<p>Long story short, my mom is divorcing my dad. She is rushing the process, which is incredibly bad timing for myself and my siblings. As I high school senior, I am trying to meet January 1 deadlines, and I also have final exams. She scheduled the first hearing ON THE DAY OF ALL THREE OF HER CHILDRENS FINAL EXAMS (end of December). Ostensibly, she is doing this for financial aid purposes. She insists that the court is going to rule that my father does not have to complete any part of a financial aid application, and wants to make this happen by the FA deadlines so that she can apply herself. My dad owns a business, valuable enough that our "need" is $0 on all the calculators. She "claims" to need to divorce him so that she can get FA with only her middle class income. My question is, is this a legitimate excuse at all? Can the noncustodial parent/other parent (not sure how that works) be allowed by a court to not contribute at all?</p>
<p><strong>Note</strong>
Obviously, this doesn't make sense. Her ulterior motives are clear to those familiar with our predicament. However, the situation is very personal and I won't discuss it here. Also, in case you're wondering, this is a non-issue because 1) my dad has offered to pay for my education out of pocket and 2) I have told her I'll defer my enrollment so we have an extra year to apply for FA. My mom is a nutjob. Please advise.</p>
<p>The court can make any ruling the court chooses. The court (family court) has no power to force colleges and the federal government to accept their decision. Colleges that want non-custodial information are going to still require it no matter what a divorce decree specifies about who will or won’t pay for college.</p>
<p>Agree (I posted on the other thread you opened on this, but did not address this). The court ruling has no bearing on what the colleges expect, and they will award financial aid based on their formulas and not on whatever the court has decreed. Also note that the court does not usually order any payment (or not) of college expenses. The court is almost entirely concerned with children under 18, splitting assets equitably, and possibly alimony payments. Although parents can make a deal on college payment in their divorce settlement and the court will approve it, it would be unusual for the court to consider this on their own. But no matter what is in the divorce decree, college financial aid departments do not care. They are about what assets and income the parents & students have, period.</p>
<p>Also, add the fact that if this will have any impact, it will be on the FAFSA only. The FAFSA only determines how much and what kind of federal aid you might be eligible for. The only grant aid available is the Pell grant and “middle class” (whatever that means in your case) will almost certainly mean you would qualify, at best, for a partial Pell grant… and perhaps not even that. The maximum Pell grant is ~$5500/yr. That would be for very low income folks with an EFC of 0. While that amount is of enormous help to low income students and can help them pay for a community college or local public univ. while living at home, it will be a tiny drop in the bucket in any other case. In other words, your mother may go through all this with the expectation that it will completely change the picture as far as your college costs goes… but unless she is very low income and you’re planning on staying home and attending a community college or local public u, it’s not going to make much difference.</p>
<p>Schools that grant large amounts of financial aid will almost certainly want your father’s financial information regardless of whether your parents are married or not.</p>
<p>I am sorry your parents are getting divorced. That sucks. But it’s still their decision, not yours, and you need to get out of the way and let it happen. Do your college applications, study for your final exams, and let her do whatever she feels she has to do to get divorced.</p>
<p>Maybe it will make a difference for your financial aid eligibility, and maybe it won’t. Each school will make its own decision about that. Since your dad has said he’s willing to pay your college expenses no matter what, don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>Maybe your mom is crazy, maybe she’s too upset right now to really think clearly, or maybe she has reasons for doing what she’s doing, and you just don’t know what those reasons are. But you can’t do anything about it right now other than focus on the things YOU have to do. Spend some time with your siblings - they’re probably as upset about all this as you are. If you’re the oldest one, take them out to the movies or something, just so you can all get out of the house for a bit. This is going to be even harder on them than on you - after all, you’ll be going away to college next year and they’ll still be home. So, be a good older sibling, be a good student . . . and try not to let the craziness get to you.</p>
<p>If you are applying to schools that require the FAFSA only, your dad’s income and assets will not be required on the form once your parents have separated…note…they need to be SEPARATED and heading towards divorce. Being divorced is fine too. Any spousal support or child support will need to be listed on the FAFSA regardless.</p>
<p>Just note that FAFSA only schools do not guarantee to meet full need anyway. Your mother’s income would need to be well below middle class to qualify for a Pell grant of $5400 or less…depending on your actual EFC per FAFSA. </p>
<p>If the school has its own form requiring noncustodial parent info or is a Profile school where noncustodial parent information is required, it won’t matter at all what the divorce decree says. They will require your dads financial information…and you need based aid will be computed with that included.</p>
<p>Divorce law varies from state to state, but yes…it is entirely possible that your Dad would not be required to contribute to your college. The outcome will depend on what state you are in and what your Dad is planning on doing of his own volition during the negotiations. Divorces are expensive or not expensive mostly depending on the relationship between the two divorcing parties. You can certainly “talk” to your Dad and ask him what he thinks he might be able to do. You should also be talking to your mother. If you can find out what she might be able to contribute you could perhaps tweak your college list.</p>
<p>FAFSA only schools do not require a non-custodial parent’s information however, many of those schools use FAFSA only, but remember the only “free” federal money is Pell and you most likely would not qualify for that.</p>
<p>She insists that the court is going to rule that my father does not have to complete any part of a financial aid application, and wants to make this happen by the FA deadlines so that she can apply herself. My dad owns a business, valuable enough that our “need” is $0 on all the calculators.</p>
<p>The courts do not have the power to rule that a private college cannot ask for your dad’s financial information. That is a ridiculous assumption. No court can essentially tell Harvard or wherever that they must give aid based on the mom’s lesser income and ignore the dad’s much larger income. If a court tried to essentially do that, a school could just opt not to accept the student or opt to not process their institutional financial aid application at all.</p>
<p>Your Mom is completely wrong about this (except for FAFSA where only custodial info is required anyway). As others have said, no matter what a court says a school will base the aid on their own rules. A divorce agreement only means your *Mom *can not force your dad to contribute to college. It does not mean that a school will take up the slack at all. If you are applying to any schools that require the noncustodial parent information, they will require that information regardless of any agreement in the divorce and they will base the aid they offer on that information. If you don’t provide the non custodial information to schools that require it, you won’t get institutional aid from them. </p>
<p>She could actually be shooting herself in the foot if she rushes into an agreement that states your dad does not have to contribute to college. The schools really won’t care.</p>
<p>I’ll just add one thing to the good advice in this thread. If your dad and mom have been living apart for 6+ months of this year already, the IRS, and FAFSA, may consider them separated already, which is basically the same thing as divorced for tax purposes, and also for FAFSA purposes.</p>
<p>But if your schools require the NCP form, it only matters in that maintaining two households is more expensive than maintaining one and colleges will often adjust aid accordingly. If you’re close, it might help.</p>
<p>Do talk to your folks and see what they can contribute, regardless.</p>
<p>Others have given you good advice here. If you apply to your state school, they are likely to be FAFSA only schools and depending on what the breakdown of assets and income are on 12/31 of this year and the day your mother fills out FAFSA, you could get more financial aid as a result of this for such a school.</p>
<p>For example, if you are a NY state resident, depending on your mother’s income/assets you could qualify for PELL, subsidized loans, TAP from the state and money from the school itself. But that is determined by what part of the family income is considered hers for this year. </p>
<p>For the more generous schools, info from both parents tend to be the norm in terms of fin aid.</p>
<p>If they’re separated as of 12/31/2012 then your mom would file FAFSA as the custodial parent (assuming you’re living with her) in January. It doesn’t matter how long they were separated in 2012 and it also doesn’t matter that the divorce isn’t final as of 12/31. Does your mom understand this?</p>
<p>Also the assets don’t need to be divided as of 12/31. Your mom will report assets as of the day she files FAFSA, which will be sometime in 2013.</p>
<p>Even at CSS Profile schools you’ll most likely be required to file FAFSA, so understanding the guidelines for separation and divorce are important.</p>
<p>Good to know. The IRS requires 6 months living apart in the previous year to be able to file single or HOH, so I assumed FAFSA was the same. You know what they say about “assume” :)</p>