The CSS Profile is an application for college financial aid required by 300 colleges, universities and scholarship organizations. Completing the CSS Profile, short for the College Scholarship Service ...

Applying to college is an exercise in paperwork: recommendations, essays, the application itself, and the FAFSA — the form that determines whether your student is eligible for federal financial aid.

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Robert Farrington writes about higher education and student loans. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is usually the ...

The CSS Profile, administered and maintained by the College Board, the same group that develops the SAT, opens the door to nonfederal scholarships and other kinds of institutional aid that can make a ...

Hundreds of colleges use the CSS Profile to award institutional grants and scholarships to students. The 2025-26 form opened on Oct. 1, 2024. Many, or all, of the products featured on this page are ...