Financial aid help: Divorced parents.

<p>I have a pretty crazy family situation right now and need guidance to calculate my family's EFC.</p>

<p>My mom is my custodial parent; she makes about $40K/yr. She is married, and I think my step-dad makes around $50K/yr, although he hasn't saved money back for me.</p>

<p>My dad pays child support. He makes about the same as my step-dad and also supports two young kids and his wife, a stay-at-home mom. I think he claims me as a dependent every other year.</p>

<p>For the past two years, I've lived with my GRANDFATHER (who is retired and lives on a fixed income). However, I didn't file any paperwork to legally change my address and still listed my mom's address on most documents. (I don't know if that's important.) I may move back in with my mom this year, but I may not.</p>

<p>Which data are applicable when I apply for financial aid? If I can legitimately take multiple routes, which one would get me the most?</p>

<p>Let’s start at the beginning:</p>

<p>You cannot use your grandfather’s income (so this is immediately off of the table)</p>

<p>If your mom is the custodial parent and you have lived more with your mom than your dad, then you must use your mom’s income on the FAFSA. Since she is married, you must include your stepdad’s income and any child support paid by your dad.</p>

<p>It does not matter who claims you on their taxes.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that most FAFSA only schools do not meet 100% demonstrated need. Even if you live with your dad, if he makes 50K, you may get a very small pell grant and a stafford loan.</p>

<p>Most of the schools that you are considering:</p>

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</p>

<p>Will require the CSS profile and the non-custodial profile (or their own FA forms). You must then list the income assets of your mom, stepdad, your dad and your stepmom (if she works).</p>

<p>with your stats:</p>

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</p>

<p>You need to have some schools on your list where you may stand a good chance of getting merit money. You must also make sure that you have a couple of financial safeties on your list.</p>

<p>Yes, the schools that you have listed will require the financial info from ALL the parents and ALL the step-parents…EVERYONE’s income, assets, savings, properties, etc.</p>

<p>Since it sounds like these schools are going to expect your family to pay a lot more than they intend to pay, you really need to have a few financial safeties as well…otherwise you could have a handful of acceptances with NO affordable schools.</p>

<p>AND…you can’t borrow your way thru college without QUALIFIED and willing co-signers…which your parents probably won’t do (and shouldn’t do…too risky).</p>

<p>It looks like your mom and step-dad bring in about $90k, and your dad brings in about $50k. If you could manage to spend one day more with your father in 2013 than with your mother, you could use him as your custodial parent for the FAFSA. The family size (dad, step-mom, you, two half-sibs) would also work a bit to your advantage.</p>

<p>Speak with both your mom and your dad, and ask them how much each is ready, willing, and able to pay for your college education, and if their feelings would change about that if the other parent were the one responsible for providing the numbers for the FAFSA, and being the primary parent for other aid applications.</p>

<p>Happymomof1,</p>

<p>I have lived at my grandfather’s all year, but on legal documents I believe that my mom’s address has been listed. Since it’s August, is it too late to use him as my custodial parent? If not, how great a benefit would it be? My dad and I aren’t on very good terms and I’ve even stopped seeing him for visitation (he’s okay with this). I still go out to town with my stepmom and little brothers occasionally, but I don’t think I’ve heard from my dad in over a month. He even missed my birthday!</p>

<p>Read FAFSA definiton of custodial parent v-e-r-y carefully. It’s not whose address is listed. It’s not who claims you for taxes. It’s now who remembers your birthday or wants you around. It’s who you;ve lived with the most in a given time period before the FAFSA is filed. For federal aid ONLY the custodial parents and that parent’s spouse’s incomes are included, and if your dad pays child support to your mother, that would also be added to your mother and stepfather’s income. If your stepmother does not work, could be a a bit of a difference. Though for federal aid, it would probably amount to just a bit of PELL grant money, unsubsidized loans and work study. </p>

<p>For most schools that use PROFILE, both parents and steps have to complete the financials. However, usually there is a bit more of a break given to the non custodial parent in terms of what they expect that parent to contribute has been my experience. If you can sit down and get some numbers from everyone, you can run it both ways using a NPC from one of the schools on your list as well as the FAFSA EFC estimator and see what the difference is.</p>

<p>cptofthehouse,</p>

<p>In the past year, I’ve lived with my mom and dad for exactly 0 days each. While I may move back in with Mom, I will still have lived with my grandfather for far longer. I realize that he can’t be listed as my custodial parent, but since I’ve lived with him and neither of my parents, which one should I list?</p>

<p>Then if you live with your fater for 1 day, then he is your custodial parent if you lived wth your mom for zero. That’s how it is defined for FAFSA custodial parent. Otherwise, you are supposed to use the parent with the higher income.</p>

<p>If you are a contender for those top schools, you should have the brains to be able to read the definition of custodial parent for FAFSA and figure out what you need for the estimators.</p>

<p>How do I prove whom I’ve lived with? Most things look as if I live with my mom (I believe my dad even paid her child support some this year, though now he puts it in an account for me), so I’m worried that I’ll be flagged if I try to report my dad as the custodial parent. After all, custodial parents don’t usually pay child support.</p>

<p>You need to run the Net Price Calculators for the institutions on your list, and you need to ASK BOTH PARENTS AND THEIR SPOUSES just exactly how much money they are indeed ready, willing, and able to pay for your education each year, the number of years that they will pay that amount, and under what circumstances. Some parents won’t pay anything at all. Some will pay for only four years, but not one single extra summer session, semester, etc. Some will only pay for certain majors. You need to know what your parents can commit to.</p>

<p>If after running the Net Price Calculators, you and your parents determine that it is best for you to use your father as the custodial parent, then spend one more day in his home than in your mom’s home. That really truly is all it takes.</p>

<p>If you spend the same amount of time with both parents (the situation you currently are in), then the parent who contributes the most toward your upkeep is the custodial parent for financial aid purposes. If your dad is putting the child support into an account for your use, then it is entirely possible that he is the one who is shelling out the most for you right now, and is indeed your custodial parent for financial aid purposes.</p>

<p>You should consider having an application list with schools from the automatic (for safeties) and competitive (for matches/reaches) full ride lists (see the sticky threads in this forum section), so that if the messy parental financial situation prevents you from getting enough need-based financial aid, you will have options that do not depend on the parental finances.</p>

<p>This student is applying to a bunch of CSS schools that will require ALL parents’ info. Figuring out which parent for FAFSA is a VERY minor issue in the big picture. </p>

<p>The student seems to think that one way or the other will get her more aid. It won’t. </p>

<p>She has a bigger problem…schools that use all parents’ info may require her family to pay more than they’re willing to pay. </p>

<p>All of this “which parent” to use on FAFSA probably isn’t the big issue.</p>

<p>Denlah - Your mailing address doesn’t matter. Your address for high school doesn’t matter. If you didn’t live with either parent, then your “custodial” parent is the one who paid more of your expenses. Who paid for your clothes, school books, health insurance?</p>

<p>And don’t worry about “proving” it. Just tell the truth on the form, and if anyone has any questions, you’ll answer them. Trust me, you are definitely not the first kid with an unusual family situation!</p>

<p>Princeton does not use the Profile. It uses it’s own form. Read very carefully how they deal with divorced parents, and spouses. It is very different than other schools.</p>

<p>However, getting accepted to Princeton is not guaranteed for anyone!</p>

<p>As noted…if you have lived equally with both parents, you need to list the parent who contributes most to your support. In most cases, this is the parent with the higher income.</p>

<p>For CSS Profile schools, you will likely have to proved info for everyone as noted above. one parent and spouse will complete the Profile, and the other parent and spouse will complete the NCP Profile.</p>

<p>Your grandparents are not players in this at all. </p>

<p>Just tell the truth about your parents, and don’t worry about how people “prove” this. If you are honest, you will be able to document who your custodial parent is. So…be honest about it.</p>

<p>You also might want to revisit your list of potential schools, as well as the thread here for guaranteed merit awards.</p>

<p>Read the rules. That’s what counts. </p>

<p>However, as Thumper says, the bottom line is that BOTH parents and both Steps will be included in the PROFILE calculations. So, though there might be some difference in aid, in using one over the other as the custodial parent, it may well not end up being that big of a difference in PROFILE schools, though there are some differences in how NCP contributions are calculated many times.</p>

<p>However, those schools are your lottery tickets. What the most important schools are for any and every student. are the ones that you know will accept you and that you will be able to afford. You need to find out what your parents are willing and able to pay, and what you can expect in aid from a number of schools that will accept you. The accept rates of the schools on your list are such that no one can count on acceptance from them. If you have the stats to be in the running for such acceptances, there may be prospects for good merit aid and favorable aid packages from a number of schools, and some may use FAFSA only, or not ask for NCP financial infor. YOu need to get a list of some of those schools.</p>