For the “Enter the amount your parents think they will be able to pay,” my parents put 0 as a placeholder at the time because they honestly weren’t sure, and didn’t want to enter too much or too little but realistically, we could afford to pay a decent amount. Will entering 0 for that question severely impact me, or will colleges ignore that and look at the rest of the information that was provided?
They will probably ignore it.
Each university will apply its own calculation. Don’t get your hopes up!