College Financial Aid Information for Seniors

CSS Profile:
The CSS Profile is a financial aid form required by some colleges and universities. The CSS Profile can be submitted online for the 2025-26 academic year. There is a fee to submit the CSS Profile to each college, so only submit it if required by the college. See participating institutions and programs HERE.
 
FSA ID:
Before completing the FAFSA, both the student and a parent will need to create an FSA ID to electronically sign the application. Please note that it takes 2-3 days for FSA IDs to be identity-verified with the IRS. 
 
FAFSA:
Although the release of the FAFSA for the 2025-26 school year was initially delayed, the 2025-26 FAFSA is now available to complete online. The FAFSA is the “application” for the Tennessee HOPE Lottery Scholarship and required for need-based financial aid consideration.
 
Pro Tips when completing the FAFSA:

1. The student should start his FAFSA, then invite his contributors and electronically sign their section of FAFSA to avoid any technical issues with submission.
2. When inviting contributors, the student must enter the parent information exactly as it appears with the parent's Social Security number. This will allow for a match with the IRS, and the invitation to be sent correctly.

For a parent who does not have an SSN, he or she can create an FSA ID by putting in a mailing address instead of an SSN. There will be no manual identity verification for this cycle, so any parent contributor can create an FSA ID. However, it is essential that when the student invites that parent, the mailing address exactly matches the mailing address the parent entered when they created their FSA ID. This means if the parent used "St." instead of "Street," the student must use "St." as well, or it will not provide the contributor match (see more information to support students whose parent does not have an SSN).