<p>My mom is my legal guardian, and she and my dad seperated a while ago. My dad makes good money, but he utterely refuses to even pay a penny for my college education. The problem is that on any application and on other financial forms, they ask for both parents. Since my mom is the only person who is going to actually help me pay for college, she is all i have. But the forms say that i have to put both parents. IF i put both parents, i know that i will not receive as much financial aid as i need from any college i apply to since my dad makes good money. If it does happen that my dad is considered as a contribution to my college fund, i would not be able to afford college. Any ideas on what to do? I appreciate any imput.</p>
<p>If your parents are NOT divorced, you will need to put both sets of financial information on your FAFSA form. Even if they ARE divorced, you will need to put both on the Profile. AND if your school uses their own finaid form (many privates do), you will also need to put both parents' incomes (and maybe their spouses if any) on those forms too. There are a number of threads already here about this very situation. Federal need based finaid (info on the FAFSA) is based on the income of both of your parents (unless divorced...then you do only the custodial parent). Institutional aid often uses the Profile and school forms which consider EVERYONE's income...parents and step parents. Finaid applications do NOT consider whether a parent is willing to contribute. They are formula based and consider ability to pay. If you have NO CONTACT (and I mean NONE) with your father over a LONG (not just a year or two) period of time and he contributes nothing (no child support, no alimony to mom, no visitation rights, etc), you may be able to get a Non-custodial parent waiver. But the guidelines for these are veryvery restrictive. They are not meant for the parent who simply says "I'm not paying". That is just not factored into the formula anywhere. Now...suggestions...look at your instate universities. Look at private schools that award merit aid and where your stats are very high relative to their admitted students. Consider two years at a community college.</p>
<p>Actually, thumper. Separated status is sufficient for the FAFSA. If your parents are separated, you should file the form with only the parent with whom you live. Many private colleges will want information on the other parent, but thumper is correct that they will collect this information on another form.</p>
<p>thumper1: you said that there are a lot of threads about the dilemma that i am in. would you be able to point them out? Thank you!</p>
<p>But if both parents are taken into consieration, but the one who makes no money is not going to pay. What happens when it comes to the financial aid package that colleges give you (not based on merit, but only financial need) and they take into consideration both parents, but when they do that, i am not able to pay the tuition since the other parent doesn't pay. Don't colleges say that they will meet 100% of the financial need to help the student go to college. But if they take into consideration both parents in my case, the colleges won't meet 100% of my financial need.</p>
<p>What all the other threads will tell you is that colleges don't make exceptions. If a parent decides not to pay the college won't give you more aid. You will need to choose a school that only uses fafsa. Unfortunately you are far from alone, many kids do this.</p>
<p>First of all: </p>
<p>Hi Barkowitz! Welcome back. I hope you can hang a little while before stuff gets really hetic on your end.</p>
<p>theworld8905 , </p>
<p>You wrote:</p>
<p>
[quote]
thumper1: you said that there are a lot of threads about the dilemma that i am in. would you be able to point them out? Thank you!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>As Thumper said, many have asked this same question for many years. Here are some of the postings and the advice given is still the same. Here are some of those postings.</p>
<p>HELP!!! CSS/DP Forms = Nasty Problem! </p>
<p>College Freshmen: Parents Divorce </p>
<p>Dad won't pay! Help! </p>
<p>If you do a search in financial aid and type non custodia you will get all of the threads ( 68 pages of them) of students who share your dilemma</p>
<p>HELP!!! CSS/DP Forms = Nasty Problem!
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...ight=custodial%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...ight=custodial</a></p>
<p>That was actually my thread. I'm in the same boat as you, theworld.</p>
<p>Basically, after talking with my guidance counselor, parents, and with the help from CC community, I have come to this conclusion:</p>
<p>I am currently revising my list of colleges that only require the FAFSA, since there is no way in hell that I am going to take out $45K/year to go to some of my top schools. I figure I will leave college debt free and then take on grad school debt! Fun Stuff!). </p>
<p>Most state schools and systems only require the FAFSA, so those would be good bets to get a nice financial aid package. Also check into if nearby states offer a reciprocal "in-state tuition" rate<--I know there is a much better term and way to say that, but I can't remember the exact wording--sorry! (such as Minnesota/Wisconsin). Should I get accepted to any of these schools, I will get close to 100% aid.</p>
<p>I have also been searching for smaller schools--compared to large research driven, state schools--that just require the FAFSA. These are all the schools I have found so far: </p>
<p>Colby (1800 ugrad pop)
Lewis & Clark (1900)
Clarkson U (2600)
Tulsa (2800)
Xavier OH (3700)
U of Denver (4800)
American (5800)
Charleston (9500)
Minnesota-Morris (1600)
Washington & Jefferson (1400)
Miami (9700)
York of Pennsylvania (5400)</p>
<p>Hope this list helps! Good luck and if anybody knows of other smaller schools that only require the FAFSA (and not the CSS/Profile or Non-custodial parent forms), please add to the list!</p>
<p>hi sportzajent, </p>
<p>I am so happy for you and the fact that you have decided to turn lemons into lemonaide and decided to cast a really wide net. I would also suggest that you look up postings by curmudgeon who went in search seeking out schools that have merit aid for his D. In addition one of the sticky post on the parent's forum there is thread of schools that have merit aid (you could check out those also). </p>
<p>If you live in a state that has reciprocity agreements with other state schools where you can attend at the in-state rate, it certainly helps to expand your list. Even looking for FAFSA only schools, try to find some of those schools where you may be at the top of the applicant pool so that you can be in line for some merit aid.</p>
<p>While I cannot give you a list of schools that only accept the FAFSA, I can provide you with the link of schools that use the CSS profile (so you can cross those schools off your list).</p>
<p>Hope this helps </p>
<p>good luck to you in your search.</p>