I am currently a junior and I am trying to figure out how much I can expect to pay for some of the colleges that I am applying, however, it is very difficult for me to find information that is applicable to students of divorced parents, and even less so for the circumstances that I am in.
Here is some information about my family’s financial situation. My biological parents have been legally divorced for 10 years. I only live with my mother. I have had very minimal contact with my father. He does pay child support, however, it is court ordered and automatically garnered from his paycheck because he used to never pay, so my mother had to take him to court. My mom is not remarried. She makes around $70,000 a year with very minimal assets and supports my sister and I, who are both will both be in college in 2020. Her info is pretty straightforward.
My dad’s situation is where it becomes complicated. Until this year, he made roughly $200,000 a year, judging from his child support payments. I don’t talk to him enough to know the value of his assets, but I imagine they are also pretty high. He got remarried last year. His wife is a doctor. Again, I don’t know her very well but I imagine she makes at least $175,000 a year, with her own assets. However, as of January, my dad is on permanent disability due to a serious health issue. I imagine his disability is at the most $100,000 a year. My dad does not plan on contributing to my college expenses, but I also know that this does not matter in the eyes of schools. However, it does make this confusion that much more imperative to resolve, as the result will determine whether or not I can attend a non-FAFSA school.
I know that my dad’s information does not matter when applying to FAFSA only schools. My confusion only pertains to schools that use the CSS Profile.
Here are my questions that I have had an extremely difficult time finding answers to:
Do I have a case to get my non-custodial parent waived? I know his name, address, and I obviously know him well enough to provide you with the above information. But, does having legal documents that show his neglect in providing financial support as well as documented conversations that show he is financially abusive to my mother make any case to get him waived whatsoever?
How much do non-custodial step parent’s factor into a school’s aid awarding process? I think it’s ridiculous that they would use her income at all, as I barely know the woman and she has no intentions in supporting my college costs, but I also know my feelings don’t matter. Especially considering she now earns much more than my father, and most of their assets are hers (property), this could really hurt me.
If I cannot get my father’s finances waived, am I correct in assuming that I should file a financial aid appeal, as his income has been reduced by over 50% which will not be reflected on the tax returns that I apply for financial aid with. Would I try to get my father waived first, wait to see if it is accepted, then, if it is rejected, should I apply for financial aid using the information that I can hopefully get from him, wait for a decision to come back, and THEN file for an appeal because of his reduced income? Do I have this timeline correct? Is there any way I can appeal the decision before providing his outdated income information to make the process shorter?
Sorry for all of the questions…my parents and counselor have been absolutely no help in trying to figure out how I will pay for college. Thank god for the internet…
You might get a waiver…and you might not. The fact is…you can contact this parent. It’s not like they are in jail or something…or have moved to some far away country where you have no contact. You will have to apply for a waiver at each college. Some may grant it and others might not. And you might have to apply for this waiver every single college year at some colleges.
This varies depending on the college and there is no uniform answer. It’s NOT ridiculous that they use parent spouse incomes and assets. Remember, the colleges are calculating a FAMILY contribution…and your dad’s new wife is part of the family whether she or you like it…or not.
A financial aid appeal based on what? If your dad has $100,000 in disability income, and his wife has $150,000 even if income…that could put you out of range for need based aid.
Yes…you apply for the waiver first because if that is a YES, your dad’s info won’t be used.
Here is your issue…you have two bio parents and their combined incomes are not low…even with your dad on $100,000 a year of disability.
It sounds like you are looking at very expensive private universities that require the Profile…is that correct? If so…here is my free advice.
Look for schools where you have the potential to garner merit aid...or guaranteed merit aid for your stats. Your parents incomes and assets aren’t considered for true merit aid.
Look for Profile schools that do NOT require the CSS non-custodial Parent Profile form. They are out there.
University of Chicago does not require non-custodial parent info. How about that school?
Look at you instate options. Are any affordable?
Your parents have been divorced for a LONG time. How did anyone thing college was going to be funded? Especially since there doesn’t seem to have been a provision for this in their divorce.
Apply to some FAFSA only schools where your stats are near the top of the applicant pool.
What is your GPA, and your SAT or ACT score?
Your situation is not unique at all. Actually, your dad is in better financial shape than most folks on disability. Most do not get $100,000 a year in disability payments. It sounds like he had some kind of disability insurance.
ETA…no one…repeat…no one…needs to attend a very expensive private school or out of state public.
I don’t think you really have a case. You know where to find him. His unwillingness to contribute will not matter to colleges. And yes, his wife’s assets and income will be considered. I don’t see how an appeal will help given this info.
Realistically, you need to focus on FAFSA only schools and possible merit aid. You may need to live at home and commute to a 4 year college. There are a very small number of meets need schools that don’t look at NCP info - UChicago is one. But you need very high stats for those.
Mere unwillingness to contribute typically does not get an NCP waiver.
You can try the college NPCs, including your best estimates of your NCP's and spouse's income where asked, though if you do not know the details, the accuracy of such will be limited to how accurate your estimates are.
@thumper1 I have been looking at schools that do’t require NCP information and found both UChicago and Vanderbilt, so yes, those are top choices for me as of now. I live in Texas, so UT is an amazing and affordable option for me, but I do not attend a school that ranks students, so I do not benefit from the automatic admission of the top 7% of students in public schools, so it is still not a safety for me. I am also considering UTD (also a state school).
I am not sure if I understand your 5th question. Yeah, my parents have been divorced for a long time. Fact of the matter is they are both very irresponsible and hold a lot of financial hostility towards each other, and unfortunately, it looks like my school choices might be affected by it.
I have a 4.0 UW GPA. I have taken 10 AP classes so far, and scored mostly 5s. My SAT is a 1570.
Do you have any FAFSA only schools that you would recommend?
Also, not sure about my dad’s disability, I literally made that number up out of the blue. I have no idea how his disability works and he will not tell me how much me makes.
@ucbalumnus I have been looking into the net price calculators and have tried out a few. Do you have tips on how to use them for kids in my situation? Should I essentially do 2 different net price calculations and add the expected cost? Like, for my first one, should I just enter my moms information as a single woman, and then for the second one, should I enter my dad and stepmoms information as a married couple, and add the expected cost of each of those calculations? Thanks!
I believe that Texas law requires high schools to issue rankings for the purposes of auto-admission, even if they don’t otherwise rank their students - but I may be mistaken. Ask your school’s college counselor.
You could be competitive for merit at the selective schools that have merit (Emory, Vanderbilt, Wash U, etc). And search the posts for automatic merit but University of Alabama would be a solid choice for you. There are others as well.
Are you expecting to be a National Merit Semifinalist based on your PSAT scores? If so there are some schools that will have merit. UTD is one.
@GnocchiB I go to a public school, but it is residential and an early college program, so they exclude us from that law unfortunately but it’s not impossible to get in from my school. Around 70% of kids from my school get in, and I am towards the top 20% of my class if I had to guess, but it’s just not guaranteed.
That’s a lot of imagining. Unless you have a decent idea as to what the numbers are, it doesn’t do any good to speculate on possible outcomes.
I don’t think there’s much of a case here for getting a non-custodial parent waiver. The legal documents are only good for showing that he can be a jerk.
Your step mother is not expected to contribute to your college expenses, but she is expected to contribute to the household expenses, which frees up some of your father’s money to help with your college expenses. Makes sense, right?
If you cannot get your father’s finances waived (and I don’t think you can) at a Profile school that requires it, an appeal will only come into play if your father completes the NCP forms. If he doesn’t provide his (and in many cases his wife’s) financial information, there will be no need-based financial aid offer to appeal. And if your father is willing to provide his financial information, you don’t “get it from him;” he gives it directly to the school. You won’t see it and your mother won’t see it.
Some colleges’ NPCs ask if your parents are divorced and give you places to put both spouses’ financials. Others may have special instructions on the college’s financial aid web site. If you are not sure, ask the college directly.
However, if your parents are still fighting their divorce, your NCP may be uncooperative with the CSS Noncustodial Profile, in which case any college which requires it will give no financial aid.
Please don’t think this is an unusual situation. About 1/2 the states require all child support to be paid through the court registry, even if everyone agrees it can be paid directly, and there is a good reason - most people who are divorced don’t communicate all that well. The court takes the option of paying, or when to pay, or how much to pay, out of it. Minnesota has had required payment through a court registry, directly from the employer who withholds the court ordered amount, to the registry, to the custodial parent, for 30+ years. No opting out.
Also, do not think that just because child support ends at age 18 your father won’t be expected to contribute to college. CSS colleges will be expecting to see his information and will decide how much he should be expected to contribute.
Anyway, there are tons of schools that are FAFSA only. Most public schools are and some give good merit aid - Alabama, Ole Miss, Miss State. If you are National Merit, all the Florida schools.
Your EFC after filing FAFSA may show you get a Pell grant because there are 2 in college (I would guess it will be close if there is only 1 in college on a $70k salary).
Since that post, I found out that I didn’t qualify for the post 9/11 GI bill, which was the benefit that i was referring to, and is a major reason why I am so much more concerned about finances. However, I do have benefits still within Texas. All other information is true. My parents have dual custody. By definition, I live with both equally, however in reality I live with my mom much more. Again, however, I do love at a residential school so I don’t live at home for 9 months of the year.
You do not have extenuating NCP circumstances. You are actually typical. The chances of getting a waiver, IMO, are slim to none.
But “slim” is still in town, so you can give it a go. Look into doing this and give it your all. Have your school, your doctor, etc give statements that your father has no interest, no part in your life that they could see. Make copies of all the court papers showing that he has not paid a dime that was not squeezed out him by court order. It’s up to the individualFinancial aid officers to make that determination, and you might find one that finds your case compelling.
But you also have to proceed as though you are not going to prevail or you’ll be left holding an empty bag. Like everyone else going through the application process, you should be looking first for schools that are most certain to accept you and that you likely could afford. That’s always the tough part of the college search because you can’t just cherry pick the top name schools. You are digging for the gold, mining and panning to find these schools.
Once you have those schools, hopefully, locked up early, you can go for broke for the highly selective schools. UChicago and Vanderbilt will go with just your mothers financial info. There are far more FAFSA only schools out there than PROFILE ones, and you have the stats to get merit within need. Or good pure merit. Some excellent schools in that category too
but it’s not impossible to get in from my school. Around 70% of kids from my school get in, and I am towards the top 20% of my class if I had to guess, but it’s just not guaranteed.