<p>I have received conflicting answers from multiple sources on the web, so am hoping that someone with a similar experience may be able to answer my financial aid question. </p>
<p>First, I will be applying to schools this fall and am interested in applying for financial aid.</p>
<p>The problem: my parents divorced when I was five years old, and I am no longer in contact with my father. My mother has remarried at this point (one source thought this information might be relevant). </p>
<p>When applying for financial aid, do I have to submit tax information from both of my biological parents, just the family I live with, of the family I live with in addition to the one that I do not live with?</p>
<p>If you are applying to a FAFSA only school, you would submit the tax information for your custodial parent (and step-parent). If you apply to a school which uses PROFILE, you will need financial information from your mother, step-father, father and step-mother (if he has remarried). If you can document that you have no way of contacting your father, the school(s) may be willing to override the father's information...but that is going to be a decision each school will make individually, as they are allowed to use any method they wish to determine need to institutional aid. The only real regulations that apply is for federal and state aid.</p>
<p>How is non custodial parental contribution counted in determining the EFC. My daughter will be applying to a school that wants both FAFSA and Profile. Will my ex's income be in addition to my husband and my income (as in EFC) or will his be added to that #? Maybe it does not even matter and all washes out in the end?</p>
<p>For the FAFSA EFC, your husband and your income/assets are used. Your ex's informaton will be needed for PROFILE and schools using their own app that require this info. It may be a wash, quite true, since FAFSA just qualifies you for government money, and if your husband and you make over those threshholds, your student is not likely to get anything from that. With PROFILE, it will matter because EVERYONE (you, ex, current) will be assessed.</p>
<p>Well, it won't be a wash, in that we won't qualify for aid; we will.</p>
<p>I have read that non custodial parents are typically asked to keep paying what they paid in Child Support for tuition for their child...as the non cust. EFC. Is this correct or would the college perhaps ask for more based on his income? (his is not much).</p>
<p>The Child Support he pays me will be included in my EFC for the first year. Once she turns 18, he technically does not have to pay it any longer. Does the school typically asks the non custodial to continue to pay that? or is that their hope/thinking?</p>
<p>If you are talking FAFSA schools, the info you need is very straight forward. Schools will not ask for more info in order to award you federal aid (Pell, ACG, FSEOG, FWS, Stafford loans). The income of the parent with whom the student lived for the majority of time during the 12 months prior to filing the FAFSA, that parent's spouse's income (if remarried). If the parent received child support it is reported in untaxed income due to the fact that it is money earned. This is the federal government's formula, not the school's. If you no longer get child support after your child turns 18, then the point will come when it is no longer income you will be reporting on your FAFSA in a future year. You simply report the child support info ... you won't have to provide any further info from your ex. However, the school may take other factors into consideration in , like income info. Schools are able to ask for different info when awarding their own aid; these questions would be asked separate from the FAFSA (and could possibly include info re: noncustodial parent's income & assets). Profile schools look at different info than FAFSA schools, and they use both parents' complete financial info (income, assets).</p>
<p>My experience is that every school that requires the Profile is different in how they use it. Some of the questions you have to answer on the Profile may actually only be sent to certain colleges that request those answers.</p>
<p>Some schools look at bio dad's information, others don't. For my DD - there are just her father & I (no steps) the school she chose did not seem to take into account his income - which is many times mine. He never paid enough child support, but they certainly did not require him to pay that. Another school that was high on her list did not offer her much - when I called to question how much they were expecting us to pay - they told me they figured I would only pay 10% of it and her dad 90% (which he would never had done - as he repeatedly says by law he is only responsible for 1/3)</p>
<p>Also, to the OP - if your bio dad is absent and you can show this, or you can't persuade him to fill out the non-custodial profile, be sure to be in contact with the schools you are applying to about this. When I asked about this for my DD, I had colleges tell me that they take into acct that some parents are jerks.</p>
<p>But your step-dad's income will count when filling out the FAFSA & PROFILE</p>
<p>Sorry to belabor this point:
Will non-custodial dad at school that requires non custodial financial information be given a specific $ amount that he is expected to pay? As in his own EFC?
And, are we just talking Physical Custody as far as non-custodial or Legal Custody??</p>
<p>I believe that there will only be one EFC, which you will never know. All you'll know is the amount of aid you'll get; how you split up what's left to pay amongst you is your business. That "what's left" may or may not be the EFC; some schools "gap" and don't meet full need.</p>
<p>For FAFSA purposes, the custodial parent is the one with whom the student lives the majority of the time (and there are a number of other ways to figure it out if the student splits living arrangements 50-50 between the parents). Legal custody is not determinative.</p>
<p>No, they don't give you each an amt - would be nice I think. But, I did have the experience of questioning a college - when their offer didn't come close to what other schools were offering my D. What the FA officer told me was - we, can't tell you what we figured he would pay, but we can tell you what we figured you would pay.</p>
<p>She told me my percentage - wasn't hard to then figure out his.</p>
<p>Non-custodial is the parent, the student spends the least amt of time living with. </p>
<p>Don't worry about asking questions about this - I had a ton of questions about this, because I was so afraid of what my former H would be willing to do - including the paperwk.</p>
<p>You do have to work out with the other parent what they will pay - hopefully, you have something in your divorce decree about this. And check out your state laws if you don't</p>