I live with my mom, who makes pretty good money ~$200,000/yr but is kind of terrible at saving.
Regardless, when I was doing the financial aid forms for my dad’s stuff, I found some very surprising numbers. His income is very far in the negatives. Now, I ran the net price calculators for a bunch of schools and talked with my mom before I knew this. We thought that we should be good. But now should I expect a lot more money because their net income is maybe half of my mom’s alone? Or do they weigh non-custodial parents much less?
Maybe I’m just impatient and should see what the offers are and not try to predict the whims of fickle financial aid offices. was just a little shocked when I saw these numbers and I had a terrible moment of selfishness when my first thought was that this might make paying for college way easier.
How are you getting negative income? (you can’t subtract debt from income when submitting FA forms…if it worked that way, that’s what the NPCs would ask.) How is your father paying for rent, food, etc?
Are you saying you only ran the NPCs with your mom’s income/assets?
FA staff do not act on whims. They have formulas that they follow. Sometimes non-need aid/discounting is directed by admissions.
If they make $300k or even your mom $200k, few places will give you aid.
What you need is a budget - how much can she afford a year?
Then you find schools that can achieve that budget. Some may do so full price. Some may with merit aid. There are schools that have auto merit so you know up front what things will cost. Others, you don’t so you have to hope So no matter where you desire to go, you make sure to apply to a few schools you know you can get in that will 100% achieve your budget.
There may be a few higher end schools where you can get some money for need with that income, but very few and they are more selective admission wise.
Education has a cost. Colleges will expect your mom to pay. If she can’t save, that’s on her, not the colleges.
”Are you saying you only ran the NPCs with your mom’s income/assets?”
My dad has not been forthcoming with his financial information. I have spent the better part of three months calling to him constantly to finally get him to do it. I have had no opportunity to work through it with him, as he does not want to talk to me or see me, and I had barely been able to get him to allow me to do the forms at all.
”FA staff do not act on whims. They have formulas that they follow. Sometimes non-need aid/discounting is directed by admissions.”
I’m sorry that you are going thru this. Is he contributing to your living expenses, like paying child support?
The ways colleges assess business income can be complicated and vary by college. Many will look at the business gross income, and not any of the deductions being taken or the losses the business is generating.
Has your dad completed the css profile at schools that require it (assuming you applied to schools that require it.) As thumper said, NPCs are often inaccurate for people who own businesses. Regardless, your dad’s pretax income and assets will be a factor at all the colleges that require the CSS Profile. It’s hard to say how much that might change things, because you might be full pay anyway, simply from your moms income and assets.To be clear, the losses your dad’s business is generating will not be deducted from your mom’s income/assets.
“I’m sorry that you are going thru this. Is he contributing to your living expenses, like paying child support?”
No, not at all
“The ways colleges assess business income can be complicated and vary by college. Many will look at the business gross income, and not the losses the business is generating.”
mm yeah
“Has your dad completed the css profile at schools that require it (assuming you applied to schools that require it.) As thumper said, NPCs are often inaccurate for people who own businesses. Regardless, your dad’s pretax income and assets will be a factor at all the colleges that require the CSS Profile. It’s hard to say how much that might change things, because you might be full pay anyway, simply from your moms income and assets.”
Yeah I finally got him to do it by calling his accountant and practically begging him to do it.