I am the child of two divorced parents, with my mother being the custodial one. I was accepted to WashU, but did not receive any aid whatsoever. I called the office to check, and my counselor told me that it was because of my father’s income that I was not offered any assistance. I explained that my father has no legal obligation to help fund my education (I am 18 and mandatory child support ends next month), and therefore has stated he will not contribute to my college costs. My mother and I have an EFC of ~27k (which leaves us having to somehow make up almost 40k in costs since my father isn’t actually helping).
After telling all my counselor this, he told me that there is not really anything he can do. He said it’s simply an “unfortunate” situation and that students like me have to make tough choices in times like this. I knew this was a possibility going in, so I talked to my admissions counselors for all of my schools beforehand, and most (Including WashU) told me the FinAid office could work with us (in regards to divorce) on a case-by-case basis.
I guess my question is this: Is that really the end of the line? Is this what I should expect from the other upper-tier schools? If I’m lucky enough to get in, of course.
Thank you for any help!
Edit: I should clarify that custody is not 50/50. My mother has full custody.
His legal obligation would be outlined in the child support decree. If he provides substantial child support to your mother on your behalf, that is what would be counted.
If your mother did not lobby on your behalf to include support throughout college, depending on what state you are in you may be out of luck.
But certain states do require divorced parents both to contribute to their children’s college education. You should see if you can get legal counseling.
Can you actually send the document to WUStL that shows that he is only required to pay child support until you are 18, and not required to pay for your college? But again, some states will supercede that, so you should see if you can find out what your state’s position is.
(If you are in NJ for example, you are in good shape, there is a lot of legal precedence.)
@rhandco - This has NOTHING to do with Dad’s “legal obligation.” This student’s question is whether or not colleges will disregard Dad’s income in determining the student’s financial need. And the answer, for most “upper-tier” schools, is “no.” Dad’s “legal” support obligation, as outlined by the divorce decree (or by state law) is irrelevant. These colleges make their own determination of what Dad is expected to pay.
Those schools that meet a student’s full financial need generally require the CSS profile, and require that the non-custodial parent (NCP) also submit his or her financial information. Except in very rare cases (involving, for example, a parent who has been out of the student’s life for years), that financial information is taken into account in determining a student’s need.
The student can appeal the denial of aid, but s/he can expect that the responses of other “meet full need” colleges will be similar to WashU’s response.
I hope that this student applied to one or more financial safety schools that require only the FAFSA. NCP financial info is NOT taken into account on FAFSA . . . but FAFSA-only schools will also not be as generous as the “upper-tier” schools this student mentioned.
I know I probably sound like a brat, but does this essentially mean that, aside from hopes for merit, I’m pretty much out of luck at any upper tier schools?
If the upper tier schools give you a financial aid package and the school is still not affordable, then it is not realistic to attend that school. Unfortunately, a parent’s unwillingness to pay for college expenses is not taken into consideration at the Profile schools that ask for non-custodial parent information.
But, if they did, I would absolutely appeal the WashU denial, and tell them about the assurances you received from the WashU admissions office. I doubt that it will make any difference . . . but it should. It was absolutely not okay to suggest that they would disregard your Dad’s income, when their own guidelines don’t allow them to do so. Again, I don’t think it’ll make any difference, but you should still appeal. (And when I say “appeal,” I mean a formal written appeal that goes over the head of the person you spoke with by phone.)
Dodgers- “work with us” doesn’t mean disregard a high income parent who chooses not to contribute. When the Wash U person (assuming that it was an actual employee of Wash U and not an independent college counselor, I’m not clear on this) said that they would work with you… they did not have the numbers in front of them. They did not see the mom’s W2 and the dad’s W2. For all we know, the mom has moderate income but is sitting on a million $ in mutual funds, which was her share of the marital assets (plus a house).
We don’t know, and Wash U didn’t know. Now that they know (i.e. have all the documentation in front of them), they see a high income dad and a lower income mom-- and maybe assets- and they aren’t inclined to re-do the package.
I hardly see this as Wash U’s fault here.
OP-- is there a way you can have a sit down with your Dad and discuss what his thinking is about college? Does he expect you to go, and with that expectation, would he be willing to consider matching what your mom will be contributing???
And I’m going to say one other thing (that you probably don’t want to hear): if you have the qualifications to be admitted to “upper-tier” schools like WashU, you also have the qualifications to get substantial merit awards at any number of ever-so-slightly less prestigious schools. So, if your results in April really aren’t what you’d hoped, you may want to consider taking a year off and applying again next year to a different range of schools.
Again, I know it’s not what you want to hear, but merit aid is generally available only for freshmen, so those options will disappear if you start college anywhere else. But if you take a year off and reapply, you would likely find yourself with several very good choices next year.
First, this is not a question that an admissions rep should have responded to at all - he or she should immediately have referred the student to the financial aid office.
And, second, whoever answered the question was in a far batter position than the student to know WashU’s policies regarding noncustodial parent info. And that person should have explained (as I did in my post above) that NCP financial info is usually taken into account in determining need. (And one doesn’t need the details of the family finances in order to give that response.) There’s no excuse for just saying “we’ll work with you” and leaving it at that. Whoever spoke with the OP could reasonably anticipate that the OP didn’t have a clue about any of this, and that person’s answer should have taken that into account.
So, yes, it is their fault. The OP’s situation is not an unusual one, and they likely hear the same question quite frequently. They should know how to answer it.
Please… saying the FA office could work with an applicant is nowhere close to suggesting that a NCP’s income will be disregarded. For you to equate the two is ridiculous.
Believe it or not, as a general rule divorced parents have the exact same obligation to pay for you to go to college as married parents have. Which is to say, none at all. Legally, it makes no sense to force divorced parents into an obligation but not hold married parents to the exact same standard.
Also, divorced parents as a rule have less money available because they’ve been covering the expenses of two different households instead of one. Two mortgages/rents, two sets of utilities, insurance, etc.
If there has been any protracted litigation, that’s another money suck. And of course, an obliterater of any vestigial good will that might have remained. Does your Dad have old legal bills sitting unpaid? Has he just been waiting for CS to end so he could begin to pay them down? Has he had to put his own life and aspirations on hold for years and years?
There are a small number of “upper-tier” private schools that do not use the NCP’s income in their FA calculations, but you are past the application deadlines for them. Vanderbilt, Bucknell, and Chicago come to mind. (And Princeton, but only if your custodial parent has re-married.) If you don’t already have applications in the pipeline with them, then yes, this is pretty much what you can expect at the other “upper-tier” schools.
The best advice I can give you is to work on your relationship with your Dad, and maybe try to ask him if there is any way he can support you directly with what he has been paying your mother in CS. But don’t be surprised if he is sick and tired of it all and simply tells you to be an adult; it will be difficult to repair things with him in only 7 weeks.
Dodgers- the OP needs to clarify who exactly told her “We’ll work with you”. It could have been an independent college counselor (the wording is unclear). I’m not rushing to excoriate Wash U in this situation.
@MiddKid86 - I’m saying that admissions (and financial aid) offices need to take responsibility for their communications. College admissions officers’ near sole purpose for existence is to communicate with high school-aged college applicants, so they should be able to do that effectively. And effective communication involves knowing your target audience and not making statements that are likely to be readily misinterpreted by that audience.
The statement “we’ll work with you” is utterly ambiguous and, at the same time, encouraging. And it’s easy enough to predict that an unsophisticated 18-year old would interpret it to mean what he or she wants it to mean - which is that Dad’s unwillingness to pay for college will not be the kiss of death.
As far as I’m concerned, there’s no excuse for such ambiguity when a perfectly clear answer (“Non-custodial parent finances are usually taken into account in calculating a family’s ability to pay for college.”) is readily available.
I did in fact apply to Vanderbilt and Chicago. But both are very difficult to get into, so I’m not counting on either. I appreciate all of the replies. If I don’t get enough aid (in merit or financial) from any of these “upper” schools, I’ll likely matriculate to my state school (where I already have money waiting for me). My ultimate goal is to attend a fantastic graduate school. I’ll just have to work harder to get into one from my state flagship.
Also, it was my regional admissions counselor who told me the “we can work with you” thing. I called earlier and they said if I had been told that then the counselor was mistaken in not directing me to SFS. Turns out it’s her first year on the job, haha.
