FAFSA and CSS Profile for the Class of 2027: What to Know and What to Avoid

Aug 17

For the Class of 2027, financial aid season opens with two separate forms. The FAFSA and the CSS Profile serve different purposes and ask different questions. Families who treat them as interchangeable, or who skip one on an assumption about their own finances, often close off options to additional merit-based aid.

College Board's own Trends in Student Aid research, students received an estimated $173.7 billion in grant aid for the 2024-2025 academic year and $275.1 billion when federal loans, work-study, and tax benefits are included.

What the FAFSA Covers

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the FAFSA, is the federal government's application for grants, work-study, and federal student loans. It is free to file, and a student should never pay to complete it. Be wary of scam sites. States, schools, and some private aid providers also use FAFSA information to determine eligibility for their own aid programs, in addition to federal aid.

For families with divorced or separated parents, the FAFSA has a specific rule: the parent who provides the greater portion of the student's financial support over the past 12 months is the one who reports income, even if the student lives elsewhere. If both parents provide an equal amount of support, the parent with the higher income and assets reports instead.

Under recent legislation enacted, family-owned businesses with 100 or fewer employees are excluded from the FAFSA's asset calculation. The same law caps Pell Grant eligibility on the other end: a student with a Student Aid Index at or above twice the maximum Pell Grant for the year no longer qualifies for any Pell funding, a ceiling that did not exist in prior cycles.

The FAFSA can qualify a student for several distinct kinds of federal aid: the Federal Pell Grant, the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), TEACH Grant, Federal Work-Study, and Direct Loans, among other aid programs.

Federal Loan Limits Changed in 2026

Effective July 1, 2026, federal borrowing limits for new Parent PLUS Loans are now capped at $20,000 per year and $65,000 total per student, where no dollar cap existed before. A new lifetime borrowing cap of $257,500 now applies across undergraduate, graduate, and professional federal loans combined. Families who borrowed before July 1, 2026, may fall under legacy provisions, so a family already borrowing should confirm its own situation with each college's financial aid office.

What the CSS Profile Covers

The CSS Profile® is a separate application, administered by the College Board and used by hundreds of colleges, universities, professional schools, and scholarship programs to award their own institutional aid. Not every college or scholarship program uses it, so check directly with each college or view the complete list here. While most colleges requiring the CSS form are private institutions, there are notable exceptions. For example, University of Virginia and University of Michigan require students to submit the CSS Profile®.

The CSS Profile® asks for tax returns, W-2 forms, records of untaxed income and benefits, assets, and bank statements. At many colleges, it also requires information from both the custodial and noncustodial parent, a wider net than the FAFSA casts. Unlike the FAFSA, which can import tax data directly from the IRS, the CSS Profile® relies on manually entered figures throughout. There is a fee to file it: $25 for the first college and $16 for each additional one, waived for families with income up to $100,000 a year.

Colleges that use the CSS Profile® calculate a separate figure under the College Board's own Institutional Methodology, which considers assets the FAFSA does not, including home equity, the value of a family business or farm, real estate beyond a primary home, and a noncustodial parent's finances.

Understanding the Student Aid Index

Once Federal Student Aid processes the FAFSA, it calculates a Student Aid Index, or SAI: a formula-based number ranging from negative 1,500 to 999,999 that estimates a family's financial strength. A lower number means greater financial need. The SAI is not a dollar amount a family owes, and it is not a final aid offer. A student's financial need at a given college is that college's cost of attendance minus the SAI.

Key Dates for the Class of 2027

Both the FAFSA and the CSS Profile® are set to open on October 1. Families should confirm the date directly on www.studentaid.gov and the College Board's CSS Profile® site starting in September.

Families will use 2025 tax return information for the 2027-2028 cycle, consistent with the prior-prior-year approach both have followed in recent cycles. Families do not need a finalized return to begin. Both Federal Student Aid and the College Board allow reasonable estimates at the time of filing, with the requirement that families correct the figures once the actual return is complete.

In practice, the federal FAFSA deadline matters far less than each college's own priority date, which is set independently by each school and is often months earlier. Families should research each institution's financial aid deadlines.

Four Mistakes That Cost Families Real Money

Skipping the FAFSA because “we will not qualify.” Families who assume their income rules them out often skip the FAFSA entirely. This overlooks how many programs lean on it: federal loans require it, and Federal Student Aid confirms that states, schools, and some private aid providers use the same FAFSA data to determine eligibility for their own programs, separate from federal need-based aid.

Assuming one national deadline applies to both forms. There is no such deadline. Each college sets its own CSS Profile® and financial aid priority dates independently, and those dates can fall well before the federal FAFSA deadline. A family that waits for a single national date, rather than checking each college's own priority date, may already be behind without realizing it.

Waiting for finalized tax paperwork before starting. Both forms accept reasonable estimates when a tax return is not yet finalized, on the condition that families correct the figures afterward. Families who wait for perfect paperwork before starting typically file weeks later than families who file with estimates and correct later, and that delay can matter when aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.

Ignoring the Financial Aid Resources tab on the Common Application. The tab connects directly to the financial aid office at each college on the Common App list, helps students to surface scholarship opportunities, and offers guidance on reading and comparing financial aid award letters once they arrive. It is also one of the more reliable places to confirm, college by college, which schools on a student's list actually require the CSS Profile®.

Where to Start

Families with a student in the Class of 2027 can prepare now to save time once the forms open. Students should create a FSA ID account, and invite a contributor (a parent) to create their own account. Confirm which colleges require the CSS Profile®. Locate the 2025 tax return, or a reasonable estimate of it, so the forms can be completed as soon as they open.

Families who want an early, non-binding estimate before the form opens can use the Federal Student Aid Estimator, which also estimates the SAI ahead of time. They should also use the institution’s net price calculator, which they can access through College Scorecard. Note that often these calculators can be a year or two behind the current admissions cycle, though it is still useful tool when estimating cost of attendance. Families whose circumstances change after filing, such as a job loss, can also ask a college to adjust its offer through a financial aid appeal or request.

Families juggling the FAFSA, the CSS Profile®, and a full college list benefit from a second set of eyes on the plan. Schedule a free 15-minute call HERE with College Flight Path® before the forms open in October.

Stacy Soricelli