<p>my mom is a single mom and i live in a household of five. she makes about 50k. we have no assets or savings whatsoever. my mom and dad were never married. i have no idea what he makes, but i think it's more than my mom. given they were never married, would his income have any effect on my EFC (just in general)???</p>
<p>i'm kind of scared of that because i was expecting my EFC to be low, otherwise...we are barely scraping by. my dad has never contributed anything to my high school education and he's always paid less child support than he should...he does the bare minimum. it would really suck if his income suddenly mattered/factored in and i got huge EFCs from schools i'm applying to. i can't really find an answer anywhere, should i prepare myself for this? </p>
<p>thanks in advance.</p>
<p>EFC is associated with the FAFSA which only takes into account custodial parents. That would not include your dad. However, schools that use the FAFSA don’t tend to meet financial need. Those schools use CSS Profile or their own forms which ask for the incomes of ALL parents.</p>
<p>What schools are you looking at? Some will require your dad’s info.</p>
<p>BTW…the schools that only use your mom’s info may not give you much aid even if your EFC is low. Most schools do NOT give much aid because most don’t have much to give. Federal aid isn’t much.</p>
<p>What state are you in? What are your stats? What is your major?</p>
<p>thanks for your responses!</p>
<p>well, my top/reach school is occidental (i love the school + they meet 100% of need—including loans, i know)… i’m also looking into wake forest, college of the holy cross, university of redlands, barnard (huge reach, i know), rhodes college, depaul, and union college + mizzou, SLU, and a safety or two. i need to find more matches, too…</p>
<p>so, schools that only use the FASFA only give federal aid (pell grant + loans?), and schools that use the FASFA and/or CSS Profile give that AND their own need-based aid? sorry if this is a silly question…i’m the first one in my family to do this and i have no idea about anything. </p>
<p>i’m in missouri. i have a 30 ACT (without studying, retaking in sept) , 3.99 GPA…it’s weighted, but my unweighted is not much lower. my school’s GPA scale is really weird, because even for regular classes, A+s count for 4.33. i’m not sure of my major yet, unfortunately. i know right now my GPA is on the low end for some of those schools, but i have a really good upward trend (3.53 freshman year, 4.1x both sophomore and junior years, higher junior year). i was really surprised when my counselor suggested wake…i don’t really expect to get in.</p>
<p>*so, schools that only use the FASFA only give federal aid (pell grant + loans?), </p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Schools that only use FAFSA usually don’t give much need-based aid. They may sometimes throw in a merit scholarship or some other aid, but they don’t usually have the funds to meet large need such as yours. That’s why they only use FAFSA. If they had a lot of need-based aid to give away, they’d use CSS Profile to better determine actual need.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>and schools that use the FASFA and/or CSS Profile give that AND their own need-based aid? sorry if this is a silly question…i’m the first one in my family to do this and i have no idea about anything. *</p>
<p>the schools that use CSS Profile usually have more aid to give. The ones that “meet need” usually require the financial info of ALL parents, including step-parents. </p>
<p>Several of the schools on your list do NOT meet need. Use the NPC’s on DePaul’s and SLU’s NPC. </p>
<p>It sounds like you have to assume that your mom can’t pay anything. The schools on your list will already have full student loans in the FA pkgs so you won’t be able to borrow to cover any gap in aid. </p>
<p>Since you have an ACT 30, also apply to some schools that will give you large merit for your stats…and I mean HUGE merit. Those can be your back up schools.</p>
<p>Good luck on retesting…also take the SAT.</p>
<p>Here’s the list of CSS schools…as you can see, Occidental is on there and they DO require your dad’s info.</p>
<p><a href=“CSS Profile – CSS Profile | College Board”>CSS Profile – CSS Profile | College Board;
<p>Read up on the financial aid process, and the basic info on this board.</p>
<p>In a nutshell, when you apply for college financial aid, almost all schools require FAFSA which gives you your family EFC (expected Family Contribution) for government aid. Most schools build upon that base. All that is guaranteed by the EFC is PELL grant if low enough, up to $5600 in grants, and subsidies to the $5500 Direct loan. The rest requires further application and scrutiny, but the FAFSA gives you and your parents the clearance to apply for any of the other possibilities. Most schools also use the FAFSA EFC to determine need, but the fact of the matter is that most schools do not meet need. I dont’ know what the average, median, etc is for percentage need met over and beyond the government enttilements , but, yes, at a number of schools, all you get is government aid because most schools simply do not have enough money or hardly any money in their financial aid coffers.</p>
<p>The schools that tend to be more generous and that guarantee to meet full need, tend to define their own need and require additional info and often use another application as well as the FAFSA. That is where the PROFILE comes into play, and yes, most of those school will want and use your father’s (and if he’s married, his spouse’s) financial info. Whether the parents were ever married does not come into the picture at all. His information is still considered relevant.</p>
<p>But, in addition to knowing a college requires the CSS and your father’s info, you sometimes need to check further to see how they use his data.</p>
<p>thanks for the thorough explanations, i really appreciate it. </p>
<p>now i’m honestly terrified. if they ask for my dad’s info, they’re just going to base my EFC off of my mom and dad’s combined income, no? and to them, my need wouldn’t be great? won’t that place me into somewhat middle class range, which is hell for financial aid? neither parent is/was married again…just my mom and dad. i can’t imagine him being comfortable with helping me pay for college at all. he’s so wary and selfish when it comes to anything related to money and on the rare occasion he helps us out in any way—helping get my brother’s car fixed, buying me $300 worth of textbooks for each school year—he ALWAYS wants/expects my mom to pay him back, even knowing how hard it is for her and her financial position compared to his. it’s so ridiculous. i would hate to get my mom to take out any loans if it came to that…she has enough financial burdens as it is. my brother is already taking out (i’m pretty sure the max) loans for a 2-year technical college, and she has debt of her own from a number of places, i’m not sure how large. i don’t think her credit is that good. </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids thanks so much. i know SLU and depaul don’t meet need…my mom keeps pushing me to apply to SLU because it’s close to home, but i keep telling her it’s guaranteed that i’ll have to take out loans, and since i know i’ll have to, i want to go to a school that i actually like. where should i look for these schools that would give me merit? i’ve looked at the sticky threads here a number of times. it seems that the ACT cutoff for the majority of schools is 31/32, and i’m not banking on that yet. also, i really don’t want to go to an OOS state school. i signed up for the last SAT but i ended up not taking it…i felt like i wouldn’t do well on it because i’m horrible at math (26 on act math section 
) and i thought the ACT would be enough. i guess i should just study harder for math and try it. </p>
<p>i’m really praying if i don’t get into occidental (which is likely, unfortunately) i get into one of the other schools on my list because they meet full need or really close to it. i wish i could call mizzou my backup, but even with all the scholarships i’m eligible for, it’s still really expensive.</p>
<p>So, now you know up front what your situation is. The crux of the college search is finding affordable schools, affordable without contingencies for your particular situation, that you know will accept you. The rest of the process is like entering a lottery, and yes, an acceptance without the needd funds is not an option if the money isn’t there.</p>
<p>You can look up which schools that interest you do require both parents’ financials. Some may not. Things change, so before you apply, call and ask again. Denison, Albright are a couple of LACs that I know have given out some nice aid packages for kids in your situation. Albright guarantees to meet FAFSA need other than the discretionary expenses, which is the only school of that sort, i know. </p>
<p>For merit, you need to be well within the percentage of scholarships given in terms of test scores. Look at the common data sets. If your test scores put you in the top 25% of the kids in the school, try to guess whether you make top 10% . If the school has some nice substantial grants, and gives merit aid to the top 20%, you stand a decent shot of getting a mid sized grant for them. It’s not easy getting the big mone, I’m afraid. Getting a few thousand in merit money as a sweetener when the price tag is way up there is not going to help you. But do look at some of the Catholic universities as some do have some nice merit packages.</p>
<p>Since Occidental is going to require your dad’s info, it sounds like it won’t be affordable for you, even if you do get in.</p>
<p>You need to sit down with your dad and find out what his income actually is, and what assets he has, as well. (Yes, they look at assets, too!) You can’t just guess about this. You also have to confirm that he’s willing to cooperate when it comes time to send his financial info to the colleges. And warn him that some schools may demand to see his 2013 tax return, as well. You can assure him that nothing gets shared with you mom. (It doesn’t.) But if he’s going to refuse to send in his info, you might as well know that now . . . and take the CSS schools that require his info OFF your list. He’s in the picture, you won’t be able to get a waiver relieving you of the obligation to submit his financial data, and, without it, you won’t get any institutional need-based aid.</p>
<p>Once you have his info (if he’s willing to share it with you), run the net price calculator again, for every school you’re considering, using both parents’ info - and see what the results are.</p>
<p>You need to acknowledge that the full need schools may not be the answer for you - they may all end up being unaffordable.</p>
<p>Merit aid may be the way to go. And you’re not limited to OOS publics with automatic merit aid. You can also look for small private colleges where your GPA & test scores are ABOVE the norm for that school . . . that’s where you’d have a shot at getting good competitive merit aid. Don’t limit yourself - look at all schools where your stat’s are above the norm . . . you never know what you’ll find that might be a great fit for you! Use the Princeton Review site to do a really thorough search.</p>
<p>You can’t borrow much… i think you’re misunderstanding.</p>
<p>Your aid pkgs will ALREADY have full fed loans in them. You won’t be able to borrow to cover any shortfall unless your MOM is a qualified and willing cosigner…unlikely at her income. </p>
<p>For example, if from DePaul, you’re given:</p>
<p>$10k per year in merit
$10k grant towards need
$5500 in Stafford loans</p>
<h2>$2000 in Pell</h2>
<p>that’s over $27k in aid. however, you’d have a big gap. YOU can’t (and shouldn’t) borrow the difference. You’d need a qualified co-signer and it’s TOO MUCH to pay back.</p>
<p>If you can commute to SLU, then maybe it might be doable with aid since you wouldn’t be paying room and board.</p>
<p>I was never married to my S’s father either. I was still eligible for child support. In Indiana the law recently changed so that child support ceases at age 19, however if a child is enrolled in college you can get a separate ruling for ‘college support’.</p>
<p>I just checked the laws in Missouri -</p>
<p>“If when a child reaches age eighteen, the child is enrolled in and attending a secondary school program of instruction, the parental support obligation shall continue, if the child continues to attend and progresses toward completion of said program, until the child completes such program or reaches age twenty-one, whichever first occurs.” ([Section</a> 452-340 Child support, how allocated–factors t](<a href=“http://www.moga.mo.gov/statutes/c400-499/4520000340.htm]Section”>http://www.moga.mo.gov/statutes/c400-499/4520000340.htm))</p>
<p>“Missouri’s child support laws are different from those of many other states, in that child support obligations will, under certain circumstances, continue well past high school… Once a child finishes high school, the child support obligation will end unless that child enrolls in “an institution of vocational or higher education” no later than the first day of October. The child support obligation will continue to be due as long as the child remains enrolled in school and completes at least 12 hours of coursework per term, with passing grades in at least half of the course load. Once the child reaches age 21 or “completes his or her education,” whichever comes first, the child support obligation ends.”</p>
<p>So your mom/you can file with the state’s paternity court if your dad refuses to pay any expenses and they will rule against him and he will be obligated to pay (at least based on Indiana rules) 50% of the cost of the lowest priced, in-state, public school (if you choose to go to a more expensive school the remainder of the costs will be your responsibility), but if you believe you will need your dad’s money for school, legally he is obligated to assit you.</p>
<p>Note that the OP said her dad has “always paid less child support than he should” . . . so yes, mom might be able to get a court order telling him to pay, but forcing him to cough up the money is another matter entirely.</p>
<p>However, if dad’s support obligation continues while the OP attends college, she might, at the very least, be able to force him to submit his required financial statements and tax returns in a timely fashion.</p>