<p>There are plenty of Profile schools that do NOT use the non-custodial parent form. And there are schools which do different accounting for step parents as well as non-custodial parents. </p>
<p>The husband’s kids need to do some shopping around.</p>
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<p>True, those schools do not guarantee to meet full need, but UVM does offer merit money to OOS students that could reduce the $50k OOS COA to about $35k. The Presidential Scholarship awards $13k to $15k annually for OOS students who have decent stats: top 25% of high school class, 1800 SAT CR/M/W or 26 ACT.</p>
<p>^^^
True.</p>
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<p>Yes, I can see that. Makes you wonder if in the future there will be fewer remarriages…or at least people waiting til kids are out of college. or maybe folks like this will just seek some kind of “legal partnership” or union.</p>
<p>When parents are thinking about remarrying, they need to consider how doing so will affect any children’s FA opportunities. </p>
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<p>For financial aid purposes, this step son can only be included as a member of the OP’s family if he resides with them. He doesn’t. He resides with his mother. </p>
<p>The family can have the best relationship on the planet…but unless the step child lives in this sphpusehold, he is not considered a member of this family FOR FINANCIAL AID PURPOSES unless he resides with this family.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>I think what that poster is implying is that he/she thinks that the OP should be considering funding the stepson’s college costs just like her own son’s (regardless of what FA thinks about household counts)</p>
<p>That’s very true and the OP is in an unfortunate situation. I do suspect that a lot of people who come here seeking help with EFC management have an overexaggerated idea of how much need-based financial aid is out there. Most schools don’t even pretend to meet full need even for students with $0 EFC. If your household income is already somewhere around $150K a year, most schools won’t offer you any aid other than unsubsidized Stafford loan anyway, even if you manage to shave ~$20-30K off of that number by deferring marriage. Honestly, I would probably do as other posters have recommended and focus on merit aid opportunities and having realistic convos with your kids about college costs. </p>
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<p>Please. Many of us have been around this block with our own kids who want to be near ski resorts, or in NYC, or…</p>
<p>Those schools are not going to give your kid an edge for his first job. They’re just not. Does he have good test scores? Maybe look into LACs that offer merit aid. Boys are generally in short supply at LACs and many offer significant discounts to get therm there.</p>
<p>I am sure you feel conflicted about all this–it’s hard to do the blended family thing, and it’s hard to deny your child (especially your first) something he wants. But you’ve made the choice to marry someone of modest income, and now you are responsible or partly responsible for college for four kids. Might be a good time for a family meeting to reset expectations.</p>
<p>And you made the choice to send your daughter to private boarding school as well. </p>
<p>All of these things cost money. </p>
<p>If your $150,000 income has constraints…you need to set some priorities on how it will be expended. </p>
<p>It sounds like private prep high school is trumping college costs.</p>
<p>Did the OP post the senior’s stats?</p>
<p>I’m not meaning to be difficult. But if your income can only stretch so far, then you have to decide where the choices need to be made.</p>
<p>For your son, I would suggest that you run the net price calculators on the Syracuse, UVM and Colorado websites. If you have regular income (not self employed), and don’t own any real estate other than your primary residence…the NPC should give you a pretty good estimate of your net cost at each of those universities. </p>
<p>Then you can figure out if they are affordable…or not. </p>
<p>I know you are looking for a good match for your son, but you probably need to at least consider the costs…and perhaps cast a slightly wider net. </p>
<p>Looking again at the financial information you posted, you have basically $68K available NOW for your son. That, along with modest loans on his part, should cover (or come close to covering) four years at an instate public OR an LAC or not-that-selective private that offers him merit. It’s pretty easy to cut the COA in half at a lot of schools if the kid is a desirable candidate.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, I’d think long and hard about whether the boarding school for your daughter is worth the tradeoff. As others have said, even if you are getting some financial aid, you are diverting needed resources from college to pay for the boarding school.</p>
<p>Summary:
Op’s son will need merit aid (parents’ income is too high to get financial aid, or more than a little). To get merit aid, focus on colleges where his stats are in the top 10% or so, or LACs where he’s in the top 20% (as a boy, he’ll get a little boost). If he wants a large university with snow, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities has a decent cost and good academics, plus plenty of time to ski; depending on stats, he may even qualify for an OOS discount.<br>
Applying more than 400 miles from home will also boost his odds at preferential packaging.<br>
OP’s stepson will need FAFSA schools or schools that don’t use NCP income (he’ll qualify for aid if all they use is his mother’s income)</p>
<p>OT, thumper you mentioned earlier that some profile schools do not require non custodial information. Do you know which schools those are? I seem to remember UChicago does not (new this year, correct?) but any others? </p>
<p>Important information for those in blended families. Any schools that don’t require non custodial info and still guarantee to meet need? </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure Bucknell does not require non custodial profile but they have their own form for the non custodial to fill out so I expect they will use that information. </p>
<p>From the other side - I have two daughters and my ex married a women with 2 children. My income is not as high as the OP’s but my ex’s and new spouse were much higher than mine at different times (there were also periods of unemployment which greatly helped too) during the FA process. Some colleges will consider the younger siblings prep school tuition. From my experience they only “consider” up to $10k. If you run the NPC you will see a question regarding younger sibings’ tuition if they do consider it.
Your best bet is merit. Find the schools for both sons that offer merit for their stats. The step son may also qualify for FA but the schools that do not consider NCP income usually are not that generous (except now UChicago).
Sometimes prep school IS the best choice for certain students. Both of mine went to prep school. I would say one was necessary and the other was more of a luxury (made possible by generous financial aid). Some prep schools are more generous than even the most generous colleges (yes including Harvard). It is very difficult - I am in the tenth year of paying tuition and I think it was worth every penny. I was lucky that my children received financial aid and merit and were top students. Choosing to pay for any type of education is an individual choice and I don’t judge others by the choices they make. It is very hard! </p>
<p>Good suggestion, MYOS, although if this kid is used to skiing in the NE or Canada he might find the options in the midwest a little limiting. U of MN is arguably a better school than either UVM or CU, though.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I wouldn’t be entertaining the “where can I go to ski” discussion at all if it were my kid. They have a nice long time over winter and spring break. Hopefully they are going to college to, you know, learn stuff. :)</p>
<p>Your stepchildren will be using their mother’s and step dad’s (if one is in the picture) only in terms of parental EFC for FAFSA. However, most private schools that tend do give the larger financial aid packages will want financial info for your household including your numbers. What you prefer does not come into the picture. Divorce agreements do not matter either when it comes to what expected contributions are for financial aid As to how much your husband will be on the hook for college expenses, he and you need to visit an attorney and see how this works in your state. If your stepson gets into a school costing $60K+ a year, what would the courts in your state, in your situation expect your husband and you to pay if he evokes that clause that is in that divorce agreement and wants those costs half met by his father. That is an important issue.</p>
<p>Most of the time, it’s difficult to get one time payments, unless it’s for job loss income bridges, specifically met medical expenses, as exceptions. I personally know of a situation where the money went directly to start up a business that was going to support the family, and a number of schools refused to give the family any break. Too bad. That family, friends of ours, had their one child take a leave of absence and the other take a gap year to avoid having that early retirement payout affect financial aid. It’s sort of like taxes, you can’t ask the IRS to ignore that one year big payout, you know.</p>
<p>Many people in your income/asset range have the exact same concerns that you do. Not much money left after paying for commitments that have long been absorbed into standard of living. The way to get get around all of this is to take a gap year, take a lower paying job and donate your non qualified assets down to a set amount to get on equal footing with those who would qualify for the financial aid you want for your students. That’s what it takes to be ELIGIBLE for that kind of money. It’s an option that YOU have the luxury to consider. Those already there do not have the option to swing into your income/asset bracket and have to take the college costs hit at certain schools. So right off the bat, you have earned that specific option.</p>
<p>Bottom line, if say your kids get into schools like, say Amherst, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Yale, just to name some schools that guarantee to meet full need, costs in the mid to high $60K level, you are going to be expected to pay pretty much by formula, and you can run the NPCs for those schools to see what those costs would be.The same with UVM, Colorado and Syracuse, but they do not guarantee to meet full need. OOS publics are not generous in fin aid, as a rule. Just as it would likely to cost you to send your children to public schools out of your school district for k-12, just as private schools K-12 charge you money unless your children get scholarships or financial aid for those schools (and you know what income numbers they use for fin aid), and just as boarding schools, not only charge for tuition and room/board costs, so it is with colleges. You might want to look at University of Denver as well as Colorado. UBuffalo as well as Syracuse, Some of the very reasonably priced UMaine schools as well as UVermont and price shop, as well as looking at some in state public options for your students. </p>
<p>It’s important that you and your husband understand what he committed to in that divorce agreement and how your state would interpret it. What would truly happen if one of your step sons was accepted to a high cost school and demanded half of it be paid by your husband? Would the courts say, he has to borrow the money and come up with it since he so agreed to pay ? I can guarantee you that most of the schools that use PROFILE on top of FAFSA are not going to exempt your pay and assets for financial aid calculations, and those tend to be the schools most generous for financial aid. Your husband should let his children know early what he is wiling and able to pay for their college, so they know what is available so it doesn’t come to a nasty legal show down,.</p>
<p>A friend of mine was involved in such a case, where her stepdaughter did insist on the 1/2 payment of college costs that was agreed upon in the divorce contract. And they paid, reluctantly and begrudgingly. What financial aid, awards and whatever that the stepdaughter was able to muster was still not enough to meet the costs of the top priced school she chose, and her mother/stepdad who were the custodial parents could not make up the difference even with half the payment covered, so after one year, she was forced to drop out of school, and it took a couple of years for her to get the transcript from that year since she could not pay what she owed them My friend and her husband had spoken to the young woman until they were blue in the face, pointing out that she could not afford the school even with the 1/2 costs that they were paying since they were legally bound to do so, and that they would even pay the FULL cost of an instate school in either of 2 states, not half, but the student would not listen and did it her way, even though it was spelled out to her what would likely happen, which did, and that they were NOT going to pay a penny over the 1/2 amount to bail her out of that situation if she went ahead and did as she pleased. These sort of predicaments are real life situations. Your husband might get stuck paying amounts his salary can’t even cover and have to borrow to pay college costs. I don’t understand how your husband is paying MOST of his salary in child support since in most situation the child support payment has a certain ceiling that allows for paying spouse to retain some portion of his salary for his own living expenses. I know many men resentfully paying more child support than they feel they should when their ex is married to someone well heeled, but none are paying MOST of their pay, and I don’t think their own spouses pay is taken into the formula for support But I am not familiar with child support laws, ceilings, agreements, state laws, etc, just on anecdotal situaions. When you check with the attorney to find out what the extent of your husband and your fiscal responsibility for college costs is, you might also ask if the child support payments, given what his salary is, are iine with state limitations, and how your assets and income come into play in your state. This is the sort of meeting anyone considering marrying someone with financial obligations should have, so that plans can be made accordingly beforehand, not when the college acceptances are on the table. You are not quite there, and you can’t start sooner than now to get the full extent of your husband’s and your financial obligations.</p>
<p>For those schools that do use PROFILE and include NCP and spousal income, if the support given to the student is more than half, regardless of who divorce agreements, who is claiming the student on tax returns, that student is included as another college kid on those fin aid forms which could cut your expected contributions. However, again, the schools your student is considering do not guarantee to meet full need even if you have it (and they don’t, as a rule). So the expected contributions become the minimum you will have to pay before getting ANY financial aid, not what you will be actually paying, in most scenarios. </p>
<p><<<
Summary:
Op’s son will need merit aid (parents’ income is too high to get financial aid, or more than a little). To get merit aid, focus on colleges where his stats are in the top 10% or so, or LACs where he’s in the top 20% (as a boy, he’ll get a little boost). If he wants a large university with snow, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities has a decent cost and good academics, plus plenty of time to ski; depending on stats, he may even qualify for an OOS discount.</p>
<p>Applying more than 400 miles from home will also boost his odds at preferential packaging.</p>
<p>OP’s stepson will need FAFSA schools or schools that don’t use NCP income (he’ll qualify for aid if all they use is his mother’s income)
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<p>I agree. Both seniors need to QUICKLY apply to schools that will give good-sized merit awards for their stats. Scholarship deadlines are approaching!!!</p>
<p>And the step-son needs to apply to FAFSA only schools or CSS schools that don’t require NCP info. (again, this can be forced by telling him that the OP will not be supplying her info.)</p>
<p>More summary: </p>
<p>the H needs to find out if the obligation is half of ANY school or half of an instate public. And make sure that “half” mean “half” after aid (so the exW won’t think that aid is “her half”). The H also needs to find out if he’s still obligated to pay if his ex can’t pay her half. </p>
<p>@sally305 is right. A school shouldn’t be selected because of skiing (if that’s the reason). It is far cheaper to choose a very good, but less expensive school and then fund a couple of skiing trips. Students can pack a car and drive to a ski location over breaks. No need to spend $20k more per year for a skiing location. That’s just a luxury. $80k can go for a lot of OTHER more important things.</p>
<p>this is just an aside, from reading between the lines. The OP and her kids may have had a rough family life (bad first marriage, difficult divorce, then death of the dad). If so, there can be a tendency for a parent to want to over-compensate by giving kids more than they really need. Some parents think that doing so is some kind of band-aid or “this will make it better” approach. It doesn’t work that way. </p>
<p>Someone asked about schools that use Profile but don’t ask NCP info. They don’t hide that information:</p>
<p><a href=“CSS Profile Participating Institutions and Programs”>CSS Profile Home – CSS Profile | College Board;
<p>The schools that have a “no” entry in the next-to-last column (Noncustodial Profile) do not use CSS Profile to ask for information on the NCP. That’s most of the public schools, and a handful of the private schools.</p>
<p>Just make sure you check. Some schools use their own form to gather information about non-custodial parents information.</p>
<p>And some schools that require the NCP form don’t use the NCP info equally with the custodial parent.</p>
<p>It’s OK to call specific school financial aid offices and ask this question. Most will be very helpful to you in explaining how they use the non-custodial parent information.</p>