Financial Aid With Divorced Parents?

Paying for College
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<p>I'm a rising high school senior and will be in the college class of 2014. My parents divorced about nine years ago, and I live with my mom. My dad is still in the picture and stuff, he's not estranged, he's just not the primary guardian.
My mom is a house cleaner, and makes about ~$20,000 or so? She's well under the $30,000 mark, so I'm not worried about that. Single mom, two kids, ~$20,000, that's a shoe-in for FA. Also, I'm eligible for Free & Reduced Lunch. I'm not sure about which income tax form she fills out, if any (I remember her talking about not having to file it a few years ago). That's all fine and good.</p>

<p>My main concern is whether or not colleges will look at my dad's salary.
He's a firefighter and makes somewhere between $40,000 and $50,000. That, combined with my mom's salary, would put me wayyy over $30,000, and also over the $60,000 mark that a lot of the upper-tier colleges used to determine whether you have a family contribution or not (most of the Ivies, Duke, Stanford, etc...).
Will they look at his salary? I heard from one of my friends that colleges don't take that into consideration if the parents have been divorced for more than ten years, but mine have not. It's only been nine. Is that true?</p>

<p>Although I'm going to apply for lots of scholarships, and will hopefully win some, the main thing I'm banking on is having lots of FA. The main schools on my radar right now are University of Chicago and Duke. (I know UofC does not do that "under $60,000 = automatic no family contribution" thing, but the same general principal still applies.. if UofC takes my dad's salary into account then that's a lot less FA than just my mom's)</p>

<p>Also, how much do colleges look at assets?
My parents bought our house about 20 years ago for approximately $60,000, but the neighborhood has vastly improved since then and now it's worth somewhere around $240,000 or so. There's a lot of equity in it, but my mom is unable to tap into it. She's self-employed, therefore has no official paycheck, which apparently she needs to be able to use the equity. Will colleges care about that either?</p>

<p>There's really no way my family can pay for my college unless I get substantial financial aid. I'm prepared for the fact that I will probably have to drown in loans (although I hope I don't..) and such, but there's a big difference between ~$20,000, and ~$70,000 family income.</p>

<p>Also, yes I have looked into Questbridge. I applied for their College Prep Scholarship and got the one about attending a college summit thing at Stanford (although circumstances arose and I was unable to go), so I guess that's a good indicator of how successful my chances would be if I applied for the National College Match? I'm just not a fan of the binding contract and such, and the potential of having to go to a school that's not one of your top choices... I really want to go to University of Chicago.</p>

<p>Any thoughts? Comments, suggestions, tips? Thanks in advance! :)</p>

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<p>For FAFSA they only look at the income/assets of the custodial parent. The primary home is not a reportable asset on FAFSA. SO fo FAFSA only schools you will not have to worry about your Dad’s assets or income.</p>

<p>Schools that require CSSprofile for their own institutional aid will generally require the financial information of the non custodial parent as well as the custodial parent. They also require the valuse of the house to be reported. How they use this information will vary by school.</p>

<p>The best thing is to make sure you include at least a couple of FAFSA only schools in your applications as well as those that require CSS. That way you can compare finances before you make a decision.</p>

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<p>Schools that use institutional method and use the CSS Profile are (for the most part) going to look at your father’s income. FAFSA-only schools won’t. You can use that to your advantage by making sure that you apply to some schools that are strong matches and FAFSA-only. That’s the good news. </p>

<p>The pesky news is that based on our family’s experience with U Chicago, they will use your father’s income, and they can be a bit rigid about financial aid. I’d suggest also looking at Reed College. It has some things in common with Chicago, but their FA department is much more flexible and easier to deal with. (Of course, there are also a lot of differences, and it may not be a good match for you in other ways.) </p>

<p>In your situation there <em>is</em> financial aid out there for you, and there are almost certainly schools that will give you very generous aid, if you’re a strong student. (You haven’t mentioned that.) The free lunch thing means you qualify for the simplified needs test which means ignoring family assets – good news about the house. But you’re going to need to be flexible and not focus on just one dream school.</p>

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The simplifieds needs test is for FAFSA only, which already ignores the primary home. But it would mean any other assets, if any, are ignored. You will probably qualify for the automatic 0 EFC for your FAFSA EFC.</p>

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<p>I was talking about FAFSA, I should have been more clear. And yes, my concern was other assets. </p>

<p>For the OP: I would urge you to find some FAFSA-only schools you can love – you might be able to find a full scholarship of one kind or another, if you can be flexible.</p>

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<p>Well that’s a relief, about the FAFSA atleast!
Thanks TrinSF, I will definitely look into FAFSA-only schools! I haven’t finished compiling my list of colleges yet, but U of Chicago just really appealed to me and is at the top right now.
I am a strong student, I believe (3.8 UW GPA, 32 on the ACT, IB student, summer research internship at WashU, etc), so hopefully I will win a fair amount of scholarships.</p>

<p>Has anybody ever heard of the rumor that if your parents have been divorced for more than 10 years, then colleges don’t look at the secondary parent’s income? I thought it was kinda bogus because I had never heard of it before and it seemed kinda unfair, but my friend seemed to be quite versed in financial aid information so I didn’t automatically disregard it.</p>

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<p>No I have never heard of such a thing. And I think it would have appeared in these forums if it were true.</p>

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<p>You seem to be getting some misinformation, but I’m sure you would have realized that when you got further into the process. I’ve never heard of any 10 year benchmark for divorced parents. I don’t know what you mean by the $30,000 mark. Also, $60,000 is just the turning point. It doesn’t mean that once you are above $60,000 your family suddenly has to come up with a bunch of money, it’s a sliding scale. Your family contribution could look like something around a few thousand dollars. That may sound like a lot to you but for a college education it isn’t.</p>

<p>I echo what everyone has been saying about the FAFSA only schools. It looks to me like you will have an EFC of 0 at those schools. But your Dad’s income isn’t that high either. I think for the schools that use the Profile your EFC will still be low. I hope you will still apply to some of those schools.</p>

<p>One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is schools vary in how much aid they give in the form of grants that don’t have to be paid back and how much is in the form of loans. Some schools have completely eliminated loans. Harvard and Williams both have, I don’t know what other schools are on this particular list.</p>

<p>This is an extremely important piece to your puzzle. Let’s say, for instance, that the University of Chicago agrees that your EFC is 0 so they give you a financial aid package the covers your full cost of attendance but it is mostly in the form of loans. Let’s say that a school like Duke thinks that your EFC is $5,000 per year, so they offer you a financial aid package that covers everything but $5,000 but this financial aid package contains mostly grants and very little in the way of loans. Financially, you would be way better off at Duke even though they determined you have a non-zero EFC.</p>

<p>This isn’t just a hypothetical, this is the way things really play out. So do your research, like you’re doing, and don’t expect things to fall into place overnight. What might look like an intimidating amount of money for you to come up with each year won’t look as bad after you’ve had some time to sit with it for a little while and ultimately it will be to better to have a non-zero family contribution than huge student loans that have to be paid back after you graduate.</p>

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<p>^^ $30,000 is the current income cut off for the automatic 0 EFC on FAFSA.</p>

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<p>Absolutely not. Also remember that if your father has remarried, your stepmother’s income/assets will also be included at schools that distribute their own funds.</p>

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<p>I’m not so sure folks saying he would have a low EFC are correct.</p>

<p>First a couple of things–the schools he mentions and most private colleges are Profile schools.</p>

<p>Second, FAFSA only schools tend to be state schools and/or schools that don’t meet needs. So while his family contribution would be low at most FAFSA schools, if they don’t meet his need and many don’t, the school could still be expensive for him.</p>

<p>Next lets look at the combined income of $70K and home equity. At Profile schools an EFC in the area of $25,000 could be quite possible. Higher if either parent remarried.</p>

<p>So it’s important to start talking to your parents about what they are able to contribute and start using some of the school’s calculators to see if the private collages will be doable without loans.</p>

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<p>Not true…</p>

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<p>ah! I’m in the same situation basically. But my father also pays child support to my mother and claims me on his tax returns. Does that mean that I have to use his income for my custodial parent’s income?
Also, he lives in Florida and my mother lives in Illinois (where I go to high school). Since I am on my father’s tax returns, does that mean I only get in-state tuition in Florida, and not Illinois where I actually completed my high school?</p>

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<p>No you put your custodial parent on FAFSA. That is your Mom. Does not matter who claims you on their tax return. Your Mom will have to declare the child support as income on FAFSA.</p>

<p>You are instate for Illinois. You may or may not be for Florida - depends on their rules. I have heard of students being able to be considered instate for the non custodial parent’s state as well as the custodial parent’s.</p>

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<p>I’ld also look into getting custody changed to joint legal custody – which is pretty common these days. Once kids go to college, really no one has custody. Frankly I want my X to be able to make decisions if god forbid I am unreacheable. It may also help in getting dads state to accept residency. I still have primary physical custordy. My understanding is whomever you really live with is your parent for FAFSA.</p>

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<p>This may not be a good idea. If the parents have EQUAL custody and the student lives equally with each, the parent with the HIGHER income is the one who reports as the custodial parent on the FAFSA.</p>

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<p>Thumper – there is a difference between legal and physical custody. I specifically said joint LEGAL custody, without changing that child spends most of the time with the same parent he always lived with. Before I divorced, I did not understand the difference between legal and physical custody. I do now. There is no reason why my X should not have the same ability I do to make healthcare, etc decisions. Its pretty clear who a child is living with when the parents live in different states.</p>

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<p>Thanks for that clarification Kay. The only thing is that the custodial parent would have to agree to that change (if it’s not already part of their divorce agreement). Sadly, some parents do not feel the way you feel…and the custodial parent sometimes feels the non-custodial parent should have NO SAY in anything. Sad…but sadly true.</p>

<p>But worth discussing with the parents especially if this might open the door to instate residency in more than one place.</p>