<p>Are there any EFC estimators out there that factor in the impact of filling out the CSS non-custodial parent profile on the EFC?</p>
<p>All the EFC estimators that I have seen are soley based on the federal fafsa method which do not require non-custodial parent info.</p>
<p>My children live 51% of time with their mom (who has a very modest income) who has not remarried. I have a much higher income plus a spouse with a moderate income she also has a daughter in college.</p>
<p>Under the federal FAFSA method, kids fill out the info based on their moms stuff, qualify for aid, no problems.</p>
<p>Privates want my info, (non-custodial profile), my wifes (step-mother) info, so we should get to count my wifes daughter who is in college also right? Seems fair that if we have to count the step mothers income we should get to count step siblings as being one of the household in college?</p>
<p>Any information on how colleges (D is considering Northwestern U) use the non-custodial parent info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m not sure but I believe you’re correct. Within the ‘household’, it’s all parents and students with familial ties whether they are biological or legal.</p>
<p>Also, it would be ridiculous to count you as financial support for both and not count both of them as your kids (for the ‘how many enrolled’ question). I don’t think they would go that low although I’ve said it before and they have…</p>
<p>Sounds fair to include stepdaughter in the count.</p>
<p>Are you going to help pay for your child’s college costs?</p>
<p>BTW…For kids going to CSS Profile private schools…how is the EFC divided when parents are divorced and one set makes a lot more money than the other parent? Is it proportionally divided? For instance…if Dad and stepmom earn 100k, but Mom earns $25k, and the EFC is $25k, would it be split something like $20k for dad and $5k for mom?</p>
<p>The schools do not split the EFC for divorced parents. The student gets an EFC and it is up to the students and parents to decide how they are paying for that.</p>
<p>Schools handle the info differently. In the vast majority of cases they will want more than everyone wants to pay. They will often look at the new spouse’s income and will also factor in her child in college and how much mom is contributing. But they will look at all of the incomes, all assets, all home equity and really turn the dirt.</p>
<p>Ok…this is kind of nutty. You can have one set (dad and step) making six figures, and then you can have the other set (mom and step) making minimum wage and they’re just given one big EFC??? LOL </p>
<p>The reason this is crazy is this. The claim is that “one side” isn’t going to know about the “other side’s” income. But, if you get a big EFC, the conversation about who owes the bigger share will reveal a lot.</p>
<p>More to the point, if one side makes a lot, and the other side makes very little, and a high EFC is given, then the “secrecy cat” has been let out of the bag. The poorer side is going to know that the other side is bringing home the big bucks.</p>
<p>I can’t even imagine the arguments and anger that would ensue if the “richer” side doesn’t pay his share, and therefore Junior or Mary can’t go to college because little to no FA will be given.</p>
<p>The document from the College Board regarding the CSS Profile describes how the bio/adoptive parent and the stepparent information is supposed (recommended) to be used. They DO NOT actually count the step’s income, rather they combine the household’s assets and divide the assets by each spouse’s proportionate income (step & bio) in order to fairly assess the assets and income of each bio parent. It is difficult to describe but they don’t actually expect the step parent to contribute. Each household counts all children in their household, however BOTH households count the child who is applying for financial aid - I know you won’t believe that (I didn’t know that when I filled out the forms last spring) but again I refer you to this document</p>
<p>It seems pretty fair to me and nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. Of course each school can apply the information as they see fit. My experience was that we came out with very close financial aid awards from 6 colleges.</p>
<p>I could be wrong, but that’s not how it was described to me.</p>
<p>For instance. Say the bio mom doesn’t work for pay, but the step dad makes 200k. They don’t assume that because the mom has no income, that she proportionately has NO assets (that would be crazy), and therefore has nothing to contribute to her child’s education. (As a couple, she and the step could jointly own property, investments, cars, savings, you-name-it!!) </p>
<p>I believe in such a situation, they would say it’s a lifestyle choice for the mom not to work and that she’s “earning” some of her husband’s salary. I don’t think they’d say…mom has no income, and therefore proportionately no assets (home, cars, savings, investments, whatever community property that they both share.)</p>
<p>I read the College Board manifesto as just another opinion on how the data should be applied, but worse, not the opinion that counts. It’s the school FA management’s opinion that counts. The CB is lamenting that those opinions are inconsistent.</p>
<p>To the OP, you asked:
“Are there any EFC estimators out there that factor in the impact of filling out the CSS non-custodial parent profile on the EFC?” I’ve been looking for years and I think the answer is no.</p>
<p>That’s a really interesting document, NewEnglandMother, thanks for posting. It at least gives a framework for understanding how much impact the income and assets of a step-parent, a non-custodial parent, and the non-custodial parent’s spouse have on the calculation of Profile EFC. There’s always this caveat though, as the 2 prior posters have noted:</p>
<p>I agree with the above posters that each college will apply the information from the CSS as they see fit. I also agree with m2ck that they wouldn’t let a non-working spouse get a “free ride” per se - that didn’t apply in my situation. I just found it interesting in my case that 6 schools came up with very similar financial aid awards using the CSS and NC CSS. I am sure there are many factors and I provided the schools with as much info as I could (including what our divorce decree stated regarding tuition costs). I was pleasantly surprised with the aid offered and tend to think they weigh the custodial parents’ income more heavily than the non-custodial just based on my results. I wish there were a calculator for divorced parents but I bet there are so many unique situations that they may not be very accurate expecially since each school ultimately decides for themselves. There is a financial aid calculator on Princeton’s website that considers divorced parents but this would not be representative of very many schools since Princeton’s aid is nortoriously generous. I will run my numbers there and see if it is even close to other awards I have received. Here is the link</p>
<p>So I will be applying this coming year. I was looking at Brown’s FA info and saw that if you make under a certain amt that you pay next to nothing. So this is my situation…</p>
<p>My parents are divorced. My mom make about $75K. My mom gets $15K annually for child support. My Dad is remarried and my stepmom has 4 kids. I have no idea what my dad makes (def between 100-200K) but I know my stepmom makes about $55K. I have one stepbro that is graduating college this year and one that will still be in college.</p>
<ol>
<li>Will the stepbro who is graudating count as in college?</li>
<li>How much will my dad affect my EFC?</li>
<li>Will the NC Profile take into account of my dad basically supporting 4 other kids?</li>
<li>Will I get any FA or am I screwed?</li>
</ol>
<p>With total income of over $225K and maybe as much as $325K, any aid from Brown would seem unlikely with just 2 in college (no, the grad doesn’t count). At HYPS maybe a little if the income is on the lower end and there are not big assets, but not at most Profile schools.</p>
<p>I can’t answer for Brown specifically, but to your other questions:</p>
<p>1) if the older stepbrother is not in college during your school year (2011-2012?) then he cannot be claimed as being in college.
2) If you live with your mother, your father and stepmother’s income/assets will not affect your FAFSA EFC. They will need to be reported on the CSS Profile and will probably affect your Brown EFC, depending on how Brown uses the non-custodial information.
3) I can’t remember if Profile asks for number of dependents; FAFSA definitely does.
4) It’s hard to say how heavily Brown will weight your father’s income. You can ask them for a general guideline.</p>
<p>If a particular SCHOOL has a finaid calculator…use that one. The problem with any others is that schools use the non-custodial parent info in varying ways.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Why is this a “LOL” situation? The FAMILY contribution is one number. Even with MARRIED families,there can be a huge disparity between what one parent earns and what another earns. This doesn’t matter. The colleges do NOT care where your money comes from…they compute a cost and it’s up to the family to figure out who pays what.</p>
<p>To the OP…if putting your income and assets down on your CHILD’S financial aid application forms is an issue, have your kiddo apply to FAFSA only schools. That solves YOUR problem.</p>
<p>What folks don’t often understand is that colleges can do what they please with their own funds. They don’t have to be fair and they are not. They ''buy" the students they most want. For pragmatic reasons, they have guidelines for dispensing financial aid, but they do not have to stick with them, even on a student to student basis. They may ignore 401K funds for one family, but count them for another, if, for example, the numbers are high enough that they feel those funds should be in the picture. They can take into account a parent recently losing a job, or they can just ignore it.</p>
<p>That is why your instituional EFC can vary so much from school to school. When you throw in a situation such as remarriage and steps, it can get to be so complicated that each case may have its own exceptions. It makes sense if a parent marries a “Trump” type of person, that his assets are going to be heavily counted. If the step parent is more middle income with a slew of responsibilities of his own, including his own kids in college, than accomodation can be made for that.</p>
<p>I thought that you only had to report your custodial parent for both. My dad makes close to $100,000 if not more but he has already told us that he refuses to pay for any of mine or my sisters college education. He pays child support because he job forces him to do so. My mom makes under $20,000 a year. How would that work for me? It’s not really fair (fair’s not really the right word) to include him and shoot my EFC through the roof if he won’t even pay a single dime.</p>
<p>I guess you’re new here. Many parents won’t pay for college. Colleges don’t care if they want to or not, they expect them to.</p>
<p>You can apply to FAFSA only schools which will just consider you mother’s income and assets and schools where you can get merit aid if a parent won’t contribute.</p>
<p>*You can have one set (dad and step) making six figures, and then you can have the other set (mom and step) making minimum wage and they’re just given one big EFC??? LOL</p>
<p>Why is this a “LOL” situation? The FAMILY contribution is one number.*</p>
<p>I think it’s crazy that just one number is given. Many times in such situations there is an assumption that the family obligation should just be split 50/50. Obviously, where there is a great disparity of income, that’s not fair. </p>
<p>I think that with schools that use NCP info, there should be two family contributions…one for one family and one for the other. </p>
<p>Dinosgomoo…</p>
<p>Since your dad’s income will get included at schools that include NCP info, then you need to exclude those from your list. There’s no point in wasting time applying and get accepted to a bunch of schools that will hand your family a big expected contribution that no one will pay for.</p>
<p>Since most of the schools that won’t use your dad’s info do NOT meet need, then you should include some affordable schools and some merit schools in your list.</p>
<p>however, I think USC is one school that doesn’t use NCP info and does meet need.</p>