can afford to pay. Personal, family, financial, or employ-
ment issues are not part of the calculation executed by the
computer program. Many families miss opportunities to
reduce the financial burden of a college education because
they choose not to complete and mail the FAFSA.
Many colleges award institutional grants (discounts
from the announced tuition, room, and board) and
other financial aid based on the information generated
by the FAFSA. When information from the FAFSA is
used as a baseline for awarding financial aid, it is called
Federal Methodology. While this aid is from the col-
lege’s financial aid budget, it was calculated with Federal
Methodology. And often a college’s need-based financial
aid awarding standards are less rigid than either the state
or federal standards. Often, an institution uses its own
unique financial aid awarding formula for calculating stu-
dent need and consequently determining which students
will receive tuition and/or room and board discounts;
when an institution uses its own formula, it’s called
Institutional Methodology.
If there is no baseline data like that generated from the
FAFSA available for the college, very often the conclusion
drawn by the financial aid office is that you should be a
“full-freight” student. You didn’t buy this book in order to
become a “full-freight” student, did you?- CSS profile. Over 800 colleges require incoming freshmen
to complete a form called a profile. The profile questions
provide the institution information that the FAFSA doesn’t
ask. These colleges use the information on the profile to
help the director of financial aid determine how much of a
discount (Institutional Methodology) from the sticker price
78 The Sports Scholarships Insider’s Guide