You need to look at each school’s financial aid web pages to see if they require non-custodial parent finances (commonly by requiring the CSS Noncustodial Profile).
CSS Profile Participating Institutions and Programs indicates that most of your list does require the CSS Noncustodial Profile (second to last column). But verify on each school’s web page, since there can be incorrect information on that page.
Manhattan and the CUNY and SUNY schools do not require any CSS Profile at all, so only the parent who provides the most financial support (custodial parent) matters (on FAFSA).
I’m only vaguely familiar with the way QuestBridge works. I wasn’t aware that there is a Regular Decision round. I thought all the final matches were made in December even before non-QB ED & EA admit letters were released.
I believe each school has its own waiver. The reality is you’re likely going to have line up your dad’s finances and involvement.
Manhattan is a great school and they’ll give you a great price but I don’t know if it will be $20K great. It looks like they use FAFSA, not CSS so that might be to your advantage given your dad. Might…
Read this on how to apply in case you are a non-finalist. It’s not over in December! You can still use the QB application instead of the Common or Coalition Application.
The point is - if you’re going to apply to schools, you want to ensure they are affordable.
You know what’s worse than getting rejected? Getting in but finding out you couldn’t afford it and can’t go because you didn’t plan right. Apply to the right schools.
What if you don’t qualify for Excelsior? You need to read up to see if your dad impacts? If not, you couldn’t afford tuition plus room and board.
So I would be more focused than - I’ll just this or that - because that may not happen either.
If you’re going to put in the effort, at least apply to schools that will work if you get in. By requesting a waiver, you’ll know up front. If they say no and the NPC, including your dad is over budget, don’t waste your time.
And given you have to submit APs to Stanford and Yale, you can safely remove them, etc.
Well you do you - but it’s a lot of work.
I hope you come back and update when it’s all done.
I’m not sure what you mean by this? Many high schools include 8th grade courses such as Algebra 1 and foreign language on transcripts. IME this is in control of the HS, not the middle school. Did your HS counselor tell you to contact the middle school? Note that some colleges disregard 8th grade course grades on transcripts.
Ranking is due on Oct 15, and I would encourage you to rank schools, although you don’t have to. Where are you in the Posse process? If you rank QB schools, you will have to pull your Posse app. If you don’t rank QB schools, that means you forego the match and apply via RD, so could continue in the Posse process. Happy to chat via PM.
Can you also clarify this? Is your dad contributing any money for your living expenses? Are you in contact with him?
Ok, are you in contact with him? That will be an important factor to get NCP waivers approved. If his income and assets are included in the NPCs does that change things in terms of affordability?
If mom and dad filed a joint tax return in 2025, your mom will have to manually separate out her income from the tax return when she does FAFSA because she will have to import their joint tax return.
