FAFSA delays hamper CSS Profile colleges

FAFSA information will not be sent to colleges until at least mid-March.

After a long series of delays, FAFSA information from millions of applicants will not be available to colleges until mid-March, according to the Department of Education. For colleges that base financial aid awards on FAFSA submissions, this delay will mean that they cannot finalize financial aid offers late spring or even early summer. Students facing May 1 enrollment deadlines might have to choose a college before knowing what all of their options will cost.

But for colleges requiring the CSS Profile, the situation is somewhat different. CSS Profile gives much more detailed financial information than FAFSA - plenty for these colleges to determine appropriate financial aid awards from their institutional budgets - and it is not affected by FAFSA delays. So Profile colleges could give out financial aid offers on the normal timeline, except that they won’t know how much of a given offer will be covered by government funding and how much will be needed from institutional funds.

It’s a particular predicament for colleges that promise generous full-tuition or full-cost-of-attendance aid to students below certain economic thresholds. They have already pre-committed to providing X amount of aid to a subset of their students; some of that is likely covered by federal aid, but this year they don’t know how much and for whom. So for some lucky students at these colleges, FAFSA delays don’t really matter - they will be getting a set amount of money at the end of the day, no matter what. It’s the college itself that is eager for the information about possible reimbursement.