<p>
The parent you are not living with.</p>
<p>
Some students do better on one than on the other. Many schools will consider the best one as your relevant score. Can’t hurt to give the ACT a try if you haven’t yet.</p>
<p>If anyone still wants to respond, why should I take BOTH the SAT and ACT? Why do colleges care which one a student takes and submits?</p>
<p>Colleges don’t care BUT YOU might.</p>
<p>Do you really think that you’d score equally well on both tests? Some kids do, but many do NOT. Many kids score MUCH better on one than the other. If you only take the SAT, and you never score high enough for big merit scholarships, than you may have missed your chance of getting big merit because you may have done MUCH better on the ACT.</p>
<p>They’re not the same kind of test.</p>
<p>The key to securing merit money is to apply to schools where you’re stats are appreciated. In other words you need to apply to schools where you would be the big fish. Your grades are in the top 10% of the incoming class. So like some have already mentioned, keep practicing and try and lift your scores. Also, try and work on your EC’s they are definitely weak. See if you can’t do som community service over the summer. Then you may have a shot at some merit aid. Good luck…:)</p>
<p>Oh one more thing. If your father has some extenuating circumstances, and it sounds like he may. That information can be given to the schools with the CSS profile. Have your dad or you can call the schools and explain the problem and the fact that the money is not as lucrative as it appears.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids~</p>
<p>I will definitely try out the ACT! And I hope to get a job this summer and continue with it through my senior year. Fingers crossed!</p>
<p>Dungareedoll~</p>
<p>My father has debts with the IRS, my older sister’s college loans, multiple bills, various lenders, and has to pay quite a bit of alimony…it’s not a good situation. I doubt the colleges I will be applying to will show me mercy for his unwise financial decisions.</p>
<p>A good CSU like Cal Poly is probably doable. Is it your mom getting the alimony? Will she help?</p>
<p>Waverly~</p>
<p>My mother is deceased. My father pays alimony to his ex wife that has no connection to me.</p>
<p>twistandtimshel: Given your situation you should definitely speak to the finaid officer. Explain to them exactly your situation and especially the fact that your mother is deceased and I think they will listen. You shouldn’t have to pay for your dad’s decisions either, so call. You have nothing to lose.</p>
<p>I absolutely agree with Dungareedoll. Make contact with the financial aid decision makers and explain your situation. You will likely need to document everything - heck, you should document everything.</p>
<p>A friend of mine married a woman whose ex-husband <em>should</em> be able to easily pay for his three children to go to college (very high earner). Due to a situation (no details), the ex has convinced the judge that he can only pay for a small amount of the education for his children. He has also scaled back his earning. </p>
<p>My friend spoke to and wrote a letter to the admissions/finaid folks at his step-child’s college of choice. After some reconsideration, the child’s financial aid package was increased from $10k to $38k per year. The child’s ACT composite scores are in the 99th %-ile, which helps.</p>
<p>It can never hurt to ask. It can never hurt to develop a personal relationship with the decision makers and administrators at your college of choice.</p>
<p>OP,</p>
<p>the alimony is deducted on tax return, so it is not included in the adjusted gross income. Since completely unrelated person gets it, this amount should not be considered available for paying for youe college. </p>
<p>I am not 100% sure, but I am about 99% sure that the alimony amount in your particular situation will not be added back to adjusted gross income on CSS profile or FAFSA. </p>
<p>So, if your dad makes 150K and pays 20K to your ex-step mother, than it will appear to colleges that only $130K are available to your family. I know it is still high, but sometimes every little bit helps.</p>
<p>my family’s income is above $150,000 annually, but none of us really ever see it. My father is in a tremendous amount of debt and owes in IRS and alimony expenses. On all of the EFC calculators I’ve used, I’ve found that colleges expect my family to pay the tuition in its entirety</p>
<p>The fact that the FAFSA calculations give an EFC that is higher than the COA of colleges, then either the father’s income is $150k AFTER alimony…or there’s something else going on.</p>
<p>If the AGI were $120k (after subtracting alimony and with no assets), I doubt the EFC would be $50k+.</p>
<p>And, how long will alimony last? I didn’t think that alimony lasted long…especially since this sounds like a second marriage, so maybe the marriage didn’t last that long?</p>
<p>mom2collegekids</p>
<p>What do you mean? Maybe I should rephrase my original post. Of all the EFC calculators I’ve used, the calculations indicate that my father can sufficiently pay for the cost of attendance. Personally, the calculators are confusing, so I may be doing it wrong.</p>
<p>The marriage lasted for ~10 years and from what I last heard my father will have to pay alimony for a duration of at least half of the marriage, or ~4.5 years. He just started making payments last September, so it will be awhile before he will have less debt and expenses.</p>
<p>As others have said, alimony is subtracted from your father’s income, so that wil not be an issue. IRS liens and what he owes there is not going to garner anything, however. People owe all kinds of money. </p>
<p>Look at Momfromtexas’s thread on full ride scholarships. ALso look at the link for guarnateed awards.</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that most “rich kids” awards are often token awards to entice someone who is able to pay full to come to a given college by discounting slightly. That is not going to help you.</p>
<p>*mom2collegekids</p>
<p>What do you mean? Maybe I should rephrase my original post. Of all the EFC calculators I’ve used, the calculations indicate that my father can sufficiently pay for the cost of attendance. Personally, the calculators are confusing, so I may be doing it wrong.*</p>
<p>What I meant is that since alimony was subtracted from your dad’s income when determining EFC, then the fact that your EFC was still higher than the Cost of Attendance, that means that your dad’s income (after paying alimony) is still VERY HIGH. </p>
<p>If your dad’s income after paying alimony was $120k, then your EFC wouldn’t be THAT high. The fact that is it THAT HIGH, that means that your dad’s actual income is higher than $150k. It sounds like it’s about $150 AFTER subtracting alimony.</p>
<p>Anyway…since it’s clear that you have an unaffordable EFC, then you need to get your scores up and use a strategy to get VERY large merit scholarships…at least full tuition.</p>
<p>Your back up plan–which should probably be the one you actually semi-plan on having to do–would be your local CC followed by transferring to a UC. Bank the 8K from your father your freshman and sophomore years and also work and save up money in the summers. That way you have a nest egg to help you ride through your junior and senior years at the UC.</p>
<p>In the end, you’ll have a degree from a UC that way and you should be able to swing it financially.</p>
<p>The 150,000$ was just an estimate. My father told me today that he makes 170,000. Adjusted after taxes and alimony, my father’s income is about ~110,000. I redid my EFC and it is supposedly $4,171, but that seems way off…</p>
<p>And not to be rude, annikasorrensen, but are you kidding me about going to a UC??? Those colleges are too expensive and California has been suffering from some major budget cuts. I read recently that an 87% tuition hike was proposed!</p>
<p>$4,171 looks low to me. Which calculator are you using? The one at the CollegeBoard website usually is spot-on for the FAFSA. You can also print out this year’s formula and work through it on paper with your dad: <a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/010512EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/010512EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf</a> Once he’s filed his taxes this year, that would be a good thing to do.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, in-state public universities are the best options for affordability for most students. If the UCs are out of your range - even if you would live at home and commute, then take a look at the CSUs. Those would also be an option after two years at your local CCC.</p>
<p>I am not kidding about the UCs. For an in-state student, they are still often the most affordable option with the CSUs being an even slightly better deal.</p>
<p>So far your SAT scores do not seem to point to a possibility of getting enough merit scholarship money from any private colleges to end up being the same or cheaper in cost than 2 years of CC followed by 2 years of UC. </p>
<p>Even if you forgo the UC/CSU route, spending the first two years at a CC is a marvelous way to slice costs dramatically no matter where you end up. Nothing is cheaper than going to a CC if one can not get significant scholarships or FA as an incoming freshman at a four-year college. My daughter went to a CCC for two years and transferred to Santa Clara University.</p>
<p>
Something is way off. Our AGI is around $60K and our EFC is around that with two kids in college.</p>
<p>OP, just to get an idea, I helped a friend this year with her kid’s applications and his family had total AGI 160k, owed 80k mortgage for house, and had 170k in savings. All schools -Dartmouth, Duke, NIU, NU, GWU, Hobart & Williams Smith, offered ~10k in federal grant loans and put family contribution to ~45k. 3 schools that gave merit aid of $18-$25k resulted in non-offering any financial aid.</p>