<p>I need to submit the completed CSS Profile no later than December 31. However, my mom and stepfather are currently in the process of separating. They are still together at the moment and she may not have filed for divorce yet, but plans to do so next month.</p>
<p>Even if my mom does file next month, she and my stepfather will still be married by the December 31 deadline and she may not have moved us into an apartment yet. However, the two of them will almost certainly be apart by the time I enroll.</p>
<p>Two questions:</p>
<p>1) How should I reflect this on the Profile application? Will I still have to report my stepfather’s income? If so, obtaining his financial documents may prove difficult now.</p>
<p>More alarmingly, my EFC is hovering around $20,000 under their combined income, but my EFC will be $0 based on Mom’s income alone. That is to say, she won’t be able to contribute much (if anything) on her own, so if colleges ask that we pay $20,000 for the first year, I’m pretty well screwed and I’ll have to go to a state school. (The horror.)</p>
<p>2) If my stepfather’s income must be calculated into my EFC, can I refile before I enroll or somehow explain my circumstances to the college? How successful would these efforts be?</p>
<p>This will allow you and your mom to be resettled, and for her finances to become separated from your stepfather’s before you file any financial aid paperwork. It will also allow you to track down affordable and attractive options for yourself that do not require the CSS profile in case they don’t manage to get their finances separated in time.</p>
<p>Truly, it will make this part of your life much easier.</p>
<p>However, if you can’t bring yourself to do that, then you may want to consider eliminating the profile institutions from your list right now. Applying to any of them will require including your stepfather’s numbers in an initial financial aid application, and then requesting that each of the places you apply to accept an update with significant changes after the first of the year. Yes, they do handle this kind of thing all the time, but with everything else that is going on in your life and in your mom’s life, the paperwork might be more than you both want to deal with just now.</p>
<p>^ A gap year is an excellent suggestion. I live in an unfortunately small Tennessee county that offers few opportunities for a gap year project. I’d be super bored for the year. Plus, I’d void a $2000 scholarship that I earned and an additional $4000/yr scholarship that I can take to in-state schools (like Vandy).</p>
<p>Still, if it comes down to it, I’d much defer enrollment for a year than be forced into a state school. So I’m really glad to have a definite backup plan.</p>
<p>Hopefully it will not come to that. Because students resubmit their CSS Profile annually, I would be footed with a $20,000 bill for one year at most. Rationally, I can spread that out and affordably pay down $5000 each year to avoid graduating with debt.</p>
<p>And the paperwork will be hell anyway because my father and I are on pretty shaky terms. I haven’t had a conversation with him since spring.</p>
<p>Well, thank you. I don’t love your answer but it’s the truest and most helpful I could have gotten.</p>
<p>Just start at the state school and transfer. Kids do it all the time. If your state has a good articulation policy in place (many do) then it’s a breeze if you do well at the state school (and most people do, state schools IME aren’t exactly rigorous…)</p>
<p>It is not as simple as that. If you have a 20k EFC, it will be the minimum that your family will have to pay for that school year. There is no taking the bill year one and paying it down over the course of subsequent years. If your first year bill is not paid by the end of year one, you will have major problems returning for year 2, as some schools will not allow you to register with unpaid bills.</p>
<p>Have you considered going through the process this year and deferring your admission? this way you will have an acceptance in hand and you are taking a year off until the finances get straightened out</p>
<p>My mom is a schoolteacher, so although she will have little disposable income, she will qualify for a loan. Further, toddler me was fond of money and developed a prescient habit of squirreling away every dollar he earned. Today I have an emergency nest egg of $17000.</p>
<p>You do realize that a considerable part of your nest egg will go to your EFC? Calculate your EFC to be at least $3500 (from the nest egg), not counting student contribution from summer earnings.</p>
<p>If your mom is a teacher, how does she have a 0 EFC, unless she is making very very little money as a school teacher. I would recommend that you run your mom’s income and your nest egg through the FAFSA4caster to get an idea of how much your federal EFC will be once your mom is living separately from your stepdad (I doubt that it will be 0)</p>
<p>Yes, I realize that I’ll be expected to contribute part of that money. But I seem to remember that it will only be 5%. Even if that percentage is annual, I can still make a sizable first-year deposit to fulfill what my stepdad was expected to pay.</p>
<p>Schoolteachers here who have been teaching 30 years but don’t have a Masters degree make $40K or $45K a year. The colleges I’m looking at all have generous financial aid, and don’t ask for contribution from the first $40K or $50K of a household’s income. Our EFC will be 0 or negligibly small.</p>
<p>You can always correct your CSS profile later.
You can also project what your mom will be able to pay and write an explanation in the special circumstance section of the CSS profile now before submitting.</p>
<p>It’s 5% after parent asset protection for parents’s assets. It’s 20% of your assets. Another thing you should realize is that schools will expect you to take out loans and work during the summer. All of that is part of the expected family contribution and aid package. One more question: what’s the deal with your dad? Many colleges will want him to fill out info also. Please double-check that against your list.</p>
<p>Coolweather, I’ll definitely do that too. My fingers are crossed that my colleges will understand the first time around.</p>
<p>2collegewego, the percent will vary by institution, but I played with one college’s net price calculator and it only added 5% of my assets to its EFC.</p>
<p>Edit: Still researching, but I found that the 20% is for colleges using the FAFSA methodology. Fortunately, all of my colleges use CSS Profile. Each school sets its own rules, but 5% per year is common among selective universities.</p>
<p>My mom and dad separated when I was two, and now he lives with his stay-at-home wife and two young children (ages 2 & 5) on a salary of $35K. I stopped visitation a year ago because of some ongoing issues within the household, and he hasn’t tried to keep in touch since.</p>
<p>Check each school to see if they require the CSS profile+ non-custodial profile or the CSS profile + their own non-custodial forms.</p>
<p>If you have to file the profile and the non-custodial profile the school will look at income/assets of your mom + stepdad along with your non-custodial parent + stepmom.</p>
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<p>It is probably unlikely that you will get a non-custodial waiver eliminating your dad’s income/assets.</p>
<p>Deniah…any money YOU have in YOUR savings accounts is assessed at 20 % for FAFSA purposes. Any money your parent had is assessed at 5.6%. AND your parents have an asset protection allowance before the 5.6% kicks in. You, the student, have NO asset protection allowance.</p>
<p>Plan on having $3500 added to your EFC from your savings for this first academic college year…and for any subsequent year, for that matter.</p>
<p>Sybbie, I am under the impression that the Profile calculates EFC for different households separately; that is, my dad will not be expected to contribute anything from his income. Am I mistaken? (It seems odd that he would have to contribute; he flirts with the poverty line as it is.)</p>
<p>Thumper, my prospective colleges use Profile methodology, so I do not think that FAFSA’s 20% tax on students matters. I’m fortunate enough to be a competitive applicant to universities with large endowments. :)</p>
<p>You will be awarded institutional aid based on the income/assets of both your parents. As far as the EFC is concerned the school does not care who pays it as long as it is paid (if your dad refuses to pay for college, the school is not going to change the EFC). </p>
<p>If the school requires both the CSS profile/non-custodial profile, there will be an expectation that your dad pays part of the cost for your education. Remember that your parents are first in line and the school does not take into consideration what the divorce decree states or deals that your parents may have.</p>
<p>Does your mom receive child support/alimony? that must also be included.</p>
<p>Deniah…I believe most Profile schools also assess student assets at a higher rate than parent assets.</p>
<p>The issue you have right now is how schools will treat your step dad. Those Profile schools will definitely want a Profile completed by your mom (and spouse possibly…that IS your issue, right?), and a non-custodial Profile completed by your dad (and spouse if he has one).</p>
<p>I’m curious…why do you have to complete the Profile by December 31? Did you apply ED someplace?</p>
<p>Dad does not pay Mom alimony, and he stopped paying child support to her when I moved in with my grandfather after freshman year.</p>
<p>One of my prospective colleges, Pomona, has set a deadline of January 1 to receive the Profile application for regular decision applicants. Since it’s a holiday I figured it would be good to submit the day before. Also Thumper, you are correct that my current issue is how my stepdad’s income will be treated. Prior to that I had established a likely EFC of $25K, around $20K of which came from his household. That was a financial stretch then and is an impossibility now.</p>
<p>Thanks for digging up my old thread, sybbie. I had perused over it once already, but I believe that even then I had been under the impression that colleges calculated each household’s EFC separately. I know Harvard does, and I have a bad habit of generalizing things.</p>
<p>I am becoming increasingly confused. Hopefully this is an effect of the late hour, but it might be good to seek professional advice for my situation, no?</p>