Hello,
I am filling out my questbridge form and I am not sure what to list for Parent 2. I live with Parent 1 only and have not lived with Parent 2 and they have told us that they will not pay for anything for college. Should I include them, but write that they will not pay? Will this affect my financial standing and be taken into consideration?
Thank you.
Yes, because Questbridge requires the income and assets of both parents.
Financial aid is based on what the school believes your parents can pay, not what they want to pay.
@sybbie719 So even though Parent 2 refuses to pay, it will be counted as if they are paying? If I include that they are not paying, will Questbridge take that into consideration?
If Questbridge takes that into consideration, what’s to keep every Questbridge applicant from saying “sorry, both of my parents refuse to pay.” Parents are first in line to help with their child’s education expenses, up to their reasonable ability to do so. Having the money to help but refusing to pay “just because” does not cut it.
Please…complete your Questbridge application with ALL of the necessary fields filled in…including your non-custodial parent if that is required.
No, you can’t just tell them your parent(S) won’t pay. They will determine your parent contribution…based on all,the required information.
If people could simply say, I don’t want to pay and get full financial aid, everyone would suddenly say, I don’t want to pay and attend school for free.
If you have a parent who has means to pay and refuses to pay, Questbridge will not make up the difference. If the amount that your mom makes + what your dad makes is over 60k, then you will not be eligible.
@sybbie719 So if both of my parents make $71k with 5 kids then I won’t be eligible? I listed on my questbridge app that my parents and I are immigrants and for one reason or another, they are always sending back home most of the money they make…they don’t use it to financially benefit us as much as they can or save it for our post-secondary education…
It is your parent choice to send money to others. The schools and others won’t consider that in their calculations.
You parents choosing to send money outside of the country will not be taken into consideration. Are you a US citizen or permanent resident?
You may be wasting your time. If the schools that you’re applying to use CSS profile and require NCP income info and your dad won’t provide that info and/or won’t pay, then you may be spinning your wheels. You’ll need to be spending your time focusing on schools that will only use your mom’s info and will still give you lots of aid.
Schools that ask for both parents’ info will NOT give you aid just because your dad says he won’t pay. All parents would say that they won’t pay if schools would give more aid.
@JasmineArmani schools won’t care that your parents choose to send money to others. If schools were to give you money, then they would effectively be supporting those people that your parents are sending money to…and schools don’t want to be supporting those people.
If it’s not too time-consuming, then why not apply, figuring it is low odds. Maybe you will be pleasantly surprised.
You said your family income (with both parents) is $71,000 with five kids. The income cutoff somebody else pasted above is lower but for a family of four. Your family is MUCH larger.
If the non-custodial parent will not pay, in general, this is no different than the custodial parent also refusing to pay! Colleges, etc are unlikely to respond favorably. But if you have not had contact with the non-custodial parent for a long time and can document that, than go for it. It could be worth the effort.
On the issue of remittances to the “home country”: My guess is colleges and Questbridge will handle this as THEY see fit and it may not be obvious to those of us on College Confidential. If you are able to document those transfers in some way, then it could be worth the effort.
About all of the above - Yes, I know that many posters will disagree. But the reality is that this entire financial aid process is NOT so uniform as many posters will tell you. There is no single formula. There is enormous nuance and variation across colleges (and probably Questbridge) and it is worth your effort to apply, particularly since you will be collecting information that you will need in order to apply to colleges’ financial aid offices anyway. In other words, it is not time wasted because you will need to put together this sort of “financial portfolio” at some point anyway.
I’d think they’d have a formula that doesn’t just double the two household incomes, but weights the custodial more heavily. So I agree - give it a shot.
The fact that the parent is in communication enough to say “no I won’t pay” makes it hard for the school to grant an exception to the rule. Sometimes they do, but it’s not very common.
However, if the net income from both parents is 71,000, then the parent who doesn’t want to pay may not be expected to pay very much anyway and the difference could be made up with a loan or something.
You are combining 2 separate issues (@JasmineArmani -the problem with hijacking some one else’s thread)
Op started the conversation wanting to know if he must use id dad’s income on the Questbridge application even though dad says he is not going to pay. The response was That if parents are divorced, separated, never married Questbridge needs the income assets of both parents. Op wants to know is it enough to say dead won’t pat
Issue 2 @JasmineArmani states they are a family of 7 who makes 71k/year. However they are immigrants and their parents send money back home, so they do not have a lot of money, would they still be eligible? The response to her was that neither Questbridge or the colleges will take into consideration her parents choice to send money home vs helping to pay for her education.
You could also call Questbridge and ask them some of these questions.