For a broader overview of all the scholarships and financial aid options available, visit our comprehensive guide: How to Get Scholarships and Financial Aid for College.

When Do Early Applicants Need to Submit the FAFSA and CSS Profile?

Both the FAFSA and CSS Profile open on October 1 of the year before your student matriculates. For Early Decision and Early Action applicants—whose application deadlines typically fall on November 1 or November 15—this creates a tight but manageable window.

The key principle, according to Sarah Farbman, Senior Admissions Consultant at Great College Advice, is straightforward: “The sooner you get in line for money, the more money you are going to get. Schools at some point will max out their financial aid budget, so you want to be first in line before they max it out. The answer is as soon as you can after October 1.”

Here is what early applicants need to know about timing.

FAFSA deadlines

 The federal deadline is June 30 of the year you would start school, but this is misleading. Individual colleges and states impose much earlier deadlines—often in February or March for Regular Decision applicants, and even earlier for early-round applicants. Always check each college’s specific financial aid deadline on its website.

CSS Profile deadline

These also vary by institution. As the Great College Advice guide to the CSS Profile explains, nothing is generalizable when it comes to financial aid requirements—always verify with the school directly.

A knowledgeable contributor in the Great College Advice Facebook community reinforces this point: “The CSS and FAFSA deadlines and application deadlines are not always the same. Check the websites or call the schools where your student has applied to learn their deadlines for financial aid forms.”

Action step: Create a spreadsheet listing every school on your student’s list alongside its specific FAFSA and CSS Profile deadlines. For a complete month-by-month breakdown, see our Financial Aid Timeline for High School Seniors.

What Is the Difference Between the FAFSA and CSS Profile, and Which Do Early Applicants Need?

Understanding the distinction between these two forms is essential because they serve fundamentally different purposes and use different calculation methodologies.

The FAFSA

Free Application for Federal Student Aid is the gateway to all federal financial aid:

• Pell Grants, 
• Subsidized and unsubsidized loans, 
• Work-study, and more.

 It uses a standardized federal methodology to calculate your Student Aid Index (SAI), which replaced the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) as of July 2024. The FAFSA now pulls tax data directly from the IRS, making it faster to complete. It is, as the name says, free.

The CSS Profile

 The CSS Profile is administered by the College Board and is used by a select group of roughly 350 private colleges and universities—about 15% of all US four-year institutions—to determine eligibility for institutional aid. It digs much deeper than the FAFSA, requesting detailed information about home equity, non-custodial parent finances, business assets, and other factors the FAFSA ignores. The CSS Profile costs $25 for the initial application and $16 per additional school, though fee waivers are available for qualifying families.

The practical difference, as Sarah Farbman explains, is that “the FAFSA evaluates a student for federal dollars,” while the CSS Profile allows colleges to “award their need-based aid in the way that they see fit” using their own institutional methodologies. This means two schools can look at the same family’s finances and arrive at very different aid packages.

Which forms do early applicants need? At minimum, every early applicant seeking any form of financial aid needs the FAFSA. Whether you also need the CSS Profile depends entirely on the schools on your list. Check each college’s financial aid page to determine its requirements—and remember that some schools have different form requirements for early versus regular applicants.

Should You File the FAFSA Even If You Don’t Think You’ll Qualify for Need-Based Aid?

This is one of the most common questions in the Great College Advice community, and the answer from our team is almost always yes. As one community member put it: “I don’t want to fill it out if my child won’t qualify for any school aid.” But there are several compelling reasons to file regardless of income level.

Sarah Farbman outlines the case clearly: “If you are hoping for any amount of financial aid, or you’re thinking your financial situation might change in the future, you should fill out the FAFSA.” But even for families who don’t expect to qualify, she adds an important nuance: “Sometimes families want their kids to take out a loan so that they have ‘skin in the game.’ If you want your kid to qualify for a federal loan, you have to fill out the FAFSA.”

Beyond loan access, filing creates a critical financial safety net. “Filling out the FAFSA can serve as a baseline,” Farbman explains. If a parent loses a job or falls ill, having a FAFSA already on file makes it far easier for the family to approach the school and request a reassessment of their financial aid package.

There is also a less obvious strategic benefit: the FAFSA can demonstrate financial strength. As Farbman notes, “We think of the FAFSA as a vehicle to show that you have financial need. It can be a vehicle to show that you have financial means.” For some schools seeking full-pay students to balance their budgets, demonstrating the ability to pay can actually be helpful.

Paul Wingle, a respected voice in the Great College Advice community, summarizes it succinctly: “It’s not that difficult now that it pulls data from the IRS. Useful if your family wants access to federal loan programs. Used by colleges to build institutional aid packages, which can be based on very generous definitions of need. May be required at some schools for merit award consideration.”

For more on how filing financial aid forms affects your admission chances, read our analysis: Does Applying for Financial Aid Lower Your College Acceptance Odds?

How Does Applying Early Decision Affect Your Financial Aid Options?

This is where the intersection of admissions strategy and financial planning becomes critical. Early Decision is a binding commitment—if you’re accepted, you must enroll and withdraw all other applications. The financial implications are significant.

As Jamie Berger, veteran college admissions expert, explains: “By applying Early Decision, you have essentially given up the right to compare financial aid packages and factor the aid into your consideration of which school to attend.” This is perhaps the single most important financial consideration for families weighing Early Decision.

The statistical advantages of ED are real—many selective colleges accept 30–50% of their freshman class through early rounds. But those advantages must be weighed against the financial reality. The Great College Advice team’s guidance is clear: if financial aid awards will be central to the decision about where your student attends college, Early Action (which is non-binding) is generally the better path, allowing families to comparison-shop in the spring.

A community member shared a common concern: “What if you apply ED and the financial package just isn’t enough?” The answer: if a significant gap exists between the aid offer and your demonstrated need, you can request to be released from the ED agreement. Insufficient financial aid is the only accepted justification. But this should be a safety valve, not a strategy. The Great College Advice team recommends running each school’s Net Price Calculator (NPC) before applying ED to ensure the estimated cost is affordable.

Can You Negotiate Your Financial Aid Package After an Early Decision Acceptance?

Yes—and many families don’t realize this is possible. The financial aid package you receive with your acceptance letter is not necessarily the final word.

Sarah Farbman confirms: “On the backend, you can go back to the school and negotiate and ask for more money. It may or may not be successful, but you absolutely can do it.” This applies to both need-based and, in some cases, institutional aid.

Here is how to approach the negotiation effectively:

1. Document your case. If your family has experienced a change in financial circumstances since filing your FAFSA or CSS Profile—job loss, medical expenses, a death in the family, divorce—prepare a letter detailing these changes with supporting documentation. Financial aid offices have “professional judgment” authority to make adjustments based on special circumstances.
2. Use your NPC estimate as a reference point. If you ran the school’s Net Price Calculator before applying and the actual offer differs significantly from the estimate, bring this to the financial aid office’s attention. Save your NPC results as a record.
3. Understand your leverage—or lack of it. In an ED scenario, you don’t have competing offers to present. This is fundamentally different from Regular Decision negotiations, where you can show a school that a peer institution offered a more generous package. For ED, your argument needs to be grounded in demonstrated need and changed circumstances, not competing offers.
4. Know when to walk away. If the package truly doesn’t work after good-faith negotiation, you can ask to be released from the binding agreement. Your high school counselor should be involved in this conversation. 

As a member notes in the Great College Advice community: “The expectation is the family has assessed they can afford the school before signing an ED agreement—likely with the help of the school’s net price calculator. But the agreement does have a clause for unanticipated hardship.”

What Are the Most Common FAFSA and CSS Profile Mistakes Early Applicants Make?

Veteran college admissions expert Jamie Berger and the Great College Advice team have seen the same costly errors repeated year after year. Here are the most critical ones to avoid:

Assuming FAFSA and application deadlines are the same

They often aren’t. Paul Wingle warns: “The CSS and FAFSA deadlines and application deadlines are not always the same.” A student can submit their Early Decision application on time but miss the financial aid filing deadline entirely—a mistake that can cost thousands.

Waiting to file after the October 1 opening

 Financial aid at many institutions is allocated on a rolling basis. The Great College Advice team emphasizes that early filers are first in line before institutional budgets are exhausted. Every week you wait after October 1 potentially reduces your share of available aid.

Not completing the CSS Profile when required

 Some families assume the FAFSA is the only form they need. If your student is applying to selective private institutions, there’s a strong chance the CSS Profile is required as well. One community member shared a cautionary tale: “I messed up—I thought you filled out the CSS Profile only if you were accepted. Now my student will have missed deadlines.”

Mismatched personal information

 The FAFSA links parent and student accounts using personal details like name, date of birth, Social Security number, and email address. If any of this information doesn’t match exactly between the student’s entry and the parent’s account, the forms won’t link properly, causing processing delays.

Skipping the Net Price Calculator before committing to ED

 Running the NPC at each school on your student’s list provides a reasonable estimate of out-of-pocket costs. Families who skip this step and apply Early Decision without understanding their likely financial obligation are potentially setting themselves up for a difficult surprise.

Failing to communicate special circumstances

 Financial aid offices can exercise professional judgment to adjust aid packages based on unusual situations. But they can only help if they know about your situation. If your family has experienced recent financial changes not reflected in your tax returns, proactively communicate with the financial aid office.

How Should Families Compare Financial Aid Packages Across Schools?

Comparing financial aid packages is one of the most important—and most confusing—parts of the college process for families. Aid letters from different schools use different formats, different terminology, and sometimes different definitions of the same terms.

The starting point is to understand the fundamental formula: Cost of Attendance (COA) minus Student Aid Index (SAI) equals Need. But beyond this formula, here’s how to make meaningful comparisons:

Look at the full Cost of Attendance, not just tuition

 COA includes tuition, fees, room, board, books, supplies, travel, and personal expenses. Some schools have higher tuition but lower room and board, or vice versa. The Great College Advice Family Handbook recommends going further: factor in costs the school may not include, such as a car on campus, cell phone costs, or off-campus food.

Separate the components of each aid package

 Break down every offer into three categories: grants and scholarships (free money that never needs repayment), work-study (earnings from on-campus employment), and loans (money that must be repaid with interest). A package that looks generous on the surface may actually include a large loan component, while a smaller-looking package might be almost entirely grants.

Understand the gap

 Not all schools can meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. The “gap” is the difference between your demonstrated need and the aid the school provides. If full need is met, the gap is zero. At schools that “gap” students, you’re responsible for covering the difference—often through additional private loans or out-of-pocket payments.

Distinguish need-based aid from merit-based aid

 Sarah Farbman explains that merit-based aid is fundamentally different from need-based aid: “Merit-based aid is what we like to think of as a discount. It is a recruitment tool to attract strong students or attract the type of students that they want to see on their campus. It is not related to the FAFSA.” Schools like Yale, Princeton, and Stanford do not offer merit-based aid because they don’t need it as a recruitment tool. But many strong public and private institutions regularly discount tuition by $20,000–$35,000 annually for competitive applicants. For more on this, see our guide to merit-based financial aid.

Use a standardized comparison tool

 The Great College Advice team provides families with a spreadsheet designed to normalize financial aid offers across schools, making it possible to do true apples-to-apples comparisons. This is one of the most valuable exercises a family can do before making a final enrollment decision.

Get Expert Guidance on Financial Aid Strategy

Navigating the FAFSA, CSS Profile, and the financial dimensions of Early Decision is complex—but you don’t have to do it alone. The team at Great College Advice helps families build smart college lists that balance admissions competitiveness with financial fit, and provides hands-on support through every stage of the financial aid process. With over 100 combined years of admissions experience, our counselors know which schools are generous with aid, how to position your student for maximum merit scholarships, and when Early Decision is—or isn’t—the right financial move for your family.

Ready to build a financial aid strategy that works? Schedule a free consultation or join the Great College Advice community to connect with other families navigating the same decisions.

The post FAFSA & CSS Profile for Early Applicants first appeared on Great College Advice.

Not sure where to start? Learn how to choose the best college admissions consultant to guide your family through the process. And for granular guidance on financial aid keep reading.

What Is the CSS Profile, and How Does It Differ from the FAFSA?

The CSS Profile is a private financial aid form administered by the College Board—the same organization behind the SAT and AP exams. While the FAFSA is a free federal form that every college accepts, the CSS Profile is used only by a select group of private institutions that want a more detailed financial picture of applicant families.

As Sarah Farbman, Senior Admissions Consultant at Great College Advice, explains: “The CSS Profile is a form you can fill out to communicate more about your financial situation. It’s a private form run through the College Board, and a select group of private colleges use it combined with their institutional algorithms to decide how much aid to award a family.”

The key distinctions between the two forms include:

What they collect

 The FAFSA uses federal methodology to generate a Student Aid Index (SAI), formerly called the Expected Family Contribution (EFC). The CSS Profile goes further—it asks about assets the FAFSA ignores, most notably home equity. For families who own property, this distinction can significantly affect the calculated need.

How colleges use the data

 With the FAFSA, the government determines your SAI, but as Farbman notes, “colleges will receive that information from the government, but they are under no obligation to treat that information in any particular way.” A college might determine your family can pay more or less than what the federal calculation suggests. The CSS Profile gives each school additional data points to run through their own institutional formulas, making every school’s aid offer unique.

The formula

 Colleges begin with the straightforward baseline calculation: COA (Cost of Attendance) − SAI = NEED, but may adjust the financial award based on their own proprietary algorithms, especially if they use the CSS Profile.

Both the FAFSA and the CSS Profile open on October 1 each year. Not every college requires the CSS Profile, so families should check each school’s financial aid requirements early in the application process.

How Does the CSS Profile Impact Need-Based Aid at Private Colleges?

Does applying for financial aid lower your college acceptance odds? When a private college requires the CSS Profile, it’s signaling that it will use its own methodology—not just federal calculations—to determine your family’s financial aid package. This creates a landscape where two families with identical federal FAFSA results can receive dramatically different aid offers from the same institution.

Farbman illustrates this with a concrete example: “Let’s say you fill out the FAFSA, and your Student Aid Index is $50,000. The government says it thinks you can pay $50,000 for college. But the college says, according to our institutional methodology, we actually think you can afford to pay $40,000—or $60,000.” This flexibility means CSS Profile schools have more nuance in their packaging, which can work to a family’s advantage or disadvantage.

For families with significant home equity, this is particularly important. A family that looks moderate-income on the FAFSA might appear wealthier to a CSS Profile school that factors in property value. Conversely, families with high income but limited assets may receive more favorable treatment under some institutional methodologies.

It’s also critical to understand that not all CSS Profile schools guarantee to meet your full calculated need. Your SAI could be calculated at $10,000 per year, but if a college costs $50,000 and doesn’t meet full need, it might offer only $15,000 in aid—leaving a gap between what you can afford and the actual bill. Families targeting CSS Profile schools should research whether each institution commits to meeting full demonstrated need.

When Should Families Complete the CSS Profile?

The answer, according to Farbman, is unequivocal: “As early as possible. The FAFSA opens on October 1st of every year. You want to get it done as soon as you can.” The same urgency applies to the CSS Profile.

Why the rush? “Schools do typically have a deadline for this, but the deadline is often June 1st or April 1st—much later than you want to be filling this out,” Farbman explains. “The sooner you get in line for money, the more money you are going to get. Schools at some point will max out their financial aid budget, so you want to be first in line before they max it out.”

This timing matters even more for families applying Early Decision or Early Action. If a student applies ED to a school requiring the CSS Profile, that financial aid form needs to be completed alongside, or soon after, the application—not after an acceptance.

One parent in the Great College Advice community shared a cautionary experience: “I messed up. I thought you filled out the CSS Profile only if you were accepted. Now my student will have missed deadlines.” This is a common misconception. Financial aid forms should be submitted as part of the application process, not after admission decisions arrive.

What Is the Difference Between Merit-Based and Need-Based Aid?

Understanding this distinction is essential for any family making a college investment. As Farbman explains: “Need-based aid is based on an algorithm. You fill out a form—whether it’s the FAFSA or the CSS Profile—and the colleges are going to package you how they want.” There’s limited control over how schools interpret your financial data.

“Merit-based aid is what we like to think of as a discount,” Farbman adds. “People call it a scholarship, and it is, but from the college’s perspective, it is a recruitment tool to attract strong students. It is not related to the FAFSA. What you get on the FAFSA is irrelevant to merit-based aid.”

Here’s what practical parents need to know about each type:

1. Need-based aid (tied to FAFSA/CSS Profile): Fill out the required forms, and colleges determine your package. You have limited upfront control, but you can negotiate on the back end—something many families don’t realize is an option.
2. Merit-based aid (independent of financial forms): This is where strategic college list-building becomes your most powerful financial tool. Farbman is direct about this reality: “Elite schools like Yale, Princeton, and Stanford do not need to use discounting as a recruitment tool. You could be the best student in the entire universe—you are not going to get a merit-based scholarship at Yale. They don’t do it.” However, “there are many high-quality public and private institutions that regularly offer students $20,000 to $35,000 off the sticker price.”

As Jamie Berger, a highly acclaimed college admissions counselor, often advises families: the number one best thing you can do to maximize merit aid is to build the right college list. When you include institutions known for generous merit-based discounting, you give yourself the biggest possible advantage in reducing out-of-pocket costs. This is a data-driven exercise, and it’s one of the core services that sets Great College Advice’s approach apart.

How Can Families Compare Financial Aid Award Letters?

This is where the process gets genuinely confusing—and where families without professional guidance often make costly mistakes. As Farbman notes: “The way that these award letters are written is not clear and it’s not standard. Colleges try to package it to make themselves look as generous as possible.”

Here’s the framework Great College Advice uses to help families compare apples to apples:

Step 1: Look at the full Cost of Attendance (COA)

 Do not just compare tuition and fees. COA includes housing, food, travel, books, supplies, and personal expenses. As of 2024, schools are required to list their COA on their website. Farbman emphasizes: “Cost of attendance is typically considerably higher than just tuition and fees.”

Step 2: Separate “your money” from “other people’s money” 

“Your money later” includes loans (federal subsidized, unsubsidized, parent PLUS) and work-study—you’re either paying it back or earning it. “Other people’s money” includes grants and scholarships—this is truly free aid, and it’s what you want to maximize.

Step 3: Use a standardized comparison tool

At Great College Advice, families use a proprietary spreadsheet that breaks down costs and aid at every institution on the student’s list, calculates the true out-of-pocket gap at each school, and separates loan obligations from grant-based support.

Common pitfalls that trip families up: confusing one-time awards with renewable annual scholarships, not recognizing that work-study requires the student to find and hold a campus job, and overlooking whether loans are subsidized (interest deferred until after graduation) or unsubsidized (interest accrues immediately). As one community member in the Great College Advice Facebook group observed, award letters can make everything look generous until you do the math.

Can Families Negotiate Financial Aid Offers?

Yes, and most families don’t know this. “On the back end, you can go back to the school and negotiate and ask for more money,” Farbman confirms. “That may or may not be successful, but you absolutely can do it.”

The negotiation is most effective with merit-based offers and when you have a competitive offer from a peer institution as leverage. Farbman shares a specific strategy: “If you got $30,000 a year at the University of San Diego, Stanford is going to say, ‘No, you should go to USD.’ But if you got $30,000 at USD and $15,000 at Loyola Marymount—which is more of a peer institution—you could approach Loyola Marymount and say: ‘You are my top choice for these three specific reasons. USD is offering me double. Could you give me $10,000 more?’ That type of negotiation can absolutely work.”

This is one of the areas where working with a college admissions consultant provides tangible financial returns. Great College Advice helps families identify which schools are genuine peers, frame the negotiation effectively, and know when pushing further is appropriate versus when to accept an offer.

Should You File Even If You Think You Earn Too Much to Qualify?

The Great College Advice Family Handbook is emphatic on this point: “Over 70% of college applicants apply for financial aid. You definitely should not shy away from applying because you assume that it won’t be fruitful. Many people are surprised to discover that they do qualify for money, even if it’s only at selected institutions.”

Beyond surprise eligibility, filing creates a financial insurance policy. Filing for financial aid even if you won’t qualify establishes a benchmark of your family’s financial situation at the outset of the student’s college career. This gives the college a reference point if something should happen that changes your situation—losing a job, a major medical event. You will then have a record of where you were financially and can prove how far from that point you are. This might make the financial aid office more willing to work with you on new need-based aid. But if you don’t have this on file, they will not be inclined to help.

Farbman adds another strategic angle: “It can also be a vehicle to show that you have financial means. For some schools, if they are looking for full-pay students to round out their budget and you have filled out the FAFSA and can demonstrate financial means, that could be helpful if your kid is kind of on the margin.” Filing doesn’t commit you to accepting aid—it simply keeps every door open.

If you truly don’t expect to qualify and want to file as a precaution only, the Handbook recommends: check “no” when asked if you are applying for need-based aid, then file the FAFSA after the school’s deadline but before the June 30 federal deadline.

Get Admissions Help by an Expert

The CSS Profile is one more layer of complexity in an already confusing financial aid landscape—but for families applying to private schools, understanding it is non-negotiable. The difference between strategic financial planning and going in blind can amount to tens of thousands of dollars over four years. 

Schedule a free consultation with our team to get personalized guidance on financial aid strategy, college list building for maximum merit aid, and making the smartest possible investment in your student’s future.

The post What Is the CSS Profile? Need-Based Aid Impact first appeared on Great College Advice.

So, following is a brief “cheat sheet” with key acronyms along with their explanations.

FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) 

As mentioned in the previous financial aid blog post, the FAFSA is the first step in applying for financial aid. The application requires basic financial information that helps college financial aid offices decide what your need is and how much federal aid you should receive. The on-line application can be found at www.fafsa.gov and becomes available on January 1^st of the year of matriculation.

FAFSA PIN

Before filling out your FAFSA application, the student and parent must first get a personal identification number (PIN). You can get this PIN by going to www.pin.ed.gov.

CSS PROFILE

A form required by selected colleges and universities which requests more detailed financial information to supplement the data provided on the FAFSA. While the FAFSA is used to determine the awarding of federal aid. The PROFILE is used to assess the allocation of institutional aid (funds from the school itself). The PROFILE is administered by The College Board, and can be accessed by going to www.profileonline.collegeboard.com. Note that not all schools ask for submission of the PROFILE. Many simply rely on the FAFSA for their information, and in some cases, schools will ask you to fill out their own proprietary form in place of the PROFILE.

SAR (Student Aid Report) 

All students who file a FAFSA will receive a SAR. The SAR reflects the information that the family provided on the FAFSA as well as what the government believes the family should provide to fund the student’s college education (EFC – see below).

ISIR (Institutional Student Information Record)

ISIRs are electronically transmitted to colleges and contain processed student information reported on the FAFSA. This is the equivalent of the SAR, but for colleges instead of students.

IDOC (Institutional Documentation Service)

IDOC is a service provided by The College Board that collects, scans, and bundles students’ financial aid supporting documentation and submits that information to participating colleges. Students will be notified by the institution to which they are applying if they should use the IDOC service.

EFC (Expected Family Contribution)

Using the financial information that is provided in the FAFSA by the family and employing a set federal methodology. The government determines the amount of money it feels the family can contribute to the student’s education. Based on this number, financial aid offices will then establish a student’s level of need and allocate (or not) additional federal funds to help pay for the student’s education. Institutions that use PROFILE, may determine a different EFC based on their own methodology for the awarding of institutional dollars.

COA or COE (Cost of Attendance or Cost of Education)

This is used by financial aid offices and represents the fully-loaded cost of attending college for one school year. It includes: tuition, room, board, books, supplies, travel, and personal expenses. The COA/COE is different at each institution and for each student, since individual student circumstances vary.

How do colleges establish the baseline for what your need is to attend their institution? Using the acronyms we just learned, it’s a very simple equation:

COA-EFC = NEED

Need-Based Aid:

This is aid awarded to students and families based on estimated need as established by information given either on the FAFSA or PROFILE.

Merit Aid

Colleges want to build their classes around certain types of students. Merit aid is awarded by colleges to students who they would like to have on campus because of their special abilities and characteristics. Colleges can decide to award merit aid for any number of reasons including academic, scholastic, and arts achievement. Some schools have clear guidelines about what it takes to earn a merit scholarships, but the awarding of merit aid is mostly unpredictable.

Gap

Not all schools are able to meet the full need of students as established by the FAFSA or PROFILE process. The “gap” is the amount of unmet need in the aid package between the Cost of Attendance and the Expected Family Contribution. If full need is met by a school, then the “gap” is zero.

NEED – AID PACKAGE = GAP

Professional Judgment

This refers to the authority of a school’s financial aid administrator to make adjustments to the data elements on the FAFSA and to override a student’s dependency status. The net affect of Professional Judgment may be an adjustment to the EFC which can ultimately alter the make-up of the financial aid award.

This list is a good start as we begin to dig a little further into the world of financial aid. Use it when you file for financial aid, and reference it as you read through future blog posts about financial aid.

Andrea Aronson
College Admissions Advisor, Westfield, NJ

The post Financial Aid Acronyms and Terms first appeared on Great College Advice.