I have a question regarding how Columbia computes an EFC for divorced families. Columbia is clear on requiring the FAFSA, PROFILE, and Noncustodial PROFILE. That’s fine. What they are not clear on is whether stepparent income is expected to contribute to the EFC. A Columbia form stated that “Columbia’s policy views financial aid as a partnership between the student, the biological or adoptive parents, and the school.” No mention of stepparents. Again, I get that Columbia will view the incomes of both stepparents, if they exist, but I would like to know whether the stepparent income is actually factored. I have a noncustodial stepparent, so information regarding the noncustodial stepparent is most relevant. This question is for Columbia applicants or others knowledgeable about the university’s policy. Perhaps their status as a 568 school helps guide this question?
I know I can contact their aid office to confirm, but I figured I’d try this forum beforehand.
The step parent incomes are included on the Profile. I believe Columbia DOES consider FAMILY income.
Your income as a bio parent…if married…includes your spouses income on those financial aid forms. That’s required.
So…the total incomes are used to compute institutional need based aid. The school doesn’t care who,actually pays…you or the stepparent. The calcutions are based on your total incomes…which includes stepparents.
It is not a matter of whether the stepparent is expected to contribute(they have a choice not to contribute just like your parents have a choice not to contribute), but the stepparents income and assets are used and is factored in to assess the financial strength of the household.
When your parents file the financial aid forms, if they are married, the income asset of both your parent and your stepparent in included in the financial aid application.
you quoted a partial answer. the full question and answer is as follows:
It seems that you have no reason that prevent you from completing the financial aid application
Good question and one that may only be answered if you fill out the NPC both ways and see the difference with and without the non-custodial stepparent - IF Columbia’s NPC is even advanced enough to handle that.
My kids’ dad and I are divorced and he earns significantly more than I do. D’s financial aid award is not as high as it would be if I were the only living parent, but it is not as low as it would be if he were. It’s sort of in between and if i wanted to reverse engineer that i could probably figure out how they weight his income.
Wait a minute. If the school requires the NCP income…and you don’t include it on the net price calculator…you are going to get an inaccurate net price for your family.
Schools using the FAFSA will require the custodial parent and spouse if there is one. No deleting the spouse.
Schools using the Profile will have the custodial parent and spouse on the Profile. If the non-custodial parent Profile is required…it will include the non-custodial parent and spouse.
@sybbie719 that makes sense. I get that the NC stepparent info will be sent to Columbia, given they require the NCP. I’m glad you referenced the FAQ I quoted, because that convinces me they only consider biological incomes. If they view paying for college as a partnership between the student, school and “biological or adoptive parents,” it seems to me that they only expect biological parents to contribute. They wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of specifying “biological or adoptive” without considering the stepparent. At least, that’s what I think. And yes, I will have no problem completing the NCP. Do you think that wording should be taken for what it is, or should I dig deeper?
@thumper1 here’s what the basic, quicker net price calculator for Columbia states:
I find it interesting that it does not mention the stepparent contribution. I think a similar message appeared on their College Board net price calculator. Thoughts?
Are you trying to decide if you should apply to Columbia given this question? Like if they tell you that a stepparent’s income is strongly considered, you won’t bother to apply because you won’t get aid?
I know it’s hard to “fly blind” financially, I was in a similar situation with my kids, one of whom looked at Columbia. I did the NPC but the advice to just “add the two biological or adoptive parent’s costs together to arrive at general idea of your total estimated cost.” wasn’t very helpful. She didn’t wind up applying to we never found out, but of the schools she chose from in the end, there was significant variation in their family contribution calculation, even among the ones that promised to meet full need.
-You won’t be completing the NCP form. The NCP does that.
-The wording tells you nothing about what Columbia’s actual policy is regarding the use of a stepparent’s income and assets in calculating institutional need-based aid. They get the stepparent information, because the standard Profile and NCP forms ask for it. What if the NCP had an income of $30,000, but the NCP spouse (stepparent) earned $500,000/year and had substantial unprotected assets? Don’t you think it would be reasonable to expect the NCP, with a family income like that, to contribute more than would be asked of them if the only thing there was the $30,000 income?
@OHMomof2 yes that is my situation. I’d love to apply to Columbia but an education there is unrealistic if they factor in the NC stepparent income into an EFC. I appreciate your input and agree that the advice on the NPC is not very helpful. I plan on contacting the financial aid office to verify, but I’m glad I got to discuss it. Thanks!
The non-custodial parent profile includes the income and assets of your non-custodial parent AND their spouse. That is considered family income for financial aid purposes.
But do call Columbia and ask them. They will clarify this for you one way or another.
The other thing…you can apply, and just see what their package ends up being. It might end up being fine.
@BelknapPoint I do understand where you’re coming from. Since the NCP asks for the income and assets of both the natural and stepparent, it’s difficult for a school to go off of the NCP in its totality to determine a fair biological contribution and properly separate the two. I’ve heard of schools, particularly some 568 schools, that compute a biological contribution based on the proportion of the bio income to the total income, and the proportion of the bio assets to the total assets. Perhaps Columbia does a similar procedure upon receiving the NCP info.
It is probably reasonable to expect a higher contribution given the hypothetically high stepparent income you talked about. I just don’t find it completely fair for schools to expect a stepparent who perhaps only sees their stepchild a few times a year to contribute to the education to the same extent that the bio parent does.
I think the question being asked is a finer one than responses here suggest. OP knows NCP step’s income will be included, OP is asking HOW MUCH it will affect the package.
It’s a valid question. Probably not as much as a bio parent’s income will be. But more than if that bio parent were single. In my family, both of my steps had kids from previous marriages too, and that didn’t seem to be explicitly taken into account in the forms. But I imagine it is taken into account, in some way.
If the FA office will answer specific formula questions like this, great. If not, OP can roll the dice and apply…the bigger risk is of course, not getting in…I think Columbia’s admit rate is well under 10% now, right? Like 6?
@thumper1 I understand the stepparent has, in the eyes of many colleges, an obligation to contribute to a college education. I’d simply prefer not to eliminate Columbia from my list of choices until I know for sure what their policy is. I’d rather not assume they will do one thing, and later find out they don’t do that one thing and regret not applying. I wanted to see whether people on this site had knowledge of Columbia’s procedure. And yes, my college list is primarily non-NCP schools or NCP schools who have more favorable procedures.
look let’s cut straight to the chase because this conversation is becoming circular and you are practicing wishful thinking: at Columbia, your stepparent’s income is a factor in the financial aid process because they are part of your parents household. If they are both working, there is an expectation that they are sharing expenses, which as @BelknapPoint stated, frees up some money that your biological parent can use toward your education.
Yes, I know this first had as I have sent students to Columbia, I have been to a number of their admissions and financial aid events over the past decade (I looked into their process when my own kid was applying to college and last month I went to the NYSACAC, where Columbia did a number of presentations on HEOP and regular financial aid they said unequivocally that stepparents income/assets are part of their formula.
Both of your parents have to fill out their FA applications based up on the make-up of their households.
You really need to have a conversation with both set of parents to find out realistically how much they can afford to pay/borrow for you to attend Columbia
I have a son attending Columbia this fall and chose the school based on this issue. I called f/a several times and got it in writing. They only ask for the step-parent’s income info to verify the biological parent’s portion of the tax returns. They will (obviously) include joint accounts and assets.
I think I drove the f/a dept crazy by asking the same questions over and over in various ways.
