Back story: So my parents had a violent divorce nine years ago, I don’t have a lot of contact with my father, he remarried and had four other kids and moved to Denmark so I haven’t seen him in a long time, once a year he’ll e-mail me asking if I want anything for Christmas, even though he never ends up getting anything for me or my three siblings
When I was filling out my CSS, I saw that he had to fill out a Non-Custodial Parent profile. I didn’t understand the alternative of not having him fill it out, so I e-mailed him begging him to fill it out, and he did.
Now I have the IDOC and certain colleges are asking me for his tax forms/official documents. He’s really rich, but my family really isn’t. We make about $36,000 a year, and he makes almost 5 times that, not including bonuses. I’m told that schools will give me financial aid packages stating how much my parents are expected to jointly contribute. My mother won’t be able to contribute anything, and my father 100% will not contribute anything. He hasn’t paid child support for any of us in years, and makes no effort to give us any kind of substantial financial support. I’m scared that schools will get the wrong idea and give me a high EFC, especially schools who require the CSS, high-profile ones like Columbia, Harvard, etc.
I’m just lost on all of this, and I really need guidance as to what to do, how to proceed, etc. I won’t even be able to acquire these documents, he would never hand them over. Additionally, I don’t have any student tax forms? Will those be alright left blank?
Your dad completed the non-custodial form. You need to provide the info the schools are requesting. Otherwise, they will not consider you for institutional need based aid at all.
You can try contacting them but the reality is…you did have enough contact with yourmdad to get that form completed. I’m not sure how you could take that away at this point.
I’m hoping you also applied to some schools where you would,get huge merit aid based on your stats. That would not be income dependent.
Honestly it took so much effort, literally weeks, to get that form completed by him, so much bartering, i talked to him more in that time than in a very very long time, and he’s not going to be that compliant this time around, especially since he’ll have to give me information directly.
Thanks for the fast reply, I appreciate that
Your dad doesn’t need to give YOU anything. He needs to provide the info to the colleges.
What are your stats? Did you apply anywhere that you can afford on merit alone?
You are in a pickle. Instead of getting an NCP waiver due to the violence involved, you got your dad to send the info.
At this point, you have to do TWO things at the SAME time…(don’t wait on number 2)
1). Send the schools documentation of the violence from years ago. Police records, etc. and ask for a waiver.
This may be denied because he did already provide some info.
2). Quickly apply to some schools that will give you HUGE merit for stats… HUGE…more than free tuition.
Unless there was something in the divorce decree about not having contact with spouse or kids or having supervised visitation with kids , Op has contact with NCP so most likely will not be eligible for a waiver.
I agree that Op may need some FAFSA only schools where a/he stands a good chance of merit aid
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ is a list of automatic large merit scholarships. Check school web sites to verify. Some are first come first served, and deadlines may be close or already past, so act quickly.
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/ lists competitive large merit scholarships.
Do you have any FAFSA only schools on your list?
^^Definitely second recommendation for applying to some FAFSA-only schools.
If you attend a Profile college you are going to have to go through this every year.