Students applying for federal financial aid programs must complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. The FAFSA should be completed as soon as possible once it opens to support the timely delivery of financial aid offers. 

Complete the FAFSA

Log in to My Student Aid to check on the status of your application. 

FAFSA Corrections

If a student's FAFSA needs to be corrected, either "Awaiting Department of Education" or "Correction Required" will display next to their FAFSA status in My Student Aid. 

If "Awaiting Department of Education" is displayed, that means that Carnegie Mellon is waiting for the Department of Education (DoE) to send an updated correction to a student's FAFSA. The student does not need to take any action if this is displayed. Until this correction is received from the DoE, the student's application and financial aid offer cannot be finalized. 

If "Correction Required" is displayed, the student should review their FAFSA and make the necessary corrections required to complete the application. Until these corrections are made, the application and financial aid offer cannot be finalized. Please note the following:

• Corrections can be made by logging in to your studentaid.gov account. 
• If a dependent student changes parental information, then one of the parents must sign the FAFSA form electronically using their own studentaid.gov account. 
• Those who received a paper FAFSA Submission Summary by mail can make changes to the document, sign it, and mail it to the address listed on the summary. 
• For direct assistance, reach out to the email or phone number listed at the bottom of your My Student Aid portal. 

Learn More about FAFSA Corrections

Undergraduate students are required to complete a CSS Profile if applying for institutional (Carnegie Mellon) financial aid programs. The CSS Profile is not required if applying only for federal financial aid.

Complete the CSS Profile

You can check on the status of your application in your My Student Aid portal. 

CSS Profile Fee Waiver

Submitting the CSS Profile costs $25 for the first submission and $16 for each additional submission. If this fee creates a barrier to submitting the CSS Profile, please contact the Office of Admission or The HUB to request a fee waiver.

Note: Graduate students do not need to complete a CSS Profile as part of their financial aid application.

Noncustodial Parent CSS Profile & Waiver

A noncustodial parent is typically the parent the student did not live with most of the time during the past year. Carnegie Mellon requires that a student's custodial parent information be submitted with the student's CSS Profile submission, and that their noncustodial parent submits their own CSS Profile via a separate account. Find more details related to your parent account creation.

The noncustodial parent will be charged a $25 fee regardless of the number of colleges requiring the information. We may be able to waive the noncustodial parent CSS Profile requirement in certain situations, such as:

• No contact or support ever received from your custodial parent
• Legal orders that limit the noncustodial parent's contact with you
• Abuse situations involving you and the noncustodial parent

Types of waiver requests that are usually not considered include:

• A parent who refuses to complete the CSS Profile
• A divorce decree stating that a parent is not responsible for the student's educational expenses. 

If you believe that you are eligible for a noncustodial parent CSS Profile waiver, please submit this form, and we will reach out to you regarding next steps. Noncustodial parent 1040's or other tax information are not required.