<p>My mom and stepdad filled out the CSS Profile, and my dad and stepmom filled out the Noncustodial Profile. Will colleges take into account all four incomes or just my mom and dad?</p>
<p>Thank you,</p>
<p>Logan</p>
<p>All four.</p>
<p>That’s so absurd. My dad provides nothing to me, so why should he be considered in the formula if he isn’t going to pay?</p>
<p>Depends on the college. Most that ask for the Profile will use all four parent income and assets. That’s why they ask for them.</p>
<p>There are a very few schools that deal with step parent income differently…very few. And some weigh non-custodial parent income in a different way. This is the exception…not the rule.</p>
<p>FAFSA only takes into account custodial parents.
Many schools only require FAFSA.</p>
<p>Might as well ask why ask for any parent’s information if you already know they will not pay. If your parents were still together, and told you they couldn’t afford to contribute anything to your education, would you still think it absurd that CSS Profile asks for their information anyway?</p>
<p>The problem is that there has been a shift from seeing universities as producing general benefits (research and educated graduates) for everyone in society, to instead seeing them as producing limited benefits (a degree qualification) only for their own students. Along with this has come a shift in the understanding of who should pay for the universities to operate; instead of all of us supporting them, it has been reframed as an “investment” in the student. They jack up the spending, jack up the price, and then consider anyone with any connection to the student to be fair game for them to raid the bank account. It is disgusting.</p>
<p>The vast majority of private schools that use CSS Profile will in fact consider both your father’s and stepmother’s income and assets free game for them to take. There are a handful of exceptions I know of, a few schools with healthy endowments who don’t feel they must do that. The public schools as a rule do not require NCP information, even if they use CSS Profile.</p>
<p>If the only way you can afford to attend a school is by drawing on four adults’ incomes, then the school is probably too expensive for you. But I suppose that there’s always a chance that you get along well enough with all four of them that they might be willing to pay it anyway.</p>
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<p>It’s not absurd. Parents are the first in line to pay for college. If your school requires the non-custodial parent information, then this is going to be considered in the vast majority of cases.</p>
<p>Just because a parent says “I won’t pay” does not exclude their information from consideration in the financial aid formulas. This is true for both married and unmarried, custodial and non-custodial (where required) parents.</p>
<p>Are you concerned because your non-custodial parent and spouse have huge incomes? </p>
<p>This is the time to sit down and discuss college finances with your parents. You need to know what they can afford, collectively, to spend on your college costs annually.</p>
<p>FCCDad, why is it disgusting? I have a friend who practices Family Law in a very affluent area, and she has stories that would curl your hair about parents with millions of dollars in assets who refuse to pay for their kids college educations after a divorce. Why should you be subsidizing tuition for a kid whose parents have a 7 figure nest egg because they don’t get along with their ex-spouse and are “punishing” him/her?</p>
<p>My friend has been appointed guardian ad litem in several cases where the judge got disgusted at the behavior of the grownups involved (spouses, second spouses, boyfriends of the mom, dad’s “significant’ other”). It’s a shame when a kid’s parents refuse to pay, but why should the college subsidize the lifestyles of millionaires just because they are divorced and have “moved on” to another relationship???</p>
<p>OP- not suggesting this is your situation in any scenario, just pointing out to FCC that if the parents have the assets, why shouldn’t they go towards educating the children? should my state raise its taxes to provide a financial aid fund at the state U for the children of affluent divorced parents? I think there are better uses of the funds.</p>
<p>FCCDad, my kids have one parent, me, and we are full pay. I don’t expect anyone else to pay for them to go to school. We picked schools we can afford. I don’t think anyone should expect the schools to educate their children for free.</p>
<p>The schools aren’t raiding my bank account because I’m not letting them. </p>
<p>It’s disgusting for the same reason it would be disgusting for individuals to pay for their own roads in their neighborhoods, or their own fire protection, or their own testing of pharmaceuticals. These are things that should be done everywhere, for everyone, to the same uniformly high standards. You and I should be subsidizing their education because we want educated graduates to work for us and with us, and to participate in our civic activities and communities. I would much rather have that, than have trust fund babies living unproductively off their ancestors’ wealth. </p>
<p>You and I (everyone) should pay, regardless of whether the parents are still together and regardless of the parents’ wealth. Making the parents pay is how we got this stratified system of elite colleges being primarily for those whose parents can pay the elite prices. We have smaller and smaller percentages of people able to move up from impoverished backgrounds every generation. Social mobility has been almost entirely eliminated in the US.</p>
<p>Yes, most states should raise income taxes (with progressively higher rates for higher incomes) to pay for education for <em>anyone</em> in the state. No, having money should NOT allow you to buy an educational/social advantage for your child. Yes, colleges should subsidize their own students, regardless of the students’ family backgrounds.</p>
<p>In at least the particular case of divorced parents that you brought up, the Federal government (implemented through the FAFSA) has determined that if you don’t actually get to raise a child, then you shouldn’t be expected to pay for their education when they are legally adults. That doesn’t go nearly far enough, but at least it’s a start.</p>
<p>Some parents actually plan ahead during the divorce process, and get college costs written into the divorce agreement (some states do limit the amount). </p>
<p>The OP needs to discuss college financing with his mim, stepdad, dad, and step mom. He needs to know exactly where he stands in terms of their financial support for college.</p>
<p>To the OP…you said you had completed the Profile already. Has your dad comoleted the NCP Profile. I’m hoping he put estimated 2014 income/taxes in the 2014 fields.</p>
<p>FCCDAD, I think it absurd because if they are expecting my parents to pay, then there should be a legal bind to that expectation so that someone like me isn’t put into ridiculous amounts of debt over my parents’ inability to save money for my education.</p>
<p>thumper1, I think it absurd because kids who parents remain together have only two parents considered in the financial aid process. Why should I be punished because of my parents’ decisions many years ago? And I say I’m being punished because what my parents are expected to contribute will translate to what I’m going to have to contribute. My mom, stepdad, dad, and stepmom are contributing nothing to my college costs. I love my parents, but it would be helpful if there was a law in place that required them to pay what was expected of them because then I wouldn’t face such a financial hardship. My dad and stepmom actually have a very small income, and when I placed all their info into a Columbia net price calculator, the parent contribution came out to 0. Hopefully it stays that way. </p>
<p>blossom, I wholeheartedly agree with you. I understand why colleges do what they do, but kids like me are suffering in these scenarios because I have parents who make a decent amount of money that refuse to pay for college, and there’s nothing I can do to make them pay what colleges expect them to pay.</p>
<p>thumper1, I did complete the CSS Profile already. And I’m pleased to tell you that the fixes to the Profile are very possible and fairly easy to make. My dad just finished the NCP Profile last night. He did put in the info that was missing from the regular Profile.</p>
<p>Thank you, everyone!</p>
<p>Just curious…did you fix things on an already submitted Profile…online? Do tell…because that is not possible. If you filled out the Profile but did NOT submit it, yes, you can change fields. But once submitted to a school, you cannot change the fields submitted. </p>
<p>Your NCP, however, is completing a different form altogether. He isn’t changing things from the submitted Profile of your custodial parent.</p>
<p>Please do clarify. Once a Profile is submitted THAT Profile for THAT school cannot be changed online. If you are submitting to additional schools, yes you can change the info for those ADDITIONAL schools before you submit…but not for the school already submitted.</p>
<p>If your NCP and spouse have a very low income, including it on the Profile isn’t going to make much difference, if any.</p>
<p>For federal aid purposes, only your custodial parent and spouse are considered.</p>
<p>First of all, it is unfair that someone who is legally an adult is dependent for college aid based on the parents’ decisions. I know MANY, MANY kids who cannot afford to go to colleges of their choices, because their parents, by financial aid formulas are expected to pay more than they are able or willing to pay. Other kids, whose parents have had different priorities, were better savers, had better past fortunes with their finances, are lucky enough to have their choice of schools. For those schools that give only financial aid, or little merit aid, it means that if your parents won’t and can’t pay but the formulas deem them able, only the students will willing and able parents (in terms of paying for college) are eligible. It’s truly a farce that these schools, including HPY, like to toot their horns about how no student need worry about affording educations because of their generous financial aid, when it has nothing to do with the student as to whether or not s/he can attend those schools. This is a situation that students with intact sets of parents often face as well as those with families that have been split. </p>
<p>Actually, kids of divorce can have it better, if the terms of the divorce spell out payment for college because that can bind a parent so s/he has to pay. OR in some states, like NJ, there are rules in place so that divorced parents are forced to pay for college. No such thing in place for children with an intact family. Dad and Mom can make a million a year, have millions in the bank, but if they won’t pay, their kids cannot go to schools that the students themselves cannot pay through loans (limited for 18 year olds, usually to Direct loans and then only if parents fill out FAFSA), or if they get merit money or work their way through school. My neighbor decided that his daughters were not to go away to school, and would only go to local school. Though he is upper income, he would pay local tuition only, and they all commuted to local colleges, working part time for their personal expenses and lived at home. A friend of mine’ s Ex who made over a half million a year, refused to pay a dime for college, and his kids couldn’t get any financial aid from PROFILE schools.</p>
<p>Some parents even refuse to fill out the FAFSA so the students cannot even get the Direct Loans. That’s a more common issue than one would think. They flat out refuse My husband’s uncle was that way. My friend’s ex refused to fill out NCP PROFILE forms, not that it mattered as his financials would have eliminated any financial aid. </p>
<p>Whether this is “right” or not, is a matter of opinion, but that’s the way it is. Though FAFSA is required from custodial parent (and spouse) only, most PROFILE schools require the NCP to also fill out a form, unless a NCP waiver is obtained. There are exceptions–Duke does not require “steps” financials if both legal parents fill out the paperwork, so that one does not get a 4 parent situation that most PROFILE statements require. UChicago, this year, has eliminated NCP forms in most cases, I believe. There are schools that do not require the NCP to fill out info. But those that do, do require the info and it could reduce and even eliminate possibilities of financial aid. </p>
<p>I wish there were NCPs specifically desinged for those with split families, because schools do vary as to how they handle NCP financial info. No way of knowing, however. </p>
<p>Not anyone connected, FCCDAD, just the parents and step parents who form, in theory, the family. And there are laws in some states, OP, that do require a non-custodial parent to contribute.</p>
<p>I don’t know what FCC is now saying. You and I should be subsidizing their [everyone’s??] education because we want educated graduates…</p>
<p>But not the stepparent, who contributes to her spouse’s lifestyle?? That should be the neighbors and other state residents? </p>
<p>If you already submitted the CSS Profile to a school and need to make revisions, generally that means making edits on a paper copy, mailing it in. So, you call the school to confirm their procedure. </p>
<p>Any corrections you do make now may need another revision when the actual tax related documents tickle in for 2014, after Jan 1 (W-2s, eg, are supposed to be postmarked by 1/31, though we always have docmuents come in after that.) </p>
<p>thumper1, sorry, I should have clarified. Only one of the schools that’s responded thus far has requested corrections that are made from a printout of the “Acknowledgement.” The other ones said it wasn’t a problem so long as my parents’ tax returns were sent in.Also, I know the NCP Profile is different altogether. What I meant is he’s changing the way he filled it out from the way we filled out the Profile. We used estimates for 2014 info on the NCP Profile instead of leaving it blank.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse, you share a lot of the same sentiments as I do.</p>
<p>lookingforward, I’m aware of the changes that need to be made. Most of the schools don’t care so long as I get 2014 documents in. </p>
<p>“I don’t know what FCC is now saying. You and I should be subsidizing their [everyone’s??] education because we want educated graduates… But not the stepparent, who contributes to her spouse’s lifestyle?? That should be the neighbors and other state residents?”</p>
<p>What I’m saying is that higher education should be seen as benefiting all society, just like primary education is. We should ALL pay for universities to conduct research and turn out the next generation of educated citizens, just like we all pay for fire departments and road repairs and food inspection and drug testing/evaluation, etc. The students are not the customers; the students (and research) are the product. All of us, collectively, are the customers.</p>
<p>I understand that this is is a very socialist view, and that many people will oppose it on the same grounds that they oppose our taxes paying for primary education and fire departments and road crews and Medicare and such.</p>
<p>In any event, what I think <em>should</em> be the case and what currently legally <em>is</em> the case are two different things.</p>
<p>FCC, there are plenty of countries around the world that use the model you describe. And for some odd reason- tens of thousands of students from those countries try to get admitted to US universities every year.</p>
<p>The most expensive schools are private, for the most part. They can charge what they please. In other countries when one gets to the university level, the top ones tend to be government run. There is more commuting to them, by far, than our system where going away to college is the big deal. To commute to a local state school, or community college is usually not so expensive. For those with the least in terms of finances, PELL can cover most of it. Those who don’t qualify because their EFC is too high, may have access to Direct Loans on a subsidized basis, at least some of it. Then most anyone can take out the unsub Direct Loans. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s up to tax payers to pay room, board, other living expenses of young people. The tuition at state schools ia whole other issue.</p>
<p>But we have to work with what we have. Many views on how it should be.</p>