widowedness :(

[ladedee]

<p>soo my mother is a widow, but she remarried… </p>

<p>kinda sucks since my step-parent makes more than enough money (in the $100,000 range) to support me for college… mind you, he’s not willing to pay for anything having to do with my college costs</p>

<p>will this affect my chance at getting any financial aid, even if he doesn’t “claim” me on his tax return thing? my mother claims me, but doesn’t have any source of income since she’s a stay at home mom</p>

<p>ugh… is anyone finding themselves in the same situation?</p>

<p>any advice???</p>

[swimcatsmom]

<p>from <a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/completing_fafsa/2007_2008/ques5.html[/url]”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/completing_fafsa/2007_2008/ques5.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

If the surviving parent is remarried as of the date you complete the FAFSA, answer the questions about both that parent and the person he or she married (your stepparent).

</p>

<p>

A stepparent is treated in the same manner as a biological parent if the stepparent is married, as of the date of application, to the biological parent whose information will be reported on the FAFSA, or if the stepparent has legally adopted you. There are no exceptions. Prenuptial agreements do not exempt the stepparent from providing required data on the FAFSA. Note that the stepparent’s income information for the entire base year, 2006, must be reported even if your parent and stepparent were not married until after the start of 2006, but were married prior to the date the FAFSA was completed.

</p>

<p>You do have to include your step-dads financial info - whether you are claimed as a dependant for tax purposes maked no difference on FAFSA. Sorry I have no advice for you. Difficult situation. Good luck.</p>

[TrinSF]

<p>I’m divorced and this is why I won’t remarry as long as I have children in college. As the poster said, it’s unfortunate, difficult, but pretty much unavoidable.</p>

[wecandothis]

<p>yes, this is a little-known possible pitfall or remarriage…for me it was actually a silver lining to my divorce from my second husband. Like the other posters, as a step parent he would not have been paying any of my kids college costs. He had a high income though and so my d would have probably not gotten any finaid if we were still married.
This seems quite unfair to me. If the step-parent has other (bio) kids in college though, at least that can somewhat offset the detrimental effects of having their income factored into the aid formula for the step-child.</p>