<p>my mother alone does not make much money per year and could probably qualify as "low income"
however, my stepdad makes a lot of money and will make it hard for us to get any financial aid at all..
the thing is, my stepdad refuses to pay a penny for my college tuition, and my biological father(who never paid any child support) claims to not have enough money to pay for my education.</p>
<p>Is there anyway I can tell this to colleges?</p>
<p>You can and should tell the financial aid office anything you want to be considered. Yours is a very common scenario, though, so not a "unique circumstance" Many married couples refuse to pay tuition for their kids as well, but that refusal usually won't lead to more aid.</p>
<p>Muffy's right - you can tell them anything you like, but it's probably not going to make a difference. Financial aid is based on what your family (which includes stepparents) are able to pay, not what they want to or agree to pay. Otherwise, can you imagine how quickly every parent would say, "Sorry. Not paying"?</p>
<p>I have a friend who's prenup stated her new husband was not going to pay for her d's (his step-d's) college - didn't matter to the colleges who considered his salary/assets for EFC. I heard of people who didn't want to get married becuase of the "marriage tax"....what about the EFC tax!!!</p>
<p>The college does not have that choice when it comes to any federal aid. The law specifically states that the spouses income is included in the formula and pre-nups do not override this.</p>
<p>
[quote]
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, 2007, must be reported even if your parent and stepparent were not married until after the start of 2007, but were married prior to the date the FAFSA was completed.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>And even for CSS Profile, the logic is not that the stepparents' funds must go to pay the for the student's eduction. The logic is that the stepparent's funds are used to help support the natural parent, thus freeing more of the natural parent's assets and income to pay for college.</p>