<p>My mother and my father split up when I was 3 months old, and my mother raised me on her own. From what I understand, my dad is pretty rich, but I know he will not contribute anything towards my college expenses. If we were to list my father down on financial aid forms, then there is no way that I would be able to get financial aid, because it will be assumed that my father is going to contribute. </p>
<p>How unethical is a simple failure to include my father on the commonapp/FAFSA forms and only list my mother as a parent? (On the common app form, just leaving blank the space for parent two)</p>
<p>Keep in mind that I have lived my whole life with my mother alone, and my mother brought me up by herself.</p>
<p>Use the search function to check the CC archives because there have been lots of threads on this subject, particularly in the financial aid section.</p>
<p>I don't think that there's any way that you can do what you would like to do. Colleges will want to know who your dad is and unless you write something like "unknown," (and you'd probably have to verify this with a birth certificate) or "deceased" (which the colleges also probably would need to verify), the colleges also will expect your dad to contribute to your education.</p>
<p>I think that you would be best served by sitting down having a face to face with your father and talk about the prospects of you going off to college. </p>
<p>At schools that provide need based aid using their own institutional funds (the ivies, stanford , mit, WASP, etc) these schools use an institutional methodology to determine your demonstrated need and use the CSS profile which looks at the income and assets of both your parents. Your fatheer stating he is unwilling to pay willnot bean acceptable excuse and could leave you between a rock and a hard place.</p>
<p>But if your parents are legally divorced and father moved out, then isn't he no longer included in the household income, which is what matters? This is something I would ask a financial aid office, perticularly at a college of similar rank to yours that you do not plan on applying to.</p>
<p>For instance, I forwarded all my concerns financial aid concerns to Williams and academic/applicant concerns to Tufts. (I'm going to Amherst ;) And Tufts was on my list , but was my 5th choice, so it couldn't hurt too much.</p>
<p>ILoveBrown is not entirely correct. The law is a funny thing. If you're parents are married it is true they are not required to contribute anything to your college education. However courts in many states have held that a non-custodial parent can be required to pay for college. According to <a href="http://www.finaid.org/questions/divorce.phtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.finaid.org/questions/divorce.phtml</a>
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Whether divorced parents have a legal obligation to pay for their children's education depends on the state in which the divorce occurred. Several states have laws or case law that allow courts to order the non-custodial parent to help pay for college. These states include Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and West Virginia. States which prohibit the courts from ordering college support (except for enforcing a previous agreement between the parents) include Alaska, Nebraksa, and New Hampshire. (As of 2/2/2004, New Hampshire judges no longer have the discretion to order college support for adult children.)
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This is not something to resolve on an internet forum, you need to go see a lawyer in your state. Low-cost or free representation may be available depending on your family income.</p>
<p>As for the ethics of what you suggest, "forgetting" to mention your dad, I think you know the answer as well as we do.</p>
<p>Hmm, I appologize for over-generalizing; I did not realize that the law varied by state. However, "allowing courts to order the non-custodial parent to help pay for college" is not nearly the same thing as an automatic, default obligation.</p>