Formulas for Divorced Parents

[OHMomof2]

Then there’s the “quick” tool used by a dozen or two selective colleges called MyIntuition - https://myintuition.org/

But once you say your parents are divorced (at least that’s the second question, not buried), you get a message like this:

Like many colleges and universities, Rice adheres to a principle that both biological or adoptive parents, regardless of their current marital status, play a primary role in providing for their child’s education. Because of this principle, Rice does require information about both biological or adoptive parents and does expect each to provide reasonable financial support during their child’s time at Rice. It is also important to note that during the actual application process, there will be opportunities to provide additional information regarding the student’s biological or adoptive parents.

You indicated that the student’s biological or adoptive parents are separated or divorced. You may use Rice’s Quick College Cost Estimator as a starting point to estimate each biological or adoptive parent’s cost. You may then add the two biological or adoptive parent’s costs together to arrive at general idea of your total estimated cost. It is important to remember that many family situations are complicated and this tool is only designed to provide you with an estimate. For additional information on treatment of specific family situations, please contact the Financial Aid Office/Office of Student Financial Services .

…which basically tells you to double it. From my experience with two kids having gone through ~20 FA packages in total, it never works like that.