<p>New member with some questions. Divorced single mother of twins, both of whom are currently juniors in high school. I do not make alot of money, about $45,000 a year. Father pays child support which will end in about a year, as will his legal obligation in my state. Highly unlikely he will contribute any money toward college, but he does have a sizable income and investments. Will his income have to be reported on financial aid applications? If so, I can absolutely forget about my twins going to anything but a state school. They are both excellent students and we have been receiving info from elite colleges since they took the PSAT. Any info/guidance would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>SInce you are the custodial parent, only you have to fill out the FAFSA. With a set of twins and your income, it is likely that you will be eligible for some government money which is determined by FAFSA, unless the child support and your assets take you over the threshhold. </p>
<p>However, the more generous colleges in terms of financial aid usually want PROFILE or another form completed with BOTH parents’ financial information. So your ex’s financial situation would be taken into account at such schools. THose schools that use FAFSA only do not tend to meet financial need.</p>
<p>You may want to look at FAFSA only schools. Those schools will only look at your income, not the income or assets of their father.</p>
<p>Take a look at momoftexas’s thread on full scholarship schools. Merit awards may be the way to go for you. The problem with FAFSA only schools is that they rarely meet full need.</p>
<p>FAFSA only schools are usually state schools. The vast majority of elite private schools will want his information and the info of any new spouse for either of you. Bottom line, whether he wants to pay or not doesn’t matter unfortunately. Any that don’t use Profile, like NYU, usually don’t meet need.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick and useful replys. I suspect child support will push me over the threshold, it is about $2,000 per month. However, that will end when they graduate from high school June 2010, yet I will be providing financial info for 2009 when I am receiving child support. But it sounds like a FAFSA only school is my best bet.</p>
<p>Don’t rule out PROFILE schools; most of them do not require the non-custodial parent’s financial information:</p>
<p><a href=“https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/prf/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet.srv[/url]”>https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/prf/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet.srv</a></p>
<p>Check the website of each school of interest to confirm their policies on non-custodial reporting.</p>
<p>Can you afford to have the twins’ father contribute $2000/month to 529 accounts rather than pay you child support? This would be a way to divert income into a tax-free account that will benefit your twins.</p>
<p>Count on child support to make ends meet, but I have some money saved for college, but certainly no where near what it would cost. Thanks for the list of colleges that specify need for Profile/non-custoidial/IDOC. I guess the best bet is to apply to the schools they are most interested in, hoping for the best, but also some good state schools as well. I just don’t want them to come out of college with massive debt. This will take alot or research!!</p>
<p>When you read the heartbreaking posts by kids after today who got into an ivy but can’t go, you’ll probably decide to figure out the FA stuff before you let them apply. I don’t know of a single elite college that does not count the income of both parents.</p>
<p>Kids fall in love with schools. IMO they should know from the very start the elites will be impossible if a high wage earning parent won’t contribute.</p>
<p>Most PROFILE schools require non custodial info. Do look for merit awards at both state and private schools.</p>
<p>Arg, there are some misleading comments above. It is not true that FAFSA-only schools are usually state schools - how can this be, when there are only a few hundred PROFILE schools altogether in the U.S.? Lots of private colleges are FAFSA-only too. And while it is true that most non-PROFILE schools don’t meet the full need of all of their students - guess what, most PROFILE schools don’t either. While the most famous and selective schools tend to be PROFILE schools and meet full need, you can’t generalize beyond that.</p>
<p>Here’s a list of FAFSA-only schools. This is a small subset of all the FAFSA-only schools out there - it’s pretty random, but it’s a start.</p>
<p>Allegheny College<br>
Austin College<br>
Beloit College<br>
Biola University<br>
Birmingham-Southern College<br>
California Lutheran University<br>
Centre College<br>
Chapman University<br>
Cornell College<br>
Denison University<br>
Dominican University<br>
Earlham College<br>
Eckerd College<br>
Emory & Henry College<br>
The Evergreen State College<br>
Fresno Pacific University<br>
Gonzaga University<br>
Guilford College<br>
Hendrix College<br>
Hiram College<br>
Hope College<br>
Ithaca College<br>
Juniata College<br>
Knox College<br>
Lawrence University<br>
Linfield College<br>
Loyola University Chicago<br>
Loyola University New Orleans<br>
Lynchburg College<br>
Marlboro College<br>
Marymount College<br>
McDaniel College<br>
Mills College<br>
Millsaps College<br>
Mount St. Mary’s College (Chalon)<br>
New College of Florida<br>
Pepperdine University<br>
University of Portland<br>
Prescott College<br>
University of Redlands<br>
Saint Mary’s College of California<br>
University of San Diego<br>
University of San Francisco<br>
Seattle University<br>
Southwestern University<br>
Trinity University
Westminster College<br>
Wheaton College<br>
Whitworth University</p>
<p>Liberty University and Averett University are also FAFSA only schools…and both have awarded full scholarships to worthy students (without ANY gapping).</p>
<p>Some of those schools use FAFSA but have their own supplements.</p>
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<p>Yes, some of these schools do have their own supplements, but most of them don’t. When they do have their own supplements, they don’t always ask the questions you’re afraid they’ll ask. You have to read the supplements to see what they’re interested in.</p>
<p>For example, Earlham asks about home equity but not about the non-custodial parent. Dominican doesn’t ask about either. Beloit and Centre ask about non-custodial parents, but it’s a simple question - will the non-custodial parent be contributing, and if so, how much.</p>
<p>But anyway, most of the schools on the list above don’t require supplements.</p>
<p>Just wanted to say we went through this this year and it was something of a nightmare. My D’s father was willing to provide financial info but not through me, so I had to keep telling him that things were missing from various application files. (He also is not willing to provide $, just to cooperate with the process.) </p>
<p>It definitely is easier with the FAFSA only schools and there are some good ones on that list. (Willamette and NYU should be on there too.) But it’s true that the elite ones are all going to look at both parents’ (as well as step-parents’) income, assets, etc. I definitely advise being frank with your kids about schools, so they don’t fall in love with something unattainable … or at least have their eyes open about it.</p>
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<p>Not true. There are several THOUSAND four year colleges in this country. And only several hundred that use the Profile.</p>
<p>Many of the FAFSA only schools do NOT meet full need, and some that award institutional aid using only the FAFSA also require additional information via their own financial aid form. Some do not.</p>
<p>You will need to do your research carefully. FAFSA only schools might be your best bet.</p>
<p>Oh…your own instate public universities are probably worth looking into.</p>
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<p>It’s important to understand that many (most) of the PROFILE schools do NOT meet full need either.</p>
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<p>And sometimes this extra information is things like whether or not you’re doing study abroad next year and whether any of your relatives attended the school - it’s not necessarily about non-custodial parents.</p>
<p>Calreader is correct on both points. The OP will have to do careful research to find out exactly what information is required by the colleges and from whom (custodial parent…or both). This varies wildly…and so do the questions asked. Even for Profile schools…not all require the non-custodial parent form. AND they also vary in terms of how they USE the non-custodial parent information. AND there are supplemental questions on the Profile that also vary by school. There is no “one size fits all”.</p>
<p>BUT very true…the vast majority of colleges do not meet full financial need.</p>
<p>^^Sadly. The unpredictability of aid is the hardest thing for people who are new to the process, I think.</p>
<p>And…things change from year to year…with both acceptances and financial aid awarding. What may have happened this year might NOT be the case next year.</p>