently Asked Questions
Amanda Miller's Paying for College guide on the College Essay Guy website
And, of course, you are always welcome to email me at jenny@hilltopcollegeconsulting.com with questions about college planning and/or financial aid. For advice about your family's individual financial or tax situation, you should consult an appropriately qualified professional.
On your own or with help, you've got this!
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