<p>OP, our solution was to apply only to FAFSA schools, as someone else suggested. Yes, this means that some great schools come off the list. But for us, it meant that we look at a different set of schools. And thus my D found a school that she loves, that is a great fit, and that gives great merit money! It ended up to be a blessing to find this FAFSA-only school.</p>
<p>Yes, most of her schools are FAFSA only, but there are a couple of PROFILE schools that we just can't overlook this early. She'll have an option for sure one way or the other. She is a slight reach and reach at the two PROFILE schools, so it only comes into play if she gets accepted anyway. They do have the potential of being the two best FA schools with loan limits, etc and 100% need met, so it's hard to just throw them out right now, especially when they look to be great fits.</p>
<p>I am in the OP's situation and found you need to contact the institutions. However, most places did not care much, and a few did, but not for much in the way of help. The one that did the most ended up requiring all sorts of documentation regarding the non paying non-custodial parent. The sad thing is that it always seems to turn out that the honest people get nothing, while the scam artists make it through. We know of several cases where people who should not have gotten breaks or as big a breaks got mostly everything paid for.</p>
<p>"Real dad makes $35,000/year" and schools would expect him to pay $7,000 per year towards tuition and room and board?</p>
<p>I know there are some fin. aid calculation experts on this site...and I tend to be somewhat naive about the end result of financial aid calculations..but $7,000 seems like a lot of money from a $35,000 income!</p>
<p>As for the child support....I'm sure $4,000 is a significant loss in terms of available household cash, but a $4,000 decrease in "income" doesn't seem like much money - in terms of what it means to income used for a college tuition calculation.</p>
<p>A bit off topic, but I'd just like to add that $600 a month for one kid is crazy child support!!</p>
<p>If OP is in NYS, the amount is pretty close to in the required state guidelines for child support: minimum 17 percent of their pretax income in child support for one child, 25 percent for two children and 29 percent for three children, 31 percent for four children, and not less than 35 percent for five or more children</p>
<p>35,000* .17 = $5,950</p>
<p>We're in PA and it is right out of the PA guidelines. They took his W-2 and paystub and threw in a calculator and it spits out a number. He had a lawyer there, so had it been wrong, I am sure the lawyer would have piped up. When it was 2 kids it was only about $760, so not a big bonus for the older kid (who I might add eats twice that $160 a month, LOL). And I am guessing on the $35K, it might be a hair more, and I don't know how they handle overtime, etc, because I was not in the proceedings. I guess it all evens out, sort of. I certainly thought both amounts were fair.</p>
<p>I admit I don't know enough about PROFILE to have an idea what the possible outcomes might be for his extra income, but really almost any extra amount is just more that we'll be gapped. And 2boys, while $4000 might not seem like much to you, it is to us, and really it is $4K at a $7K rate, and that is $4k tax free. When calculating our FAFSA, I believe that $4K less income would most likely make both my college kids PELL eligible, which as has been pointed out, opens doors to many other programs that are otherwise not available. I simply pulled the $7K out of the air figuring if the state thinks he can pay $7K in child support, a college might think the same about tuition.</p>