Students applying for federal financial aid programs must complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. We recommend visiting the Federal Student Aid website to learn about filing your FAFSA and for timely updates. 

Carnegie Mellon requests that students and families submit the FAFSA as soon as possible once it opens. This will allow us time to request any additional documentation, if needed, and it will support the timely delivery of financial aid offers. Students can check on the status of their application through their My Student Aid portal. 

NEW FOR 2024-2025: Students and contributors (typically parents, for dependent students; and spouses for independent students) will need to create an FSA ID and provide approval for their Federal Tax Information (FTI) to be utilized for their FAFSA to be processed.  Those who don't already have an FSA ID may create one. Learn about more changes for 2024-2025. 

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. 

Undergraduate students are required to complete a CSS Profile if applying for institutional financial aid programs. Complete the CSS Profile online at https://cssprofile.collegeboard.org. If you do not have a College Board account, you will need to create one in order to complete your CSS Profile application. Carnegie Mellon receives your data electronically from CSS, so there is no need to send copies. The CSS Profile is not required if applying only for federal financial aid.

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 Parents

In the case of divorced or separated parents, the noncustodial parent will complete an additional CSS Profile application using different College Board accounts/log-in credentials. For more information, see Info for Divorced and Separated Parents. The noncustodial parent will be charged a $25 fee regardless of the number of colleges requiring the information. Noncustodial parent 1040's or other tax information is not required.