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What is CSS?

• Overview: CSS first steps

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) allows you to create great-looking web pages, but how does it work under the hood? This article explains what CSS is with a simple syntax example and also covers some key terms about the language.

In the Introduction to HTML module, we covered what HTML is and how it is used to mark up documents. These documents will be readable in a web browser. Headings will look larger than regular text, paragraphs break onto a new line and have space between them. Links are colored and underlined to distinguish them from the rest of the text. What you are seeing are the browser's default styles — very basic styles — that the browser applies to HTML to make sure that the page will be basically readable even if no explicit styling is specified by the author of the page.

However, the web would be a boring place if all websites looked like that. Using CSS, you can control exactly how HTML elements look in the browser, presenting your markup using whatever design you like.

For more on browser/default styles, check out the following video:

What is CSS for?

As we have mentioned before, CSS is a language for specifying how documents are presented to users — how they are styled, laid out, etc.

A document is usually a text file structured using a markup language — HTML is the most common markup language, but you may also come across other markup languages such as SVG or XML .

Presenting a document to a user means converting it into a form usable by your audience. Browsers , like Firefox , Chrome , or Edge , are designed to present documents visually, for example, on a computer screen, projector, or printer.

Note: A browser is sometimes called a user agent , which basically means a computer program that represents a person inside a computer system. Browsers are the main type of user agents we think of when talking about CSS, however, they are not the only ones. There are other user agents available, such as those that convert HTML and CSS documents into PDFs to be printed.

CSS can be used for very basic document text styling — for example, for changing the color and size of headings and links. It can be used to create a layout — for example, turning a single column of text into a layout with a main content area and a sidebar for related information. It can even be used for effects such as animation . Have a look at the links in this paragraph for specific examples.

CSS is a rule-based language — you define the rules by specifying groups of styles that should be applied to particular elements or groups of elements on your web page.

For example, you can decide to have the main heading on your page to be shown as large red text. The following code shows a very simple CSS rule that would achieve the styling described above:

• In the above example, the CSS rule opens with a selector . This selects the HTML element that we are going to style. In this case, we are styling level one headings ( h1 ).
• We then have a set of curly braces { } .
• Inside the braces will be one or more declarations , which take the form of property and value pairs. We specify the property ( color in the above example) before the colon, and we specify the value of the property after the colon ( red in this example).
• This example contains two declarations, one for color and the other for font-size . Each pair specifies a property of the element(s) we are selecting ( h1 in this case), then a value that we'd like to give the property.

CSS properties have different allowable values, depending on which property is being specified. In our example, we have the color property, which can take various color values . We also have the font-size property. This property can take various size units as a value.

A CSS stylesheet will contain many such rules, written one after the other.

You will find that you quickly learn some values, whereas others you will need to look up. The individual property pages on MDN give you a quick way to look up properties and their values when you forget or when you want to know what else you can use as a value.

Note: You can find links to all the CSS property pages (along with other CSS features) listed on the MDN CSS reference . Alternatively, you should get used to searching for "mdn css-feature-name " in your favorite search engine whenever you need to find out more information about a CSS feature. For example, try searching for "mdn color" and "mdn font-size"!

CSS modules

As there are so many things that you could style using CSS, the language is broken down into modules . You'll see reference to these modules as you explore MDN. Many of the documentation pages are organized around a particular module. For example, you could take a look at the MDN reference to the Backgrounds and Borders module to find out what its purpose is and the properties and features it contains. In that module, you will also find a link to Specifications that defines the technology (also see the section below).

At this stage, you don't need to worry too much about how CSS is structured; however, it can make it easier to find information if, for example, you are aware that a certain property is likely to be found among other similar things, and is therefore, probably in the same specification.

For a specific example, let's go back to the Backgrounds and Borders module — you might think that it makes logical sense for the background-color and border-color properties to be defined in this module. And you'd be right.

CSS specifications

All web standards technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.) are defined in giant documents called specifications (or "specs"), which are published by standards organizations (such as the W3C , WHATWG , ECMA , or Khronos ) and define precisely how those technologies are supposed to behave.

CSS is no different — it is developed by a group within the W3C called the CSS Working Group . This group is made of representatives of browser vendors and other companies who have an interest in CSS. There are also other people, known as invited experts , who act as independent voices; they are not linked to a member organization.

New CSS features are developed or specified by the CSS Working Group — sometimes because a particular browser is interested in having some capability, other times because web designers and developers are asking for a feature, and sometimes because the Working Group itself has identified a requirement. CSS is constantly developing, with new features becoming available. However, a key thing about CSS is that everyone works very hard to never change things in a way that would break old websites. A website built in 2000, using the limited CSS available then, should still be usable in a browser today!

As a newcomer to CSS, it is likely that you will find the CSS specs overwhelming — they are intended for engineers to use to implement support for the features in user agents, not for web developers to read to understand CSS. Many experienced developers would much rather refer to MDN documentation or other tutorials. Nevertheless, it is worth knowing that these specs exist and understanding the relationship between the CSS you are using, the browser support (see below), and the specs.

Browser support information

After a CSS feature has been specified, then it is only useful for us in developing web pages if one or more browsers have implemented the feature. This means that the code has been written to turn the instruction in our CSS file into something that can be output to the screen. We'll look at this process more in the lesson How CSS works . It is unusual for all browsers to implement a feature at the same time, and so there is usually a gap where you can use some part of CSS in some browsers and not in others. For this reason, being able to check implementation status is useful.

The browser support status is shown on every MDN CSS property page in a table named "Browser compatibility". Consult the information in that table to check if the property can be used on your website. For an example, see the browser compatibility table for the CSS font-family property .

Based on your requirements, you can use the browser compatibility table to check how this property is supported across various browsers, or check if your specific browser and the version you have support the property, or if there are any caveats you should be aware of for the browser and version you are using.

You made it to the end of the article! Now that you have some understanding of what CSS is, let's move on to Getting started with CSS , where you can start to write some CSS yourself.

Free CSS HTML Templates

Education free css templates.

TOOCSS has collected eye-catching School Website Templates purposely for high school, Training Center, Courses hub, College, University, School, Kindergarten, private instructors, tutors, distance learning and more.

SmartEDU – Education Responsive HTML5 Template for education purpose website or portal. It is suitable for Education Course related projects and it includes web elements which helps you to build your own site.

Edu Meeting

Edu Meeting is an education HTML CSS template for university or school or any educational institute. It consists of 3 pages, main page, meeting list page, and meeting detail page. Main page has many features such as a video banner, carousel information items, meeting categories and posts, accordion content tabs, and contact form section. The template layout is based on latest Bootstrap v5.1.3 CSS library.

Study Course

Study Course is for Education Consultant, Online Courses, Sample Education, Online Free Education. The template is beautifully crafted with its gradient background hero header with the best education packages that slide with their offerings.

Fanadesh is a free Bootstrap 4 HTML5 education website template for schools, colleges, universities, and many more educational institutions. Moreover, it has a beautiful design with a clean and minimal look.

Casinal is a free educations coaching Html Template for Online Educational Institutions, Universities and Colleges, Online Courses / Online Learning and also responsive design for all devices.

Mastering is an education themed multipurpose template to boost your online presence and expand your education business via online. It is an idea for College, Academy, University, Kindergarten, Training Center, Languages School, Learning Institutes, computer courses, painting courses, advertising courses, marketing and more.

Business College

Business College is a free Landing Page Responsive Website Template any school or college sign up form for an upcoming event or school course with this clean and modern responsive template. Download this completely free and customizable template to fit your needs.

Academics is a free academic website template for schools, colleges and universities based on Bootstrap Framework to guarantee full flexibility. It also practices all the other modern rules and regulations of web development. Full-width banner, registration form, sticky drop-down menu, social icons and newsletter subscription form are some of the best features in this template.

High Edu is an eye-catching School Website Template purposely for high school. However, you can use it for learning Management System, Training Center, Courses hub, College, University, School, Kindergarten, private instructors, tutors, distance learning and more.

Kiddy is an adorable and eye-catchy website template for kids center, daily kids care, a kids playground, a kindergarten and more. The layout is 100% mobile-ready, cross-browser compatible and SEO friendly. Get it and customize it as needed for free now.

Lecturing is Education School Website for all kinds of school levels such as college, university, private tutor, home tutor, online degree, distance learning and more.

Child Learn

Child Learn is an Education Flat Bootstrap Responsive Web Template for primary, secondary School, Kindergarten for children levels. It has all the best features for education use. Enjoy customizing.

Exchange Education

Exchange Education is a template for learning Management System, Training Center, Courses hub, College, University, School, Kindergarten, private instructors, tutors and more. Its high performance optimized, modern eye-catching design, fully Responsive Layout, Google web fonts are the best features at all.

Pedagogy is a free Education Flat Bootstrap Responsive Website Template designed with HTML5, CSS3, and Bootstrap Framework. The Colors, Logo design, Slider plugins, Parallax Image, and Alignment make this a stunningly beautiful web template. Pedagogy can be adapted to alll devices’ screen resolution and cross-browsers.

EduWily is free and premium an Education Category Bootstrap Responsive Web Template. It is professional to show off your school business. Download and share!

Learn is a free education website template for school, training or courses websites. This theme is professionally designed and easy to make your own in minutes. There are nice features such as an animated counter, modal video, pricing, google map and many more. Download and share!

Edusmart is a free website for template for specially online education to have web courses virtually. We also recommend school, college, university, distance learning, training, coaching and more to utilize it to help your learners access the courses or information anytime online. Edusmart is a incredible, responsive and full mobile-ready CSS template. You can share your upcoming events, learning blog posts, signing up for your newsletter and so on. Download for yourself and share with others.

Enlight is a free education bootstrap template for educational training center, coaching, college, university, distance learning, academy or school websites. It is clean, minimal and easy to customize. Impressive features are flex slider, animated counter, call-to-action buttons, gallery and events. Download and Share!

Oneschool is a free Parallax web template for school, university, online course, online distance learning and so on. It is a minimal Bootstrap 4 CSS3 template which is fully responsive and ready for all kinds of screen sizes. The great features it has are sticky top navigation bar, hero header, course carousel, load on scroll animation, footer widget, sign-up form and more.

Education is an easy editable and free download CSS website template. It is a fantastic tool for making education-first websites. The theme design is very attractive and simple to customize. You can use it for universities, college, high school, middle school, online courses and other training programs, distance learning, tutoring and more. It is responsive and mobile ready to be compatible with all major browsers. It comes with sticky and transparent navigation, sliders for courses and testimonials, advanced courses search and even blog pages make Education and all-in-one tool for your web presence.

Mentor is a free minimal HTML5 website template . It is based on Bootstrap framework and fully responsive to be ready for all-deviced friendly websites. It is an ideal for education like distance learning, university, college, high school, club and so on. This one-paged website template includes well-organised components, different page styles and high quality of code.

Dream University

Dream University – HTML5 Bootstrap Template is a professionally well-designed web template for education, learning center, university and college websites. It is a web browser friendly website template. It is also compatible with all mobile devices, tablets and PCs without any odd looks. It comes with 7 already-built pages and is almost ready for educational use.

You will have to fill the form before you are able to download it. However, it is worth to do to get such a quality template.

Minimal Dark

Minimal Dark is a free html Bootstrap template designed by BlackTie. The uniqueness about it is a simple and small web template. Most web developers might think to use as a contact page or a very minimal website. It’s built on with Bootstrap framework, therefore it is super fast and responsive. It is most suitable for beginners as the code is simple, clean and easy to follow. The design is unique and elegant and this will make sure people get the best from your website.

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Free CSS Templates, CSS Layouts & More!

60 Education Website Templates

Viewing 1 - 12 of 60 Education Templates

Learn CSS in ONE hour - Free and interactive 20-part course

CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) is one of the three cornerstones of the web, along with HTML and JavaScript. It’s what brings life to websites through colours, styling, positioning and much more. Thus, knowing CSS is hugely valuable in today’s labour market!

So I’m happy to announce that we’ve just launched a free CSS course on Scrimba. It’s created by our brilliant instructor Eric Tirado , who also did our popular intro to HTML course.

In less than an hour, Eric will take you from zero to proficient in CSS!

Let’s have a look at how the course is laid out.

Part #1: Introduction

In the introductory video, Eric will give you an overview of what the course looks like, what the pre-requisites are, plus an overview of the topics he touches throughout the course. He also gives you a brief introduction about himself so you get familiar with him before jumping off.

Part #2: CSS Documents & The Cascade

We then jump directly into the first formal lesson of the course. In this one, we will be looking into the ways we can include CSS in our HTML pages and how to start applying basic stylings on our elements.

Part #3: CSS Selectors, Properties, & Values

In the second lesson, Eric talks about some of the CSS vocabulary which sets you up to better understand concepts he goes through in later lectures. You’ll learn what HTML elements are, what CSS selectors are, and how you can apply properties and assign values to them.

CSS Vocabulary

So, for example, this is an h1 element. It has some default styling which appears when you render it in the browser. If we want to change some styling, we can use CSS:

The selector for our h1 element is simply the name of the element itself, and then we assign it the property of color with the value of red. In the same way, we can select elements using Classes and IDs as well, which is discussed in later videos.

Part #4: Classes and IDs

This part of the course discusses how to use classes and IDs in CSS to select HTML elements and apply different styling on them. It also discusses in detail the difference between Class and ID, and how and when we assign them on HTML elements

Look at the following code for an example:

The above snippet consists of an h1 (heading) and a p (paragraph) tag. We have given h1 element the class of heading and our p element the ID of paragraph.

In our CSS file, we select the heading class and give it the property of color. Later we select the paragraph ID and give it the properties of color and font size:

Part #5: Specificity

In part 5 of the course, you’ll learn about specificity, which means how a browser would know which styles and rules are most relevant for an element to apply.

For example, here we have an h1 tag with the class of heading applied to it.

Using CSS, we assign the colour of blue to h1 tag which will change the colour of every h1 . We also then assign the colour of green to class heading , so that every element with this class will have its colour overridden to green. So the h1 tag we defined above will appear as green.

Part #6: Width & Height

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to apply width and height in order to control the formatting and flow of the page.

Above is a slide from the lesson, which will give you an idea of how we can create sections and boxes using width and height to make our web page look properly formatted.

Part #7: Length Units

In CSS, we can use different units to measure the different sizes we pass in as properties of our HTML elements. This lesson discusses in detail what those different units are and how they differ in usage.

There are two types of length units:

• Absolute Units
• Relative Units.

Absolute units are fixed length units, and a length which is expressed in any of them will appear as exactly that size. For example, cm , mm , in , 'px , and so on are absolute units.

On the other hand, relative length units specify a length relative to another length property. For example, em , ex , rem , and so on are absolute units.

Part #8: Colors

This lesson discusses in detail how we can use and apply colours to different HTML elements. It also discusses different ways we can declare the name of the colour in our CSS properties.

The example above has three classes declared with the same property of colour assigned to them. But the point to notice is how we have used different ways to assign the values of colours.

Class heading1 uses the name of the colour (orange) as its property. heading2 uses the hex value of the colour. And heading3 uses the RGB value of the colour.

Part #9: Padding

In CSS, padding is used to create spaces around an element’s content inside any defined borders. In CSS, you have the control to apply padding to all or any side of the elements. Lesson 9 of this course talks about padding and teaches you how you can apply it in different ways.

Like in the example above, we can either just use the property of padding , which will apply the spacing to all the sides, or alternatively, you can give padding to individual directions.

Part #10: Borders

In this lesson, you will learn how you can apply borders around your content. You’ll also learn about the variations you can give to the borders using different styles and options available in CSS.

Take the example of the box in the above picture and notice the borders around it with different colours and width.

Part #11: Margins

Margins in CSS are like padding: they apply spacing around the element but they do it outside of any defined border. This lesson talks about using margins inside your CSS, and how you can apply the same margins in all directions or different margins in different directions.

Part #11: The Box Model

The Box Model in CSS is a term we use when we describe design and layout. We can think of all the HTML elements as boxes where each box contains properties of margins, padding, borders, and so on.

The above illustration explains the conceptual model of the box. In this lesson, Eric will explain how we can use this concept to better design and arrange our elements.

Part #13: Visibility

We can also update the visibility of any element in HTML using CSS. We can, for example, hide or display any element using the property of display . This lesson explains three different ways in which we can play with the visibility of elements.

One of the three ways to update visibility is using the display property. In the example above, we have set the display property to none so that any element which has the class of hidden won’t appear in the browser at all.

Part #14: Fonts

Fonts are one of the most important and useful features of CSS. We can play with different kinds of font styles and font families to make our text look good. Lesson 14 of this course is all about using fonts!

In the image above, the text Hello World has the font-family of Black Han Sans’, arial, sans-serif and the font-size of 30px . In the same way, we can apply different properties to make our text look more appealing and beautiful.

Part #15: Element Flow

In this section of the course, you will be learning about the typical flow of elements on how they are rendered inside the browser. There are two types of HTML elements: Inline and Block elements

Inline elements can not take the width and height properties. They will always be as big as their content. However, on block elements, you can set both width and height as you like

Part #16: Float & Clear

In the lesson, you’ll be learning about the float and clear properties. These are very useful if we want to control the position of HTML elements to float left or right of each other.

Part #17: Float Layout Challenge

Here comes the challenge of this course. In it, you’ll be encouraged to create the following layout using the float properties. Later in the screencast, Eric will teach you how to do it in case you faced any difficulties.

Part #18: Position Property

In this lesson, we’ll design a simple article page where we’re using the available positioning properties. We will be working with divs, text content, span, and footer.

At the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to create a layout like this:

Part #19: Pseudo Classes / Elements

In the final lesson, we will learn about pseudo classes and elements. We use pseudo-classes to make some advanced level selections of our HTML elements. This is a very useful technique when we are dealing with complex web pages that have multiple elements and conditional stylings

For example, in the above code snippet, we are applying different classes to the anchor tag using its state of whether it has been visited or not. There are thousands of use cases for using pseudo-classes, and this lesson will help you understand the basic concept of using them.

Part #20: What’s Next?

In this last screencast of the course, Eric wraps up what you have learned throughout the course and gives you tips on continuing your learning journey.

CSS is a vast topic, and they are many more features to learn apart from what was covered during this course!

If you make it to the end, you can give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve taken a big step towards learning how to build and design websites, which is a hugely valuable skill.

So go ahead and take the free course today! Your future self will thank you for it :)

Thanks for reading! My name is Per Borgen, I'm the co-founder of Scrimba – the easiest way to learn to code. You should check out our responsive web design bootcamp if want to learn to build modern website on a professional level.

Co-founder of Scrimba.

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The Ultimate Guide to Completing the CSS Profile

When it comes to applying for financial aid, most schools and the federal government use the FAFSA to figure out their award packages. But some schools, around 250 to be more exact, use the CSS Profile , which was created by the College Board and looks at student aid from a different perspective . If you’re applying to one of those schools, you’ll need to know how to approach the questions to get as much financial aid as possible.

Are the FAFSA and the CSS Profile similar?

7 major differences between the forms, 1. take out your calendar, 2. gather your documents, 3. create a college board account/register, 4. parent data (if dependent), 5. parent income & benefits (if dependent), 6. parent asset section (if dependent), 7. parents’ expenses (if dependent), 8. student data section, 9. student assets, 10. family member listing – parent’s household, 11. explanation & special circumstances, 12. supplemental questions, 13. pay the fee or get it for free, 14. double check & submit, 15. submit it every year.

Before we dive into specifics, let’s go over the similarities and differences between the CSS Profile and the FAFSA. For starters, both forms ask for financial information and use it to determine student aid eligibility. Plus, both are online forms and both are sent to the schools you choose.

1. The Issuer.

The federal government handles all things FAFSA while the College Board (the same organization responsible for AP classes and the SAT) is in charge of the CSS Profile.

2. The Cost .

The FAFSA is always free, but the CSS Profile isn’t. As of 2018, the fee for the application and one school is $25 plus $16 for each additional school. When applying, low-income students are automatically considered for fee waivers.

3. The Financial Section.

The financial section of the CSS Profile is more comprehensive than the FAFSA. You’ll be asked more about things like non-custodial parent income (if your parents are divorced), home equity, medical expenses, non-qualified annuities, and the value of small family businesses. Student assets are also weighed heavier. We’ll give you more info on all of this down below.

4. The Methodology.

Each form approaches financial aid in a different way. The FAFSA uses Federal Methodology, which considers parental gross income as the main factor for aid eligibility. The CSS Profile uses “Institutional Methodology”, which takes a more rounded look at a student’s financial situation, looking at factors such as home value, non-custodial parent income, and medical expenses. The CSS Profile also considers special circumstances that affect your ability to pay for school.

5. The Flexibility.

With the FAFSA, financial aid is determined by a set formula without any room for human interpretation. In other words, the FAFSA is based solely on the Federal Methodology formula. The CSS Profile, on the other hand, allows more room for professional opinions and colleges have their own formulas for interpreting it. More specifically, college financial aid offices have more freedom and say in the amount of financial aid that a student receives.

6. The Use.

The FAFSA is the only form used for federal aid, such as Pell grants, federal loans, and work-study, and most schools also use it to decide their institutional financial aid packages. The CSS Profile, on the other hand, is used only for institutional aid at around 250 colleges and universities.

7. The Questions .

The FAFSA has the same questions for all students while the CSS Profile customizes the questions that students see depending on their answers in the registration phase.

Hey! If you’re filling out your CSS Profile / FAFSA, you’re likely interested in scholarships too. Sign up for our weekly digest of scholarship opportunities by entering your email below:

How to fill out the college board css profile.

Before you even start, get an idea of the submission deadlines for the schools you’re applying to. Hint: most deadlines are between January 1st and March 31st.

To make completing the CSS Profile easier, get your documents together before you start filling it out. You’ll need the following documents for yourself and, if you’re a dependent, for your parents as well:

-Last year’s tax returns

-W-2s and income records from both this year and last year

-Records of untaxed income for this year and last year

-Bank statements

-Mortgage info

-Records of savings, stocks, bonds, and trusts

-Info on small businesses and other assets

Before you start the form, you’ll need to create an account. If you took the SAT, you likely already have one. Either way, head over here to sign in or sign up. Then, follow these steps:

1. First, you’ll need to provide basic information like your name, email, date of birth, and permanent address. The section also asks for your social security number, but it’s optional. Next, you’ll be asked about your year in school and which school you’re attending.

Keep in mind that even if you’ve taken AP courses for college credit or a few classes at a community college, you can still select that you’ve never attended college before. As a general rule, only students who have been enrolled at least half-time in a college program are considered to have attended college in the past.

2. After providing that information, the registration phase will take you through some questions to determine your dependency status. The “Student Expected Resources” section asks questions about the financial help that you expect to receive from family and your own income. Your answers to these questions will determine whether you see questions for dependent or independent students while filling out the form.

3. The next step of registration is the “College and Program Search” which is where you choose the schools you want the form sent to. Unlike the FAFSA, you should take some time to carefully think about which schools will receive your CSS Profile since there’s a cost involved.

Send it to each school that you’re applying to, but make sure that the school actually requires the form. If you can’t find it in the search then it probably doesn’t. You’ll also be asked housing information for each school, so be sure to check and see if there’s an on-campus housing policy for freshmen.

4. Lastly, you’ll need to provide information about your parents’ marital status, finances, home, employment, etc. Again, all of the questions in this step will determine the questions you’ll see on the form.

After you’ve completed the registration step, you’ll have access to the pre-application worksheet, which will show you the questions you’ll see on the form. If it helps, print the sheet out and feel free to make notes on it.

If you qualify as a dependent, you’ll need to fill out the Parent Data section, which is the first part of the official form. Keep in mind that you can save and continue at any time as well as jump between sections. If you need help, there are question buttons throughout the form with more information. If you need extra help, contact the College Board.

First, you’ll need to fill in the data for your first parent. The form will ask for basic information, including employment data and retirement plan information. After that, you’ll provide the exact same information for your second parent if applicable.

When asked about the number of people in your household, always include yourself. When asked about the number of people in your house who will be attending college, don’t include your parents even if they are.

This section also covers any public assistance plans that your family is involved with.

Note: Many people get confused about the question asking if your parent is a “dislocated worker”. The purple question mark provides more in-depth information about what exactly defines someone as a dislocated worker.

Next, you’ll move on to parent income and benefits, the longest section of the CSS Profile. Having a copy of your recent federal income tax return will speed up the process. Each question gives you the exact line number where you can find the information on your return. If you don’t have it on hand, you can enter estimates rather than the exact dollar amount.

The first part of this section is about the previous year’s income and the second is about the year before that so that financial aid advisors can see if your family is going through major financial changes from year to year. The third section goes on to asks about your expected income for the following year. If there are any big changes coming up or currently happening in your life that will have a significant impact on your ability to pay for school, you can mention them later on in the “Special Circumstances” section.

The next section is the Parent Asset section. You’ll find questions about assets in your parents’ names and also in your siblings’ names, such as college savings plans. You’ll see questions about investments, current home value, and how much money your parents owe on their home as well.

Note: home equity has been a huge topic of debate and confusion on the CSS Profile. Some schools don’t consider home equity at all, or don’t weigh it very heavily, while others consider it to be a major factor.

Most schools will cap home equity value at double the family income. So, as an example, if family income is $80,000 and the home equity value is $500,000, the school will only value the home equity at $160,000 when calculating Expected Family Contribution. Then, most schools will count 5% of the home equity value towards what the family is expected to pay for school. In this case, 5% of $160,000 is $8,000. Therefore, $8,000 is added to your EFC.

However, a select number of schools use the full value of your home equity. In this case, 5% of $500,000 is $25,000, which would greatly affect your eligibility for student aid . 

Additionally, since student assets are generally valued higher than parent assets on the CSS Profile, it might be helpful to switch assets from a student’s name to a parent’s name before filling out the form.

This section is used to determine if parents have any unusual or extra expenses that haven’t been covered in previous sections, including child support, educational loans, out-of-pocket medical and dental expenses, and educational expenses for other children.

Other examples of extra expenses are elementary or high school tuition for the previous or upcoming year and monthly home mortgage or rental payments.

Now that the parent section is done, it’s time to move on to the student section. This part will begin by asking you about the high school, college, or university that you’re currently attending as well as your year in school.

You’ll also be asked some financial questions, including the scholarships and grants that you’ve been awarded and how much your parents have paid for your education so far (if applicable). There are also a number of questions related to dependency status, such as whether you’re in danger of homelessness, have ever been a part of the foster care system, or have ever participated in the Upward Bound program.

The Income & Benefits area contains questions about your tax return from the previous year and the financial help you expect to receive for the following school year. Other questions range from veteran benefits to income to expected parent contribution. With the last point, feel free to use a conservative (but realistic) estimate if you’re not sure of the exact amount.

Similar to the Parent Asset section, this section asks about assets that are in the student’s name. Remember that, unlike the FAFSA, student assets are generally valued higher with the CSS Profile.

In this section, you should list the amount of cash in your bank accounts, retirement accounts, and investment funds. Don’t be alarmed if most of your answers are “0” in this section since students usually don’t have many, if any, assets in their name.

This section goes over the additional people living in your household besides you and your parents, such as siblings. You’ll be asked to list educational and other expenses for these people that your parents are responsible for paying.

This is your chance to explain anything you’d like in further detail. You have up to 2,000 characters to describe special financial circumstances or anything that you feel will negatively affect your financial aid eligibility when it shouldn’t. Some examples of special circumstances include dramatic shifts in income and debt recovery.

Schools can choose to ask additional questions specific to their institution at the end of the CSS Profile. Depending on which schools you’re applying to, you might not see this section at all. The specific questions asked depend on the school.

Students are automatically considered for fee waivers when filling out the CSS Profile. Waivers generally include the $25 application fee plus the cost of sending the form to up to 8 schools. Students normally qualify if they’re an incoming freshman and annual family income is $40,000 or less. Some schools also provide fee waivers for students by giving them a code to enter at the end of the application.

If you don’t qualify for a waiver, you’ll need to pay the $25 fee before submitting the application. The first school is included in the fee, but each additional school is $16.

Make sure to double check your form before you submit it since you won’t be able to make any changes online afterward. If you do make a mistake and need to correct it, you’ll have to print out the application summary form, make corrections, and then fax, email, or mail it to your school’s financial aid office.

After you submit it, you can get an idea of your aid package by using this EFC calculator . Keep in mind that your actual award might be different.

Just like the FAFSA, the CSS Profile needs to be completed and submitted every year, so keep an eye out for deadlines!

Have additional questions about completing the CSS Profile? Let us know below!

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Education: Home

• 1. Reference
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Getting Started

• Welcome Video (10 min.) Introduces the Library's services and resources especially to distance and online students
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Narrated Tutorials

• 1. Library resource overview and web site  
• 2. How to use reference books  
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• 4. How to use databases to find articles  
• 5. How to find the full-text of articles & Interlibrary Loan  
• 6. Advanced searching tips  
• 7. APA citation help

How can this LibGuide help me?

This LibGuide contains links and lots of information and support all to help you find the resources you need for your research needs. There are four types of resources highlighted in the tabs at the top including:

• Reference Materials - Includes encyclopedias, which are a great place to start for background and statistical information
• Books and eBooks - Breadth and depth of information
• Articles - Primary research and more current information
• Web Sites - Alternative search engines and information from government agencies and associations

There are also tabs for images and videos and help on how to evaluate and ethically cite your sources, use EndNote, and writing help.

So explore all the tabs and links as they are designed to help make the process of finding resources easier and hopefully more enjoyable for you. Good luck and may Saint Jerome, the patron Saint of libraries, be your guide. Saint Jerome, the patron Saint of libraries, from the CSS Library Friends Charter, painted by Meridith Schifsky

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CSS Students Learn By Doing

Experiential learning happens every day at CSS in various forms:

• Activity-based Learning uses hands-on experiments and activities. Students often collaborate to achieve stated objectives.
• Problem-based Learning challenges students to actively engage in real-world problems and, ultimately, develop critical-thinking skills and enhance their creativity.
• Project-based Learning includes a variety of curricula and encourages students to develop essential skills such as communication, research and inquiry, and time management.
• Place-based Learning uses a location or environment as a starting point to teach concepts and ideas across the curriculum. Students learn to make choices that impact the future, cultures and the environmental landscape.
• Service Learning extends beyond community service. It builds character, encourages life-long civic responsibility, and provides students with new skills and understandings of the world around them.

Although applied differently across each division of the School, every experience-based lesson is geared toward promoting age-appropriate personal growth, problem-solving skills, decision-making capability and academic analysis. All are designed to enhance and support the college-preparatory curriculum.

“The greatest traditions of experiential education value everyone being heard and the fact that leadership is shared.”

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Important Updates

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Featured news.

Student Health and Wellness Center Updates Operating Hours

This semester, the Student Health and Wellness Center (SHWC) has started operating under new hours to expand early hour appointments and provide appointment access during students’ lunch hours. The SHWC will operate 7:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. and 1 – 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Cynthia Aguilar Appointed Associate Vice President and Dean of Students

The University of Texas at El Paso has appointed Cynthia Aguilar as associate vice president and dean of students beginning Jan. 2, 2024. With nearly 15 years of experience in higher education under her belt, Aguilar will help UTEP continue to offer a high-quality, affordable education to all.

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