<p>My son will go to collage next year (2014). Because he is very good in school, he might have a chance to be admitted to top ivy-league schools. The problem is that those kind of schools are very expansive and we may not afford them.
Most schools in this category say that they offer generous financial aid packages based on needs.
I am divorced and remarried, currently unemployed, living of my savings for now, and my wife salary. My ex-wife is also remarried and fully employed (she does have a second child, and her mother as a dependent), and her husband works also.
My question is this:
When applying for financial aid, some schools do require financial information from both households (custodial and noncustodial) of the prospective student.
If that will be the case (some schools only require one household financial information), I believe that my wife's salary (as well as my ex-wife's husband salary) should NOT be considered when a decision is made about financial aid.
It should be between myself and my ex-wife, as the parents of the future student. Considering our current situation (me not working, and her salary) we might get some sort of financial aid. Should the school look at the step-parents income (my wife and my ex's husband) the chance for a financial aid might be smaller.
What is the solution in such a case?
How can a school be made to consider just the biological parents income when deciding for a financial aid need?
Thank you</p>
<p>You can’t “make” a school not consider non-custodial. If that is their rule there is nothing you can do. Income of you, your wife, your ex-wife, and her husband will be considered along with all the assets of the 4 of yor. That is the way it is. </p>
<p>Don’t consider Ivies to have much of a chance. Have matches and safeties that your child will attend and you all can afford. Ivies reject kids with a 4.0 and perfect SATs.</p>
<p>You can apply to FAFSA only schools but they don’t give much aid other than Federal loans.</p>
<p>If you don’t like the policy, then just have your child apply to FAFSA only schools that offer good merit money for the child’s stats (GPA, test scores, etc.)</p>
<p>What you think a school should base FA on is not going to matter to the school. They will have their own policies and aren’t going to make an exception for one person.</p>
<p>For FAFSA, the custodial parent and spouse must report their income and assets. It is not a choice, FAFSA is a federal form and requires the info of both. There are no exceptions.</p>
<p>FAFSA only schools will not require the information of the non custodial parent or his/her spouse. But aid will not tend to be that generous at FAFSA only schools. </p>
<p>I believe not all profile schools require non custodial parent info. Those that do will expect you to provide whatever info they require if you want to be considered for institutional aid.</p>
<p>On the FAFSA, your student will be required to list income and assets for the custodial parent and spouse. No exceptions to this.</p>
<p>For the Profile, your student will be,required to list the custodial parent and spouse…no exceptions. For schools requiring the non-custodial parent Profile, you will be required to list the non-custodial parent and spouse income and assets…no exceptions.</p>
<p>Some schools do not require the non-custodial parent Profile. Some of these schools collect non-custodial parent information using their own forms. Again if required, you must provide the info. </p>
<p>Some Profile schools do not use non-custodial parent information at all. </p>
<p>The schools determine their required information…not the families. If you do NOT submit all of,the required information, your kiddo’s request for need based financial aid will NOT be processed by that college.</p>
<p>If that will be the case (some schools only require one household financial information), I believe that my wife’s salary (as well as my ex-wife’s husband salary) should NOT be considered when a decision is made about financial aid.</p>
<p>Your opinion on the subject means NOTHING to colleges. NOTHING. You want THEIR money, so guess what? THEY make the RULES. When you have money, then you have power. They have money so they have power. </p>
<p>Every school, whether it’s FAFSA or CSS is going to include at least one step parent’s income. FAFSA will use the custodial parent and step parent’s income…and CSS schools that require NCP info, will require all step parents’ info.</p>
<p>You claim that you’re living on savings AND your wife’s income…well, the fact that you’re benefitting from your wife’s salary means that your money is more available for college. If you were working, it would be more so. YOU’RE not paying all the bills of your household. So it wouldn’t be fair to only look at YOUR money since that would wrongly assume that YOUR money is paying for the household…which it’s not.</p>
<p>*Some Profile schools do not use non-custodial parent information at all. *</p>
<p>True, but they’re usually the ones that don’t give the best aid. There are a few exceptions.</p>
<p>What is the solution in such a case?</p>
<p>You need to assume that those top schools are going to look at EVERYONE’S income and assets and not give you as much aid as you’d like. Heck, if all those incomes are high enough, you may not get any aid at all.</p>
<p>So, apply to a few of those schools, just to see what happens. But, have your child protect himself and also apply to some schools that will give him huge merit for his stats. Merit that is so generous that the families will then pay the leftover costs.</p>
<p>IN THE MEANTIME…all the parents and steps need to get together and decide how much each family will contribute. Your ex may say that your family needs to pay AS MUCH as her family …often that happens. Your ex may not want to cut you a break just cuz you’re not working. She may think, “if we have to pay X, then YOU (and your wife) have to pay X.” That’s pretty common amongst divorced homes. Your ex may not want to have to contribute out of her salary while you pay little because you’re not working.</p>
<p>her mother as a dependent</p>
<p>Schools don’t count grandparents as dependents unless they have little to no income. If this mother has SS or other retirement benefits, it’s unlikely schools will count her as a dependent.</p>
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<p>Schools don’t count grandparents as dependents unless they have little to no income. If this mother has SS or other retirement benefits, it’s unlikely schools will count her as a dependent.
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<p>Actually, if ex-wife is providing more than half the support for her mom and mom lives with her more than half of the year, then grandma is counted as a member of the household</p>
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<p>Support of elderly parents, along with unreimbursed medical expenses, secondary school tuition for siblings, and expenses for special need children are also considered on the Profile. However, Op should not bank on this reducing the ability to pay by much.</p>
<p>OP, at a minimum your wife’s salary will be counted. And it should - you and your wife support your son, and to not include her information would encourage many families to purposely put themselves in a situation similar to yours, where the custodial parent doesn’t work, and is supported by their spouse who is a step-parent. It would invite abuse, and there are already plenty of families that take advantage of the system as it is, by waiting to remarry until the kids are through college, and if they’re attending FAFSA-only schools, by ensuring they can claim the lower-earning parent as custodial.</p>
<p>Count your blessings that you have your wife to support you, and your ex has her husband. There are plenty of students with far less support. No college is going to treat your as if he lives in a single household supported by all 4 people, but both households will be considered by most private schools. Even so, you might be happily surprised by the aid they come up with compared with some of the public schools. It might not be the problem you think it is, depending on your ex-wife’s household income (if her DH is an investment banker, with a high salary, aid will be poor, but if they’re just an average family, just making ends meet, the end result might be just as good as a public university).</p>
<p>The ultimate solution is to get a divorce, and remain unemployed so he has EFC=0, and have him apply to schools that only use FAFSA, but there are serious drawbacks to such a plan. Instead, have him look at the lists of schools here that offer substantial merit aid -that way it won’t matter whose income they look at.</p>
<p>In a situation like this the net price calculators on the college websites are also fairly useless. We went through this process last year as a divorced couple with one party remarried. So it is difficult to even get a sense of what kind of aid you will be offered. One suggestion I have heard is to have both couples separately fill out the net price calculators with your own income and assets (and yes, you will need to include new spouse income and assets as well, those are the rules). Then if you add together the EFC that each of you gets, that is a reasonable picture of what your son will be expected to pay.</p>
<p>As others have said, the main things you need to do are:
- Try to have a rational conversation with your ex about who can contribute what to college. It is very important for your son to have an idea of the limitations in this area before applying.
- Help your son find some affordable options based on that conversation.</p>
<p>Your son certainly won’t be the first kid with very strong qualifications who can’t afford the best school he gets into (he will be the millionth discussed out here, I bet!). Look at his in-state options, possibly the honors college at your state flagship if there is one. Or look at LACs further down the ranking list with merit aid.</p>
<p>Which one of you is the custodial parent; you or your ex wife?</p>
<p>Actually, if ex-wife is providing more than half the support for her mom and mom lives with her more than half of the year, then grandma is counted as a member of the household</p>
<p>True, but as Kelsmom has pointed out many times, if the grandma is getting SS, retirement, and medicare benefits, it can be hard to prove that the mom is paying for more than half of grandma’s costs. </p>
<p>If grandma is getting say $12k per year in SS and retirement, and another $10k in various Medicare health benefits (doctor visits, etc), most families would not be able to show that they’re spending ANOTHER eleven thousand plus on her care. As Kelsmom has said, usually the grands are contributing TO the household by paying a chunk of their SS/retirement benefits to the family to put towards food/utilites, etc.</p>
<p>However, we do not know the grandmother’s situation.
She could be getting a pension or death benefits from a deceased husband. </p>
<p>She could have been a person who has never held a job and not eligible for SSI benefits. </p>
<p>Grandma could be a non-citizen not eligible for any of what you have mentioned, we just don’t know (and it is not our business). </p>
<p>However, she is still part of the household, and it will be up to ex-wife to provide any and all additional information to college.</p>
<p>True, we don’t know the situation.</p>
<p>*She could have been a person who has never held a job and not eligible for SSI benefits. *</p>
<p>Not ever having held a job doesn’t mean not eligible. There are many senior citizen women who’ve never worked. They qualify for SS because their H’s worked. They get an amount that is half of what the H gets. So, if H’s monthly SS is 1400, then she gets 700 a month. </p>
<p>My mom never qualified for SS from working, but once she was of age, she received several hundred of month…half the amount of what my dad was getting at the same time.</p>
<p>The custodial parent is my ex wife (I have joint legal custody ).</p>
<p>Also the grandma never worked, has SS from her deceased husband (who only worked minimum required period) so I supposed her SS is not that great. As far as I know she has no other income, and whatever SS she gets, is not enough to live on…</p>
<p>So probably she can be counted safely as a dependent, which helps my son in this case</p>
<p>Then for FAFSA, your ex wife and her husband will have to provide both of their income and asset information. You will not have to provide any info.</p>
<p>For schools that require CSS or their own forms, it will depend on the school what info you and your wife will have to provide.</p>
<p>Any child support or spousal support paid by you to your former wife will have to be listed on your kiddo’s FAFSA also.</p>
<p>Those very top Ivy schools with the generous aid do require the Profile which will be completed by your former wife and spouse. Most also require the non-custodial Parent Profile which will need to be completed by you and your wife.</p>
<p>Princeton uses its own financial aid forms…you need to check their website. They have a different way of dealing with info from families with divorced and remarried parents.</p>
<p>I would strongly suggest that you look at schools that do not require the NCP Profile…but keep in mind that aid at some of these schools is less generous.</p>
<p>The suggestion upstream for all parents and spouses to discuss college cost and financing is a good one. You need to be clear on what you will all pay to support college costs, and your student will need to find schools that fit this financial criteria.</p>
<p>If he is a competitive applicant for those Ivy level schools, he will also be competitive for some good merit awards at other schools. These will not be dependent on your incomes. If finances are a significant consideration, you might want to consider these.</p>
<p>My son will go to collage next year (2014). Because he is very good in school, he might have a chance to be admitted to top ivy-league schools</p>
<p>If your child is applying to ivy or similar schools, those will ask for all parents’ and all step-parents’ info. Those are the schools that give the best aid, so before they give that aid, they want to “look over” all parents and step-parents info to see if funds are there. </p>
<p>Schools consider families to be “first in line” to pay.</p>
<p>What are his test scores? SAT and/or ACT?</p>
<p>How can a school be made to consider the biological parents income only? </p>
<p>This only happens when the biological parents are not remarried.</p>