HELP! Dad doesn't want to fill out CSS Profile

Paying for College
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>My parents are divorced; I live with my mom. I applied to Stanford, Early Action, and the CSS Profile for financial aid is due on November 15. I called my dad to ask him to fill out his portion (which is required) on the website. To my surprise, he refused due to "privacy issues." I called Stanford to ask about this and they said I NEED his part or else I won't qualify for financial aid.</p>

<p>I can't go to any private schools without financial aid, since they are usually $50K+ per year. What should I do about my dad? Any other advice? Thanks.</p>

<p>Victor</p>

2

<p>Kidnap him and make him fill it out at gun point? Just kidding.</p>

3

<p>If he means privacy reasons as in he doesn’t want you/your mom knowing “his business” I don’t think you can actually see what he puts can you? I’m not 100% on that though so you’d have to look it up. If he meant privacy reasons as in he doesn’t want anyone knowing, idk. But try and keep him sweet and try and stay out of arguments… at least until he’s filled the form in. :)</p>

4

<p>I called Stanford and confirmed it’s 100% confidential. My mom and I will never see it.</p>

5

<p>Does he know that? Maybe that’s all he’s worried about… Make it clear to him and tell him he can call them to confirm. (: Did he say what he meant by “privacy reasons”?</p>

6

<p>In his own words:
“The form will require too much personal/private information, not just about myself, but about every member’s of my family. I simply cannot agree to release these information (especially with the risk to the leakage to your mom who I trust the least).”</p>

<p>I’ve explained to him so many times. He’s hanging up now. He’s just not listening to sense. I mean, I could find out all his financial info on whitepages.com for $40. This is ridiculous.</p>

7

<p>Ask him to at least look at the form; from what you’ve posted, it appears he is not at all familiar with it. </p>

<p>Is he contributing anything to your education?</p>

8

<p>Do you have younger siblings that he’s still paying child support for? If so, he may (wrongly) fear that your mom will find out that he’s making more money than she thinks and demand more child support?</p>

<p>Another reason could be that he doesn’t want to be told that the EFC is some high number that you’ll expect him to pay (even if it can’t be forced).</p>

<p>Think about it. If he were to do the forms and put down that he has a high income or a lot of assets, you won’t get FA, and it would be logical then for you to expect/insist that he pay. He might be wanting to avoid that and the ensuing guilt. </p>

<p>This may his way of saying…“If I fill those forms out, you won’t get FA anyway, so don’t bother with those schools.”</p>

<p>And, frankly, even if your mom doesn’t get his personal info…if it turns out that you can’t get FA because of his income/assets, your mom will indirectly realize that he has access to a lot of money.</p>

<p>You may need to limit your apps to schools that will give you aid by use of FAFSA. Sorry.</p>

9

<p>Thanks, mom2collegekids. However, Stanford is very generous with financial aid (87% of students receive it). And he’s a professor, so he does not make that much money. I’m confident that I would receive financial aid to these private universities. </p>

<p>Also, we are not making him pay anything. All he needs to do is fill out this one online form, and he can’t even do that.</p>

10

<p>Does he realise just how important it is? Does he realise if he doesn’t fill it in you can’t do to what I’m guessing must be your dream college? And I agree with mom2collegekids about child support. He might think that if your mom finds out how much he makes directly or indirectly she might ask him to start paying child support since he doesn’t right now.</p>

11

<p>If his main concern is his ex-wife having access to his financial information, this is not possible unless he explicitly gives her (your mother) his password.</p>

<p>Can you send him the following information to assure him that no one other than the college will have access to his financial information?</p>

<p>

</p>

<p><a href=“https://ncprofile.collegeboard.com/ncpWeb/pageflows/Main/NcpMainController.jpf[/url]”>https://ncprofile.collegeboard.com/ncpWeb/pageflows/Main/NcpMainController.jpf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>Depending on the divorce settlement agreement, you may be able to force him, but not in a timely manner. If your Mom agrees, and is willing to share the paperwork, go talk to a lawyer for a free consult. I have no time for parents who won’t help their kids because it’s inconvenient or whatever…</p>

13

<p>Professors make decent salaries, and his and any new spouse’s income would add significantly to your EFC. I would take a hard look at whether your mom can afford Profile colleges–even the generous ones–given this. </p>

<p>Is this his way of forcing you to attend a cheaper college?</p>

14

<p>I don’t know why the OP thinks that his dad’s salary is too low to affect his aid. </p>

<p>I believe his dad’s income will affect his award. Profs do make good money (good heavens, even in Alabama where I live, they make 6 figures, so I’m sure that the OPs dad must make 6 figures, too.</p>

<p>Just because Stanford says that 87% receive aid, that doesn’t mean anything. That doesn’t mean that 87% get their COA paid. It just means that 87% got “some” money.</p>

<p>It won’t do you any good if Stanford gives you $20k when you need $50k. Those 87% of Stanford kids getting aid maybe getting a range of $10k to $50k - you don’t know what they’ll give you based on your dad’s income (plus his wife’s income) More to the point, just because 87% of Stanford students get some amount (small - large) of money, doesn’t mean that those students receive more money when a parent won’t pay his EFC. </p>

<p>Again, I think you dad is trying to avoid a confrontation that he thinks will happen once you find out that your FA won’t be so great because of the combined effect of your mom’s income, your dad’s income, any step parents’ incomes plus assets. </p>

<p>He’s a prof; he’s likely familiar with this stuff. He’s probably has a sense what the EFC would be and therefore he figures, what’s the point of applying to a CSS Profile since he won’t be contributing.</p>

<p>OP…do you realize that if your dad won’t contribute any money, it’s very unlikely that you will get the FA you’ll need? The school doesn’t just say “oh, dad won’t pay? That’s okay, we’ll make it up for you.” It is very likely you’ll have a big shortfall. that happens all the time when parents can’t pay the EFC.</p>

<p>I agree with Hmom…this is also a passive/agressive way to get you to attend a cheaper college.</p>

<p>Either way, he’s not going to do the paperwork, so you’ll need to come up with another plan. Sorry. It’s too bad your parents’ divorce didn’t specify that he must help with your education. Often, when a dad has a college degree and he divorces, he’s ordered to help with college.</p>

<p>(BTW…for CSS Profile…Is there just one big EFC for all parents/stepparents? Or is it split according to ability to pay?)</p>

15

<p>That 87% figure was hard to believe, even with Stanford’s generous aid. As these numbers from College Board show–nowhere near that percent get aid:</p>

<p>

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<p>Hard to understand, because they supposedly meet full need, but bottom line is most are full pay.</p>

16

<p>OP, One other idea… Ask your father if he could look into his benefits for you. You may be eligible to attend his college or some other school at a discount. If the college participates in The Tuition Exchange (I believe that’s what it’s called), you could compete for monies at participating schools but there’s an application process and you have to meet the deadlines.</p>

17

<p>The above poster beat me to it. I’m wondering if the dad has another reason for not completing the Profile. Perhaps the kiddo is eligible for Tuition Exchange…although for the coming school year (2010-2011) the applications for this have long since passed.</p>

18

<p>hmom - thanks for the reality check :)</p>

<hr>

<p>That 87% figure was hard to believe, even with Stanford’s generous aid. As these numbers from College Board show–nowhere near that percent get aid:</p>

<p>Quote:
Financial Aid Statistics</p>

<ul>
<li>Full-time freshman enrollment: 1,723</li>
<li>Number who applied for need-based aid: 1,020</li>
<li>Number who were judged to have need: 761</li>
<li>Number who were offered aid: 756</li>
<li>Number who had full need met: 574<br></li>
</ul>

<p>Hard to understand, because they supposedly meet full need, but bottom line is most are full pay.</p>

<hr>

<p>And the most important part to consider is that Stanford (not the student) decides what that “full need” is. The student may think, “I need all my costs paid because my parents won’t pay.” (which would be the OP’s case)</p>

<p>However, Stanford will likely say, “you’re parents earn enough to contribute XXX dollars, therefore WE have decided that your “need” is YYYY dollars” - which would be much less than what the OP needs to go to school.</p>

19

<p>I think that there are many parents (perhaps divorced parents especially) that don’t want it revealed that they should be able to afford to contribute a lot towards their kids’ educations.</p>

<p>It doesn’t matter that the form doesn’t “oblligate” anyone. The fact remains that an EFC will be determined, and such parents fear that their child is going to say, "Hey, they figured that you can afford to pay $25k a year towards my education, and you’re refusing to pay very much (if anything). Such a parent isn’t wanting to be confronted with that.</p>

<p>This dad may have recently come into an inheritance or some other money source, and that money would have to be declared. If he’s remarried, then he most likely doesn’t want his wife’s income to be considered.</p>

20

<p>YIKES!! The CSS profile can be due before January?? I thought you waited for January to do it. Does each school have a different deadline?</p>