on the fafsa, it says the parent who pays “most financial support” does the fafsa. how is financial support defined??
i live with my mom full-time and she takes care of me. my dad pays child support and some other portions of expenses. both will contribute to my college but the money from my mom is under my name and the money from my dad is under a 529 plan.
my dad has the greater income but my mom has the greater assets.
my dad has filled out the css profile as the primary custodial parent.
my mom doesn’t want him seeing some of my financial info when we complete the fafsa. so. three questions:
will my dad see the financial information i put in the fafsa application?
My understanding is that even at CSS profile schools, the financial information from each divorced parent remains private and is not shared with the other.
What makes you say this? We have no idea what the other parent is paying towards support for this student. But if it’s more than the mom, that parent is the custodial parent for FAFSA purposes.
What made you choose the parent other than your mom as the primary parent for the CSS Profile? On the Profile, very often the financials for both parents need to be listed anyway (as well as financials for spouses, if they have remarried).
i’m not seeking financial aid or loans. i don’t qualify for federal or institutional financial aid. the only reason i’m filling this out is because my college counselor told me i have to and that colleges won’t consider my application otherwise.
i would much prefer not to fill this out but he’s told me it’s a requirement
That is not true. If you aren’t seeking need based aid you check ‘not applying for financial aid’ on the common app and that’s it. No financial aid forms needed. At some colleges it’s an advantage to not be applying for need based aid
If you do want to take out the federal direct student loans you would need to file FAFSA (but not CSS.) That loan is $5.5k for the first year and goes up a bit after that.
Some (not many) colleges require FAFSA for merit aid.
You might make sure you don’t qualify for need based aid by running some of the net price calculators for schools you are applying to. Put in all the financial info you have, mom, dad and yours to get accurate results, at schools that require CSS.
We don’t know how much child support dad is paying. I’ve seen some large annual numbers paid in child support. The FAFSA contributor is the parent who provided more financial support in the past 12 months, as of the date of filing FAFSA.
That’s simply not true. The only reason to to complete the financial aid application forms is if you are applying for need based aid…or in the case if the FAFSA, that you want to be able to access the federally funded Direct Loan.
Some states do require you to file FAFSA as a high school graduation requirement, but you can ask for a waiver if you want. Colleges do not require it to apply.
I’ll repeat what I said upstream. You used the parent you don’t live with as your primary parent for the Profile. If you do the FAFSA, I think you should be consistent and use that parent as your custodial parent on the FAFSA. Perhaps @kelsmom or @Mwfan1921 can offer an opinion.
Generally, I agree the FAFSA contributor should also be the CSS Profile custodial parent. We need to hear from OP which parent provided more financial support in the past 12 months. That should be a straightforward calculation.
If OP is certain they won’t qualify for need-based aid at the schools on the list, there is NO NEED to complete FAFSA or CSS Profile. Unless the school requires those for merit aid consideration and OP is interested in merit aid. The list of schools that requires FAFSA for merit aid consideration is small.
ETA: OP should clarify with their HS counselor what they were talking about when they said FAFSA is required for colleges to review an application. If OP lives in a state that requires FAFSA for HS graduation, they can either choose to complete it or complete the waiver instead. All the FAFSA required states have easy one page waivers that waive the FAFSA filing requirement.
Yes, but if one knows one parent’s finances and the actual financial aid offer, it can be possible reverse-engineer ranges for the other parent’s finances using the college’s net price calculator.
This is not true generally. Colleges generally do accept and consider applications without financial aid applications. Colleges which are need-blind (which is most colleges) will make admission decisions without regard to whether the applicant has applied for financial aid or what the financial need the applicant has based on a financial aid application.