I’m presently a high school junior in Tennessee planning on applying to an expensive private college early senior year. The school I’m applying to requires me to complete the CSS Profile and the Non-Custodial Parent Profile as well.
The problem with this is while my mom, who I live with full-time, does not make a lot of money at all, my father and his wife make at least 100k a year by my guess (based on their professions). My dad pays $300.00 in child support a month (I know that’s probably not a lot, but it was my parent’s agreement from when he was an active alcoholic and unemployable, also he’s a toxic person and it wouldn’t be worth it mentally or financially to go after more).
He isn’t going to contribute any money to my college education at all, but since I have to include him and his wife’s income on my CSS Profile, I’m afraid I won’t be able to afford the school I want to attend.
Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this situation?
tl;dr: My dad makes a lot of money, but isn’t helping me with college and could seriously mess up the amount of aid I receive for my dream school, which I desperately need.
Unfortunately I had the exact same problem with my father. After finally convincing him to even fill out the forms and submit, I still received a pretty decent amount of aid from one of my private schools. I feel as though if they see that he will not provide any aid, they will take note of it. If not, you can maybe call the school? If they aren’t willing to adjust , try to apply for as many scholarships as possible; I did that as well just in case. Best of luck!
Yeah, right now my only hope for getting the money I need is through FAFSA and the Hope Scholarship, as well as directly contacting the aid office of the college I’m interested in. I somewhat considered emancipation, but I know that’s not a realistic option.
My mother’s household income >100k. Dad’s is unknown but by the looks of his lifestyle I would say >100k. The school I applied to costs $68k total. I was in contact with the fin aid office frequently as I had multiple issues with getting my father to submit these forms even though he made it clear to them he refused to provide any aid and wanted no part… I received a large scholarship that covered half (which is why I recommended to apply for as many scholarships as possible), and then fin aid grants that covered about 11k more. I really expected to get nothing. @mom2collegekids
My backup is the local public college. I pretty much need to stay where I live now for reasons not having to with college. I’m planning on majoring in Chemistry and want to work in research. I have a 29 on my ACT and. 3.7 GPA, and qualify for a lot of money at the University of Memphis, which is my backup.
Oh, and I am planning on working during college and keeping personal expenses to a minimum.
hey there! in my opinion, the CSS Profile has an “additional information” section for problems exactly like the one you’re experiencing. i would include this in that section.
on another not, does this private college meet your full need? does this private college practice need-blind admissions? those are a couple of very important questions to ask when picking colleges to apply to. i, too, am from tennessee (the eastern region), so if you need help from a tennessee native, i got you! i’ve been through the process twice now (i’m a gap year student!), so i know a looot about what to expect, lol.
Yes…there is a place to explain on the Profile…but what are you going to write “my dad won’t give me any money for college.”
No one will care about that. It’s not considered…at all.
There is nothing here that would prevent this non-custodial parent from completing this form.
There is also no evidence that this student would even qualify for emancipation, which is a LEGAL process.
If you don’t want your dad’s income to be considered…then you need to apply to colleges that do NOT require the non-custodial parent information. Even the Profile schools…they all don’t require the NCP form.
It is possible (not very likely, but possible) that you could make a case as to why your previously alcoholic but now working and functioning Dad should have his income excluded by a college which typically requires his income for consideration for aid. So you could go that route. But be advised that many kids have parents who have simply vanished- they don’t have an address, they don’t get child support, the parent could be in jail or living in a shack overseas-- they just don’t know. You could probably locate your dad with three keystrokes on a computer- and your mom is getting child support. So the argument that the school should ignore his income isn’t especially compelling.
or you could find another school to fall in love with which you can afford.
I know this stinks- but you are early enough in the process to research a bunch of colleges which will not consider his income, and those are the ones you’ve got to fall in love with.
