Financing an Ivy League School

[ucbalumnus]

@vrmeenrajan;d-2197094

[Context]: My Mom and Dad are divorced and live in separate houses but live in the same city of Gainesville. Though my time in each house is split equally, I do spend just a little more time in my mom’s house than my dad’s. Also, my mom is my custodial parent. My mom isn’t remarried but my dad is. My mom makes $65k while my dad makes $210k.

After doing some research on Brown and other Ivy league schools, I found that the lower the income of a student after applying for financial aid, the more aid we recieve. If I submit just my mom’s income and disregard my dad in the application process since my mom is my custodial parent, then I could get a pretty big scholarship and would actually be able to afford it. However if my dad’s income of $210k also needs to be submitted, then I probably would not be able to afford it. This might not be a problem because some websites say that I only need to submit my custodial parent’s income and disregard my dad’s when applying for a scholarship. Despite this, no matter how much research I do on this, I still get no clear answer on what I have to submit so that I can know how much financial aid I am eligible for.

For Brown, https://www.brown.edu/about/administration/financial-aid/2021-22-instructions-us-citizens-and-permanent-residents says that CSS Profile is “Required from each parent when they are divorced or separated.”

With combined parental income of $275k, colleges that require both parents’ finances (including Ivy League colleges) are unlikely to give much or any financial aid.

A few prestige privates (Chicago and Vanderbilt) require only custodial parent finances, but since (as your other thread says) your parents have said that the only acceptable college is University of Florida, that does not matter. Remember, you need parental cooperation on FAFSA and (if required for the college) CSS Profile to get any financial aid, so they can veto any college they do not approve of (except possibly if you get a full ride merit scholarship).