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How can you get CSS fee codes with a COVID-19 hardship waiver?

2
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18 answers, 31 votes
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This is more of an FYI. It was such an involved process for me that I wanted to potentially save time for another student.

If your guidance counselor got you a hardship waiver AND you didn't take the SATs with said waiver, you need to call customer service for the CSS. They will not help you if you say your guidance counselor gave you a hardship waiver.

You have to say the magical words "My guidance counselor gave me an SAT waiver, but I never took the SATs with that waiver." They will repeat back what you said like it's a question. Don't answer back with any uncertainty that your hardship waiver is an SAT waiver. Otherwise, you may get "disconnected" and have to start from the beginning. (Been there, done that.) And I promise you that your hardship waiver is an SAT waiver. It's okay that you didn't know. My guidance counselor didn't even know.

What happens then is they transfer you to someone who gives fee codes you type manually into the form. And you're done.

CSS
feewaiver
Yep. Depending on the school, particularly if it is a large school, the guidance counselor might also have the codes. The College Board gives teachers a good stock of fee waiver codes that are torn out on little cards at the beginning of each year to give to students.

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459 answers, 2154 votes
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4
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Sounds like sound advice for low-income students that have been affected by the pandemic. Thank you for sharing.