<p>I was accepted to Haverford early decision. My parents are divorced. My father is not remarried and my mother is remarried. My father is a teacher and makes perhaps 55k and my mother makes nothing. My father is my custodial parent. My mother's husband makes a lot of money, we don't talk so I don't know how much and he certainly won't want to help with my education. I am not even sure if I can get him to fill out the CSS. My father would do anything he could for me but at 55k in California I know we just get by in a rental apartment with a 10 year old car. When I was applying I filled out the NPC forms and it looked like we would get good financial aid but I didn't realize I needed to include my non-custodial parent's spouse. Does anyone have any thoughts? Are schools understanding of these situations? I applied to the UC schools as well and I will look into how they calculate aid. What a disappointment -- to get in and not be able to attend because of who my mother happened to marry.</p>
<p>Re: #9</p>
<p>As a California resident, you are in luck if you applied to California public universities that you have a reasonable chance of admission to. They use only FAFSA information and federal methdology to determine financial aid.</p>
<p>Check their net price calculators.</p>
<p>FAFSA asks only for the Custodial parent, defined as the one the student lived with the most in the year before filing the form. So the OP would have a much lower FAFSA EFC than what the colleges using PROFILE woud come up with in term of what he and his family will have to pay. How they treat the non custodial parent can differ. IF THE NPC for any of the schools has a way you can input info for each parent, indicating which one is custodial, you might be able to come up with some idea as to how it is treated. But still, at the end of the day both parent’s financial are taken into account which means a lot less aid than with just the custodial parent in the picture. The rules have been in place this way for a while, and they do not make much in the way of exceptions unless the NCP is not and has not been in contact or in the student’s life hardly at all. A waiver can be asked from the colleges, but they are tough to get.</p>
<p>YOu have gotten your ED acceptance, and presumably an estimated financial aid award. If Haverford is NOT affordable, you should decline their offer of acceptance.</p>
<p>Just because your mom’s husband does not WANT to complete the NCP profile, or won’t contribute to your costs doesn’t matter. Fact is, he is contributing to your mom’s household finances. </p>
<p>Contact Haverford with this issue and see what they say…but don’t be surprised if they tell you that this step parent’s income and assets will be required.</p>
<p>When you applied ED, did you fill out an estimated PROFILE? Most schools ask for that as part of the ED application process if you need or want financial aid. When you filled it out, did it ask for your mother’s financial’s and her spouse? </p>
<p>In any case, you need to talk to Haverford. If you did not apply for fin aid, or filled out the forms incorrectly or if you have not gotten an estimated aid package, all of this needs to be resolved soon, since your name will be circulated on an ED accept list and you will be flushed from consideration RD from other schools that subscribe to that list. You need to put a halt to that process until you can see if you can even afford to go to Haverford. </p>
<p>I don’t specifically know what Haverford needs for financial aid package numbers, but do make sure you have everything set. How can you even accept ED if you do not know if you can afford it?</p>
<p>Have you accepted the ED offer yet? Advice out here is typically to NOT accept until you have at least the preliminary FA offer in hand. Don’t withdraw any other applications yet, and don’t accept the ED if you haven’t seen the FA offer. Your mom & stepfather will probably need to fill out the non-custodial parent Profile (Haverford’s FA process online should tell you, or you can call their office tomorrow). If you accepted ED already, contact Haverford and tell them you didn’t understand the FA process, and ask for a delay in accepting the offer until you can get them FA info and get your FA offer back from them.</p>
<p>You are going to have to ask your mom to fill out whatever non-custodial parent info the college wants, and tell her she will need to put in info for her spouse as well. The college does not share that info with you and your dad if that makes her feel better. But without that you probably won’t get any FA, so you at least need to give it a try.</p>
<p>First of all congratulation on your acceptance to Haverford. It’s a wonderful school.
You need to call the FA department and find out where you stand. By your post, it sounds like you do not have your aid offer yet, as your FA application is incomplete. Explain your situation and follow their directions so that you can review your financial aid offer before deciding whether you can accept this ED offer of admission.</p>
<p>IF you have been accepted to Haverford ED, the acceptances went out last month. It’s been a while, and, just checking the website, you should have filed for financial aid at the time you applied in order to get an estimated package with your acceptance.</p>
<p>You should call Haverford and let them know your situation, because you may end up not being able to go to this school for financial reasons. This is a $60K a year school, and yes, both parents and their spouses need to fill out the PROFILE forms for you to get financial aid that will be based on their financial info. The Haverford website makes that clear. </p>
<p>So you need to be looking at some other schools as well in case you and your parents cannot afford this school. Again, you need to let Haverford know your situation so that if you have other apps outstanding, that they are not auto-flushed. If you don’t have other apps, you need to get rolling on them, because, frankly, this does hot look so good. There appears to be a distinct possibility that you won’t get the financial aid you will need.</p>