The MEFA Institute^™: A Deep Dive into the CSS Profile

  All right. Welcome to a deep dive into the CSS profile. My name is Julie Shields Rutina, Director of College Planning, Education, and Training at MIFA. And I am here with our presenter, Gail Holtz, who is the Dean of Financial Aid at Amherst College. And let's get started. I'm just going to talk about the logistics of the webinar.

So today we have a lot of content, um, but we know you probably will have some questions. So use the Q& A feature, um, during the webinar. If you have questions, put them in there. If it's a burning question, I will bring it up with Gail during the webinar. Otherwise, I may answer it if it's a quick question and we'll answer questions that we didn't get to at the end.

If you want to use the live transcript feature, press CC on your screen and you'll be able to see closed captioning of the words that we're speaking. And the other nice feature is that you can also choose the language. If that's helpful. That's a nice feature of our live transcript. We are recording and we will send you a link to both the recording and the slide deck tomorrow.

And just a word about MIFA. I think most of you know MIFA. We are a state authority created by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1982. And we have the same mission that we did back then, which is to help families plan, save, and pay for college. One of our, um, most important things that we do is we work with school counselors, advisors, all of you who work with students and families.

And this MIFA Institute is part of a training series that we have for you. So please come back often and really take part in all of the other trainings we have, especially in this year, where there are so many things happening with financial aid. And with that, Thank you. I am going to turn it over to you, Gail.

Great. Thank you so much, Julie. And it's wonderful to be with all of you. This is no doubt, um, a year that, uh, maybe, you know, you haven't seen, what, since, since COVID. Hopefully this year will not be as chaotic. Uh, As it was at that point, but there's no doubt there is a lot of change in applying for college and in the financial aid process this year.

The good news is that the profile, which is what we're talking about today, largely has very few changes. So I will highlight some places where There is going to be some consistency with the FAFSA and that will be a change, but largely there's a lot that is very consistent about the profile and that's intentional.

We're looking for stability and equity and access in terms of helping students apply for college and it's great that we can partner and work with you as school counselors and and here on the other side as financial aid. Advisors. Uh, so we're glad to work with MIFA and glad, um, that we can present, um, the information about the profile.

So, uh, the important thing is that the college board, um, is an independent organization. Thank you. private organization, um, and they are the ones who, who bring us the profile. It is totally separate from the, the FAFSA. The FAFSA is the only application that is required to receive federal funding. So the reason that the profile is used by, you know, about 200 colleges is to be more precise and more equitable in distributing a much, much wider array of funds.

As one example, Amherst is an institution in which 95 percent of the significant funds that we offer to students come from private, you know, Amherst sources, and only 5 percent of the funds that we give to students. Uh, come from federal and other sources, so at lots of, uh, expensive and high cost institutions, the profile really is required because the demand is so necessary and The funds really need to be there needs to be a more precise measure than what the FAFSA can provide.

So the profile it is open today. Yes, it opens on October 1st each year publicly, but it is open now. And so, um, we're gonna just dive in. It is also for both domestic students and international students, and that's one of the reasons that the profile is also utilized, uh, by other institutions. So we'll keep, keep going.

Um, so as I've alluded to, um, but I'll state more clearly that the profile does collect more information. And this is sometimes where it gets a bad rap for being harder to complete or taking more time. Um, but, but again, the reason for collecting more information is twofold. It's, it's really to make sure that The funding that institutions have and the millions of dollars can be distributed in more precise ways.

And that goes both ways that make sure that families. that have, um, more special and unusual and expenses. They have, you know, expenses that, that aren't always as visible, that that information can be collected and those resources can be targeted to students in need. Uh, you know, we're not always, as financial aid folks, we're not in the business of trying to keep money away from people.

We're just trying to make sure that we get. money to the right people and in the right amount. So we definitely, you know, want families to be able to share, uh, the true reflection of what their family financial circumstances are. So that's where the special circumstances come in and they are built throughout the application.

Also being able to extend this application to international students. Who cannot, um, file the FAFSA and do not qualify for, for federal student aid. So there's lots of resources that the College Board has on, uh, the, the main web page. So you see a screenshot of that and I encourage you to, you know, look at the different resources.

Uh, this is kind of a hub for the profile from tips to information for, you know, parents when parents aren't married to each other, um, who is requiring the profile, uh, very importantly, if it's helpful to families to have the information in another language, such as Spanish. So there's a lot of good information on this page.

Next, um, I'll highlight the participating institutions, uh, page. So the profile is one component of the College Board offerings of a few different kinds, um, and, and pieces in the, the profile process. So using this page, To filter based on state or to build a list of schools that a student is applying to will be sure to help students identify exactly what they have to do and with their parents and those that are helping them complete the application.

What do they need to complete? Because it can vary from institution to institution. So what you see here is, um, who is the profile required from? Is it required from domestic students, international students, the non-custodial parent? We'll get a little bit more into that. And then does that institution utilize.

The document imaging service, which we will also talk about later on, which is a process by which schools can collect tax confirmation tax forms. And this validates the data that they're putting on the profile to make sure that all the correct information is, is being used. Um, so you can search by the code or the name or the state.

Um, and so I would recommend that any student who's applying to several colleges run this for each college. Maybe do a screenshot of, you know, what's required for each, or put it on a chart, or something like that, so that, you know, they can see the differences, because it is going to vary by institution.

So, other resources, uh, that are on the College Board site, uh, that I do want to highlight, and we'll talk more about, but this is where you can come back to, uh, if you have questions. First and foremost is the accessibility of the profile and, um, the fee waivers. So the college board and with the profile does offer fee waiver programs.

Um, and you may be familiar with the fee waiver programs of the past. They have been, and they are continually. Evaluated to make sure that they're serving students. Well, so those fee waivers now extend to more families and We'll get into some of those details because you really want to be Aware of who will qualify for those fee waivers.

You can easily see the details right here on the website You can print off information for your students if you want to target You know, students who are eligible if you happen to know that information or are talking with students who are or parents who are concerned about about the cost. But there's also another highly important piece would be resources targeted toward families that are not parents that are not married to each other, either in terms of who needs to fill out and how do they fill out the profile or If a waiver of that parent's information, uh is required A new thing this year is that the college board has created a css profile video So this might be just a nice thing that you can make available on your school websites Or send it out to families or provide it as a resource as families are signing up for financial aid nights It gives them a nice quick easy overview of what the profile is all about.

So I encourage you to take a look at that video that's on their website. So how does the process work? Um, you know, the application itself, uh, is evolving, it's customized. So signing in, families can sign in with the student's information that the student used from the SAT or AP tests, or Um, parents can create their own login if that's something that they would want, uh, and they can sign in and complete the application with their information, uh, that way.

So that's just personal preference. But the customized application is key. So it's customized based on the schools that the student is applying to. Um, and so it is possible that as students, uh, are deciding where they want to apply. That the sections or the questions will be added to, um, as that expands.

I always recommend that students only fill out the profile when they're really, really sure that they're going to apply to a certain college or university. So, like as soon as they've submitted their admission application, then go and complete the profile. But because it is a fee based application, you really only want to complete it.

Uh, when you need to. So it's totally fine to to get the base questions completed. And then when a school needs to be added, you add the school. And if there's a few more questions that need to be asked, um, it doesn't take that that long. But the whole goal here is to only ask what is absolutely required for the institutions that the student is applying to.

Also, uh, the College Board continues, and the profile continues to use, you know, modern, uh, technology and features. So you can jump around in the application if that's helpful in terms of your own train of thought or family's trains of thought. You don't have to do it all at once. You can do a little bit here, a little bit there.

And of course, um, I don't know who would ever want to fill this application out on a mobile device. Uh, but it is mobile friendly, I guess. I guess actually, uh, iPads, uh, are considered mobile. So maybe that's, uh, possible, but I, I definitely wouldn't want to do it on my phone. All right, so what are some general, uh, tips, tips and tricks?

Um, these are tips and tricks that I bet you share with your students all the time. You know, it, you can never hit save too often. Um, that is an incredibly frustrating experience if, if, if you get pulled away from something and then lose data. Uh, but. Using it is an application and it's a software tool. So using the navigation buttons in the actual profile application are important because the, you know, the navigation in the wider Safari or, you know, web browser, um, will will.

can be troublesome. There's also a lot of hints and notes on different questions, so that the application itself can cut down on all that peripheral or superfluous detail and make it more visually appealing to be able to complete. But for those individuals who need more detail, Those hints, um, are definitely there, um, any fields that another tip that's important is any field that is a numeric field needs to have a value in it.

So, you know, just tell your students that if they don't think something applies or zero, just just put a zero, but don't leave things blank. And, and really, um, just one last thing on that is just if, uh, to have forms ready. Uh, what it makes it easier to fill out the application if you've got tax forms and, you know, maybe some bank account information as well.

So let's, uh, let's jump into this next slide and talk about parents. Uh, so here's here's one of my alerts. Change alert, change alert, uh, for you because this is I think really the only but the key place where the shift, um, to the changes in the FAFSA, the federal regulations and FAFSA simplification are really going to apply here.

And this all stems from federal legislation. So, um, this is, you know, not financial aid administrators just trying to make life complicated. So, I think that the best way to start talking about this with families is really talking about which and who, what parents complete the profile. So for married individuals, um, it will be all parents.

Um, and because again, the profile collects information, uh, from a broader subset to make sure that they're collecting information, uh, to, to distribute resources as equitably as possible, uh, usually and with many institutions. all of the student's parents will appear somewhere on the profile. So that could be parents, if their parents are no longer married to each other, uh, that could include step parents.

Um, and, you know, it may seem a little counterintuitive to, to be including, uh, parents that maybe are deceased, but the goal here is really just to make sure That the request for information is targeted correctly to the student. So obviously if a parent is deceased, then that makes it easier for the logic in the application to skip that parent and not ask the student about that parent.

So every piece of information in the application is designed to make sure that All of the necessary information is delivered to the school in, uh, a complete package. Another difference from the, or a difference from the FAFSA is that, um, if a student has legal guardians on the profile application, uh, they should report their information.

Now whether and how schools, uh, colleges and universities use this information could vary, but they should at least put that information on there to make sure that if a school requires it, they have it available to use it. If a school doesn't require it, they're not going to, they're just going to skip over it.

So, what, who is the parent reporting? Um, so, sort of strike out of your brain if, if you have memory, um, of the answer to this question in the past. And if you don't, then don't even worry about it. So the parent that reports information on the profile application And on the FAFSA is the the parent that in the most recent 12 months provided more of the financial support to the student.

I'll just say that again, the parent that is reporting information on the FAFSA and the profile is the parent for whom in the most recent 12 months. Provided more financial support to the student. So if one of the colleges and universities that is requiring the profile, uses and asks for information from another parent, it will be the other parent.

It will be the, uh, opposite of whoever is filling the main, who is filling out information on the FAFSA and the profile. Now, in some cases, Families may say, well, in the last 12 months, the financial support was exactly equal, or they may say, um, the student may have been enrolled in college or some other circumstances, and they say neither parent provided financial support.

So if that's the case, then the parent who provides the information is the parent who provided more financial support the last time the student received financial support. So that might have been before 12 months ago. And if. Um, that is still unknown. Then the final third determination is which parent, uh, has the higher income or assets.

So those are the, the, the criteria, um, to think about who is supplying their information. And just to add one more layer of complexity, um, to this piece in the case of divorced and separated families. If a parent is providing child support, To the other parent for the benefit of the student, then the determination of the parent that provided more financial support, the child support is really attributable to the parent giving it.

So, if one parent provided most of the student's financial support, more than half, and it came in the form of child support, it is that. Person, the, the issuer of this child support that is reporting their information on the FAFSA and the profile. And then the other parent will be the person who's providing information, um, in what they, what is called the non custodial portion of the profile.

So, I, I hope that is clear, um, but it is going to be a little, uh, choppy, I bet, for a little while, but there's more information, um, and you can print things out and stuff like that on the, on the home page, so hopefully I've hit, um, the other thing I'll say here, um, is that some, uh, schools will also, um, assume Really what, what we're a minimum amount for a student, uh, contribution.

Um, but we actually can get into that because we're not really talking about that right now. Okay. So let's go on to the next slide to keep things moving.

Okay. So, um, I said that all parents should be listed in terms of, uh, the questions about who are the parents. There certainly are such a wide variety and array and circumstances when it comes to students and their household situations. So, sometimes, a student is not reporting. you know, another, the other parent on the form.

So they may, they may put the person on the form and they're deceased. And then the questions will be skipped over. Um, but there's also situations where if they're not putting a parent on the form, there'll be asked some followup questions. Like why are you only listing one parent? And so that's an opportunity for the student to add a little bit more information about why they have not.

Um, put information on there. Um, and so anytime if there are issues with legal orders or abuse, um, again, this is where they're, they're, we're, the attempt is to make sure that the correct information is. Collected from a family to skip over information, um, and explain information that's not available. So there are some additional questions just to sort of fine tune situations in which there really is only one parent and should only be, um, one parent.

If there are, um, sensitive situations, then there are ways, uh, to request that information be, be waived. Uh, and we will, we will get into that, um, I think coming up.

Okay, let's keep, um, let's go to the next slide. Okay. So what happens when there's just two parents, but they're living in different households? Um, once the student information has been added to the application, um, that's when then information can be sent to the other parent. So the other parent, uh, their email address will be requested, and then they will receive an email.

with a request to complete and submit the, the profile. Everything's pretty similar for the other parent. Um, the website's the same. Um, they do, they create their own account. Uh, they only need to use the, the link is this college board. Financial aid ID, and it's that ID that helps pull the applications together behind the seeds.

Um, the good news for the other parent is that they don't have to repeat any of the student information because that information is already there. They're only adding their information. And, um, the information is, you know, contained, um, it is provided to the colleges and the universities. Uh, but the other parents.

Uh, can't see, uh, the other parent's information. There does need to be a college listed, and the reason that at least one college needs to be listed is because, again, it's, it's this idea of we're only going to ask for information if it's absolutely required. And because not every college requires information from the other parent, the system has to know that there's a college listed that does require information from the other parent.

So until a student adds a college that requires other parent. There it's not going to go to that that parent. Um, they if the student has access to a fee payment code or the fee waiver that will also apply to a non custodial or the other parent. Um, and the profile application, uh, it itself is specific to the students.

Uh, so If there are, uh, two students, there will be two profile applications, and both parents will have to list that, that information, um, both. So it's, it's easier just to do them all at the same time and keep a record of, uh, what you've submitted so that you can just put the same information, uh, and minimize the time required to do that.

But families always ask, uh, and want to be assured. that they're not going to be able to see each other's information, and that is, that is the case. Again, there, there's an effort for, uh, the parent completing the profile, the main profile, to only ask questions that are absolutely needed. Uh, so some of the questions might be slightly different for that parent than the other parent, uh, but again, every year gets a little bit better.

So.

All right, let's talk about what information is, is requested. So we just talked about the colleges and listing colleges where the student is applying. And this year, the, the, what we call the base income year, the tax year information that is going to be requested is the 2022 income. And the reason for this is because.

Everybody at the point that they're filing the profile, everybody should have access to a completed 22 tax form. Uh, the application helps families identify what line number from the tax return, uh, and. And so, you know, it is, it is fairly seamless if they have their tax form right in front of them. The application does ask about the 2023 income information.

Families should just estimate that to the best of their ability. We're almost at the end of the year, so families should have a general idea. of what their 23 income is. And this is just for comparison. Again, this is for the purpose of schools to be able to identify families that are having significant changes in their income situation so that they can target information appropriately to students and guide them through the process.

Um, the asset information that's reported for parents and for students is current, so that information is not going backwards. That's what, what is in your bank account today, uh, for those financial asset details like savings accounts and investment accounts, um, and other assets. What's the value today? Um, household information.

Is also, um, going to correlate to who can be claimed, um, as a dependent on the tax return and, and who is living in the household and who is being supported, um, by the parents that are reporting information on the application. And the profile will ask about the number in college and standard institutional methodology.

So the profile is, is used. To, um, within an institutional methodology framework rather than a federal methodology framework, uh, to determine eligibility for institutional funds. Um, the institutional methodology still does account for siblings, uh, and children in, in college. So that's another place that it's the same for profile, uh, from prior years, but it will be different from the FAFSA.

All right, more questions. Um, and again, it's a, it's all about the, the better way to estimate, uh, families financial health. So there are some untaxed, um, questions that are asked. When it, when it comes to the FAFSA this year, most of the questions are tax, taxable questions. Um, if there is, well, I won't get into the FAFSA, this is a presentation about profile, so I won't say too much about FAFSA, but for the profile, There are some untaxed incomes, um, values that are asked for on the profile because they do speak to all of the resources that are going toward family, uh, support of their expenses.

Assets, uh, assets also speak to differentiation between families, uh, and the ability for families to leverage their financial health in terms of a long term investment in higher education. So, um, assets that are held in siblings names and the primary home are asked for. What is important is on the profile application.

The retirement value is re, is asked, but it is not part of the methodology. The reason that it's asked for is to distinguish it from other investments so that hopefully families don't dual report or include retirement where they, where they shouldn't. Um, so, you know, keep it simple. Um, you shouldn't be reporting a number more than once, and so families should be reporting their investments, reporting the retirement separately, and the retirement values will not be used in the methodology.

And then here's where the profile is helpful. When families have extraordinary expenses, those could be medical expenses, those could be tuition for a younger child in secondary school. Or if they have education loan payments, those are situations that differentiate families and those are, can be significant expenses.

So in that case, um, those questions are asked to hopefully help families.

All right, um, continuing, uh, with family data, um, so you might say, why do they need all this information? Why do they need to know the ages of the kids? So this is where, in the institutional methodology, again, this is helping families. So by asking the ages of children in the family, Um, there is the assumption built into institutional methodology that families should or could save for all of their children.

So by putting in the ages, it helps to calculate protections, exclusions, against the total assets that families have. And this ultimately brings down the parent contribution. For students in ways that the federal calculation does not. So this is favorable to families. Um, and it's important. So accurately listing the Children's ages, uh, is is important, um, for for student data.

There are questions about is the student expected to receive a scholarship outside of a college or university, or does the parent employer Um, is the parent expected to receive a benefit or a grant or something from their employer. And these questions are incredibly important because it helps schools have the information up front so that the award can be determined accurately.

Unfortunately, I just this year had a case where a parent did not report employee tuition benefits, they got an award determination. We didn't find out about the tuition benefits until August, and we had to change the award and that information received at that time in August, when the student was about to move in and the bill was about to be paid.

Was incredibly disruptive. So really, families need to have the best information for better for worse to plan accordingly. And these questions are asked for very specific reasons, uh, and they should be completed to the utmost accuracy. Another feature of the profile that's incredibly important, uh, is the opportunity to explain special circumstances.

So, there are questions throughout, uh, and, and families can then provide a little bit more context based on those questions. And then they can also have free form text to just say, you know what? 2022 was a hard year. It was unusual because, um, or we're expecting to have this really substantial expense or we're supporting, um, family, uh, we're supporting our parents and we're paying 500 a month toward their Their, uh, their care.

So as much detail and specificity as families can provide is going to be helpful so that when we're reading the information, we can see, oh, wow, we can, we can allow an allowance right now. We don't have to go back to the family to ask for more information. So if a family says, I'm supporting my mother in her continuing care community.

Great. But if I don't know the amount, it's not going to be all that helpful. So if they can be specific about, I give my parent a thousand dollars a month for their rent in this assisted living, you know, that's very specific. Some, um, colleges and universities, um, ask some additional supplemental questions.

These supplemental questions, they used to be expansive. They are now Very, very, um, few were and far between, um, the college board has done a great job and really pushing colleges and universities to stop asking a large number of extraneous questions. Uh, so hopefully students will, will see that. And if there is a question, hopefully it's because that school has something specific that, that really makes it necessary to, to ask it.

All right, I think we covered that. All right, so as I said, this is a fee based application, uh, so the first school's 25, it costs, you know, a little bit less for schools after that, um, you can pay by credit card, you can pay by debit card, uh, same price for the other parent, um, but again, the fee waiver is really important.

At the first possible moment that the fee waiver can be determined as the student is answering or the or the parent Is answering the income questions the fee waiver goes into a into effect and the student is told you qualify for a fee waiver So they don't have to wait all the way to the end of the application to find out if they qualify for the fee waiver So that means if a student qualifies for what we call means tested benefits, which I'm sure you're all familiar with, then they're going to just get the fee waiver right up front.

As soon as they report their income, if it meets that criteria, um, with a couple more questions, they're going to, to find that out. So the good news and what I would like you all to share and know is that 40 percent of applicants now are qualifying for fee waivers. And 80 percent of our first generation applicants.

So, you know, this really is substantial and the progress has improved if you are familiar or have been familiar with the profile process in the past.

So. Here are the criteria. As I said, we'd get to more information about the fee waivers. Uh, it is automatically granted. I just said that, but here are the criteria in terms of the income, uh, the household income of AGI being less than 100, 000, which is, which is reasonably substantial. Um, if a student is an orphan or ward of the court.

Um, that's, that's immediate If the student already received an SAT fee waiver, so somebody else has already determined that the student should get a fee waiver, and that fee waiver is different than just the, the high school paying for the cost of the SAT. That's, that's a different story, but, um, a fee waiver.

If it's on the college, the students college board account, it will also apply to the profile again. This is all about trying to make it easier and more accessible for students. So, um, these fee waivers, there was a time where they only applied to entering students. They now apply to freshmen and transfer and returning and independent students.

They currently do not apply to international students, but schools are given. Some fee payment codes and many schools will pay for fee payment codes for international students So again, we're trying to set up processes to make sure that the profile application is accessible and it's um, you know that The application has to work based on where the parent lives So it is possible that there's a u.

s citizen who lives outside of the u. s, and so they're not going to qualify for the the fee waiver, but Maybe they can get a fee payment Code again, there was a time where these fee waivers were limited to six colleges. They're now unlimited Uh, so this is all really good news

And as I said, you know a fee payment code is different than a fee waiver Uh, but certainly um high schools can buy fee payment codes Um colleges and universities sometimes have fee payment codes So there are ways for for students to to get that Now, with those codes, though, if a college or university gives a code to a student, it has to be used for their college or university, and that's really just a way to protect colleges and universities so that they're using their money, um, widely.

Wisely, not widely. All right. Um. We're moving right along here, which is great. Uh, we want to make sure there's time for some questions. Um, so, submitting it, um, I'm sure you tell your students all the time, make sure you review all the information, um, make sure you've looked for errors. Uh, sometimes there are pieces and places in the application.

Where the profile application can be smart and ask questions like, are you sure you meant this number or didn't mean this, uh, so they can correct it. And there's certainly a way you get, um, a summary, uh, statement, um, and it's always a good idea for a student to print out exactly if our parents to print out exactly what they filed so that if they're asked about it by a school later, They can kind of go back, um, and print and look at that acknowledgement and then answer any questions that schools that schools have.

But at any point in time, you can go back and add another school, um, as as well.

So, as, as with everything online, it seems like these days there's a dashboard. And that's a way to monitor kind of where you in the process, what else is needed. What have you done so far? Colleges and universities have dashboards. Um, what I would say about the dashboard piece is if you're really worried or students are looking for information about the profile specifically and the submission of that, use the the college board dashboard.

When it comes to, you know, is my application complete for individual schools, Use the school's dashboard. Um, because what happens is that, uh, the colleges and universities, we tell the college board what we require as a, as a baseline for every student. But, but that's not customized. So if there's something special about a student where we've waived a specific item, then that's going to be on our school portal, not on the college board portal or dashboard.

And then let's, um, let's take a moment to talk about what happens when you make a mistake, um, because that happens. Uh, so you may be familiar with on the FAFSA, you can submit corrections fairly frequently, unfortunately for those of us that have to process them. But anyway, uh, on the profile application, you can submit one.

Students and families can submit one correction. So these are really just to correct gross errors. So if the student completely Answered the dependency questions wrong. And I'll tell you when this happens, it happens when parents go in to complete the profile and they're answering the questions, thinking they're asking it about them, they're always, they're asking about the student.

The only question that they're asking about parents is your income, your marital status. But when it's asking, you know, are you over 24, they're asking about the student, not the parent. So when that gets botched up, you can submit a correction to, to take care of that. Um, it's also interesting, um, that sometimes families, uh, don't include, uh, and understand the, the business information.

So there are questions if a family reports that they're self employed. There are some questions to say, are you sure you don't want to be reporting business information? Um, But that information is required, and colleges will follow up if business information is not submitted. So it's just easier if families put that information in front.

Um, and so they basically say why they're submitting a correction. They can put in free form text, uh, to explain the correction. They're processed pretty quickly. Um, and basically, um, you know, you can submit a correction, but if you're adding a college, you've gotta do that separately and there's no charge, uh, to submit a correction.

All right. Um, so the last, um, piece, um, I think it's almost the last piece, the college board's document imaging. Uh. Institutional documentation service. And this is, uh, again, this is helpful for families because they can upload copies of their tax returns once, and they don't have to send it to schools individually.

They don't have to worry about sending it through email. They should never send a tax form with personally identifiable information through the web or through email. Um, And they, and who knows, many families don't even know about faxes anymore. We used to collect all this information via fax, but the upload of the tax forms on the IDOC portal is very easy.

It tells you exactly, you know, what you need to provide. You say what it is. Um, and, and schools need to receive it this way because what happens is the college board, uh, servicer, they scan the form and they data enter the dollars. The, the data enter. Entered figures get sent to the institution, and it goes directly into our financial aid systems.

So it is the quality control to make sure that families have entered all the information correctly. So if they don't understand the question about AGI. And they put in the wrong number, but then they upload their tax information. We're going to get the right number, and that makes it better for the student, and makes it better for the families, and it makes it easier.

We don't have to go back and forth to families to get information corrected. But what is important on the IDOC is sending all pages and schedules. I know some of these tax returns are crazy in terms of, I don't know, 50 pages. Um. But just upload the whole thing. If it's a PDF and it's a document on your computer, it's, it's, it doesn't matter.

You're not paying by the page and it takes two seconds to upload the whole thing. But families don't, in my conversations with them, they don't often understand the whole schedules and when a schedule is important and when it's not. So just upload the whole thing. We're only, I promise you, we're only going to worry about the schedules that we need to look at.

Um, we often get lengthy tax returns. I don't have time to look at a 50 page tax return. I'm honing in on what we need and we're, we're moving on. The other thing that's important is making sure that the tax return is signed. So I know that, um, you know, lots of times you may get. Uh, form from the account.

It's not signed. Uh, but there will be circumstances where from a federal perspective, we need the signature. So it's just better to, to try to get it signed. And the website is, is listed there.

Here's what the, um, you know, the, the, the dashboard looks like, uh, just so that it looks familiar to you when you're, when you're going to it.

And then, uh, more resources. So, you know, there's no shortage of, uh, support, uh, from the College Board for families. Email address, chat, phone. Um, there's also a, a counselor support customer service as well. So, if that's helpful to you, make note of that number, uh, and, and go from there. So things to do. Um, there's lots coming up.

Um, we're glad that you're able to participate in this webinar, uh, and get even some PDPs for it, which is great. Please share all the MIFA resources with your, your families. Uh, and there's so many events, uh, that you can take advantage of. Look at the event page for MIFA. Uh, help with, with deadlines so your students are aware of what's required.

Uh, but there's a lot coming up between. The profile and the FAFSA. I will say one word and Julie, you can go to the social media site because I think that everybody takes in information in different places. And so wherever you're taking in information, MIFA has a connection point for you. So definitely utilize that.

Um, but I know that families are very concerned right now. If they've heard that the FAFSA is delayed, um, they may be concerned about what that means for them. I want to assure everybody that schools that are using the profile are going to be best positioned to keep things uniform for the students that are applying.

So, early decision. And early action programs. If a student is needing to file the profile, they'll be fine. File the profile. Schools are providing information for the student on their regular schedule because they'll have the profile information in order to be able to inform students of the offered financial aid, and then they will follow up later with the FAFSA receipt because schools have to Receive the FAFSA to be able to, uh, administer the federal financial aid, but they know, and we're planning for collecting it sometime after December.

I

hope you have some questions. Yes. Well, there's one great question. Um, I just, I'm going to show one, one website for one moment, just because this is the, the counselor webinar that you're very familiar with. Um, Let me just minimize that. And go to the website, which is

me for dot org slash counselors.

So I think most of you are very familiar with this website, which has a lot of resources for you. And I just want to point out that we added this right at the top college financial aid. We have resources to help families navigate the entire financial aid process and all of those resources are on a page for families.

So I just wanted to point that out to all of you that you can see this will connect them to. Thank you. All the financial aid information this fall, as well as a senior financially timeline and a couple of videos. So just wanted to point that out. And now we'll, we'll go back and.

Thanks for sharing that, Julie. That's great. Yeah, and then there's a great question, Gail, that I'm going to have you address, um, because I think a lot of people might like to hear the answer. Can you talk just a little bit about what undocumented students should be aware of? So, and it's kind of a multi part question.

Undocumented students, number one, and then. Documented students with undocumented parents. So if you could sort of just generally talk a little bit about, about all of that, especially as it relates to the profile. This is another great way that the profile provides the ability to create access and resources for all students.

So undocumented students absolutely can and should. Complete the profile for schools that utilize it. Um, and they will get all the same questions as everybody else. Uh, they should just answer it to the best of their ability. Uh, if they, if their parents file tax forms, then they can still report all that information.

If they don't, uh, file tax forms, they can report that information. Um, And they're really the same as international students from the perspective of a school receiving the information. So, you know, they may also qualify for the, the, the fee waivers, uh, because they're living in the United States. So that's, that's good.

And the second part, uh, Julie, you said, um, students who are citizens, but their parents may be undocumented. Um, again, it's easy to fill out the profile. Uh, as well, um, on the FAFSA side, the student, the student who is the U. S. citizen should complete the FAFSA. That gets a little bit more complicated because the parents will have to have an FSA ID.

Um, and I know that MIFA's got some webinars coming up about how to get the FSA ID, so I'll plug that again. Um, however, the Federal, um, Ed. Department of Education determined process for exactly how those parents get the FSA ID is still being finalized. So I can't tell you exactly what it will look like.

I can tell you that there will be a process, um, and I am hopeful, um, that it will be a process that can be manageable for families that need it. Thanks, Gail. And so then I'll just ask any other questions if you'd like to put them in the Q& A section now. And just while we have Gail for another five minutes, um, because I know there's a lot here, but that was really thorough, Gail.

Thank you so much. May I be interested if you know, uh, counselors, you know, do you know students who have already started to complete the profile? Um, you know, what have you been hearing? Um, you know, please don't make assumptions about your experience of the profile in the past because it really does change from year to year.

It does improve year over year and it shouldn't take that long, you know, I I think that you know about 45 minutes to an hour ish is what it should You know, take, um, I do worry when when families say it took it took two hours. I'm like, I don't understand how that that could be. If you have all the information right there in front of you, um, you know, your tax forms and kind of general information about your bank accounts.

It shouldn't be that hard. And I'll add to that, you know, because sometimes I think it seems overwhelming when there are a lot of questions. But I will always say to people go through completed as best you can, of course, saving. As you go along, and then if you get stuck on one or two questions, which can happen, right, or if people you're helping are stuck on one or two questions, then that's when you can reach out and, you know, at MIFA, we're happy to answer that question, or colleges are happy to answer that question.

So, I think you can get most of it done and then just know that there's a lot of free help for your questions. So, let's see, I feel like I have one more. One more question here. The other thing that I'll just put a real quick plug into on the CSS profile website They will post notices of when they're scheduled maintenance occurring so there are some times where the profile will not be available and if you want to make note of those dates in advance or have reason to You know make sure you're not sending out a reminder to students to file their profile on October 19th But it's down from midnight to 7 a.

m Like you want to time your notices and reminders with when the profile is actually up So definitely check out their home page so that you can see that information And we do have another really good question, Gail, and I know you can, you know, truly only speak for your own institution, but it's a good question.

What have you heard regarding multiple students in college at the same time and how that will be treated at schools that use the CSS profile? Um, I am hearing a variety of things. I think that generally speaking at this point in time, institutions that are in the highest cost sector. Are probably still going to be including, um, multiple siblings in college at the same time.

Um, I do think that for schools that really have very limited funds, they're only using FAFSA funds. You know, they probably won't be. Um, and then there's that group in the middle that they may have some money, but not a lot of money. And it's, it's really a question of how they're giving out the money in the first place.

So I do think that there's a lot of emotion about this whole thing about numbering college, but I think that, but, but if we step back as professionals, you know, school counselors, financial aid folks, the bottom line is some of these colleges. just need to figure out how much money they can give a student, period.

Like they're limited in their dollars. So if they're saying, you know what? We can give a student this much money, 20, 20, 000 or 15, 000 in a scholarship. It doesn't matter whether they've counted number in college or not, because they've already decided how much money they can give that student. So I do think if you can help us, um, deescalate the, The emotion and the concern around this.

I do think it's outsized. I think that schools have to enroll the classes that they're planning to enroll and they're if they're not doing it specifically by a number in college calculation, they're doing it basically with merit. So institutions like Amherst that do not have any merit. It's all need based are probably still going to be including number in college in the calculation.

That's my answer on that today, but I have we have to get through this next year. So I'll have more information a year from now. Thank you, Gail. And, you know, our, um, we have some colleagues, some, um, that we work with very closely from Mass EDCO on the line. And they wanted me to be sure to say that Mass EDCO can also assist families.

Um, and so they even provided the telephone number. Thank you. It's 617 536 0200. So please know that is another place that your families can go and get a lot of terrific help. And what I'll say about Mass EDCO is, um, you know, they have a wide variety of options of how they meet with students and families.

And, um, they also have, um, a number of staff members who can help in different languages too, which is always super helpful. So thank you so much. Friends. And let's and I think that's it. Yeah. Thank you. And thank you all for those good questions and stay in touch so that we can we'll all get we'll get through this fall together.

Thanks. Bye bye.