Help! I have a unique FAFSA question!

Paying for College
21

<p>What would your basis be for a non-custodial parent waiver? Yes, you can ask, but in most cases these are granted only when the student has no ability to contact the non-custodial parent. That is not the case with you. Your dad declares you on his taxes…that is NOT something that happens in situations where a waiver is granted. </p>

<p>Add a couple of schools that you like where you would get automatic merit awards. That is important. I would add a couple of those. It’s nice to have choices! </p>

22

<p>No for Berkeley or any UC. There is a cost of $.23,000 per year in additional tuition if you are out of state. Although it is FAFSA only, CA only meets need for instate students. There is a student in the UCLA forum with an acceptance in hand and a 36,000 bill who is just learning about this.</p>

23

<p>@thumper1</p>

<p>I figured it may be worth a shot to explain the situation.</p>

<p>However, I just calculated the EFC for both my father and mother (assuming my father pays his child support fully from now until the day I apply) and their summed EFC is only ~$4k.</p>

<p>Does CSS use approximately the same as the values as EFC calculator? If so, I think even with both parents considered I could see significant aid.</p>

24

<p>The FAFSA dos NOT use your father’s income at all. </p>

<p>The non-custodial parent Profile will include your dad’s $120,000 income. Schools using that will expect more than $4000 in family contribution.</p>

25

<p>@thumper1</p>

<p>I would like to take a moment to THANK YOU (OMG SO MUCH, I AM HAPPY I REALIZE THIS NOW BEFORE I APPLY PLACES) for all the help you’ve given me to clear this stuff up.</p>

<p>Moving on; Woopsy. Messed up a number, however I did the Institutional Methodology calculation and it is telling me my father’s EFC is ~$6k and mine is ~$2k</p>

<p>Does this mean that, for example let’s say I get accepted to MIT, MIT would cover the costs after Pell Grants, my father’s EFC, my EFC, and my expected work contribution?</p>

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<p>No, PROFILE tends to expect more from a student. There is usually a base student contribution right off the bat even with a zero EFC. If you are smart enough to get into those schools, you are expected to figure out a way to get that money on your own. Then PROFILE looks very carefully at assets like home equity, home businesses that are not reported at all on FAFSA. </p>

<p>Still, it looks like a good possibility. Look at Washington and Lee, Albright College, USC, Vanderbilt, Denison. They are good possibilities for aid. Look at the PROFILE list of colleges that do NOT ask for NCP. Also look at schools that have good merit. Are you possibly NMF? That also gives you some possibilities. Look at the list of full ride scholarships and substantial scholarship school. You need to have a varied group given your situation. Some with NCP, some with NCP waiver request, some FAFSA only, some merit possibilities. </p>

<p>I don’t know MIT’s formula. But an example how things might work is if a school does guarantee to meet full need, it may start you out with a $4K student contribution. Then it will compute what your mother should pay which would likely be zero, and then your father as NCP. Some of these schools, like MIT, do not include loans in the package. Most will take the PELL and apply it as the first amount they list as a grant towards your need. They don’t have to do that, but most do integrate PELL into their package. Your package will likely have work study. You would likely have to pay, at very least your FAFSA EFC and then some at these schools. FAFSA EFC is the LEAST you have to pay before getting any federal aid other than PELL, so, in most scenarios, you will be paying more than that.</p>

<p>However, schools like MIT, Stanford, HPY are atypical in their formulas. They may have the most generous aid out there. A more typical school that meets full need to run the NPC would be, say Colgate or Havorford, and even they are generous. Take a look at what they come up with.</p>

<p>Good luck with all you have to do. My friend’s two kids went to state schools, one commuted locally because they could get no aid from PROFILE schools as their father was a surgeon who refused to pay, and mom was broke. They both are enormously success today, despite that bump in the road and change of their plans. You, have been pretty much aware that Dad was not going to pay, that things were going to be tough financially for college. A private college, sleep away college, full time full paid college is a true luxury, privilege, not a right.</p>

27

<p>You’ve made some kind of mistake in that calculation, I suspect. It doesn’t sound right.</p>

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<p>Is that going to work if the dad is declaring the OP on his taxes? How can a school give aid based on the mother’s tax return when presumably the OP isn’t even on it and supposedly no child support is coming in? </p>

<p>I still think it’s important for the OP to figure out what’s really going on financially between the parents. </p>

29

<p>120k salary will not lead to 6k efc. Dont try to kid yourself. Accept reality.</p>

<p>Your choices are in state schools or merit schools if you can get NMF, or other merit. Asu, uofa, alabama are ones that come to mind.</p>

<p>Use the net price calculators independently for your mom and dad and add them up. Then you will have a clearer picture.</p>

30

<p>Profile schools that do not require ncp, either do not claim to meet need or ask for ncp information through other means.</p>

31

<p>Halfemptypockets, tax filing status has NOTHING to do with financial aid applications. If the school does NOT require the NCP Profile…the dad’s info won’t be used. </p>

32

<p>I do not know what schools on that list of PROFILE schools that do not require the NCP PROFILE also ask for additional parental info and what questions they ask. Also, some schools that do use NCP PROFILE do not hit up the NCP as hard as they would if he’d been living with the family, recognizing that there is a separate household here. But $6K still sounds low to me as an expected amount from that pay level. </p>

<p>As for getting a NCP waiver when being a dependent on tax return, I have no idea what the waivers ask for. Back some years ago, when I personally saw my friend have to fill out info for the waiver for her DD, there were a lot of very specific questions probing exactly what contact there was and the situation for the NCP. She got zero waivers. But I don’t know if anything was asked about claiming the student for tax purposes. She could have said “no” to that one, but clearly in her case it did not matter. </p>

<p>OP needs to vary the types of “eggs” in “his basket” when he puts together his college list with affordability being a huge consideration.</p>

33

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<p>But doesn’t it have to do with the mother’s info? (I’m asking because I don’t know). Wouldn’t it raise a red flag if the OP is not listed as a dependent on the mother’s tax return? I could see that it wouldn’t matter if there were some child support payments listed, but since it sounds like there won’t be, wouldn’t the FinAid office wonder who exactly is supporting the OP? If the mother is truly receiving no outside support then wouldn’t the OP be listed on her return?</p>

<p>I don’t know how financial aid works, but the logical disconnect here strikes me as strange and I have a hard time believing it would get past a financial aid officer. But maybe that’s how it works - it wouldn’t be the first time I thought the whole FA process was crazy. :)</p>

34

<p>No, the FAFSA doesn’t care what the IRS form says for support. It is very very common for the custodial parent to not claim the child/children on the tax form as that exemption is the one specifically allowed by IRS rules to be ‘traded’ between parents. Sometimes they split them, sometimes they alternate them. Some kids even take the exemption themselves because they work or the parents want to get some money taxed at a lower rate, but that doesn’t change the requirements for FAFSA.</p>

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<p>I get that and know lots of folks who do that, but in a case where one parent has primary custody there are always some kind of child support payments from one parent to the other. Here we’re talking about a mother who claims no outside child support on the FAFSA but also doesn’t declare the child as a dependent. Isn’t that a little different? Maybe it’s not. I don’t know.</p>

36

<p>No, it’s not different. The courts make decisions all the time on who gets to do what for support/taxes. FAFSA explicitly defines the rules for applying for federal aid. However, there is no doubt that if the mother has no claimed income the application will be selected for verification to see how she is getting by.</p>

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<p>Now that makes sense to me. I really think it’s in the OP’s interest to find out the real story about the finances before making the list of colleges. How heartbreaking would it be to be accepted to a top full need school only to discover that the Fin Aid office is taking a much different view of the mother’s financial situation than what the OP has been hearing all these years.</p>

38

<p>Halfempty, IF the custodial parent is receiving child support or spousal support, that must be included on the FAFSA. But if NOT, than NOTHING from the non-custodial parent matters. The tax form filing doesn’t matter ONE BIT with regards to financial aid applications.</p>

<p>There are PLENTY of custodial parents who don’t receive a DIME from the NCP.</p>

<p>Now…that this NCP is supposedly declaring this kid as a dependent, but supposedly is NOT contributing to the student’s support? That is a WHOLE other tax related question! But that is a tax issue, not a financial aid issue.</p>

<p>Regardless…only the CUSTODIAL parent info is put on the FAFSA.</p>

<p>If the Profile is required, the custodial parent does the Profile, and the NCP does the NCP Profile. And BOTH will likely need to submit their tax returns to the colleges that require the Profile. But the colleges only will care about verifying the information. They are not going to turn anyone over to the IRS.</p>

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<p>Yes, but every single one that I know declares their child on their taxes. I suspect the murder rate might be a little higher if non-custodial, non-supporting parents were declaring the children on their taxes. :)</p>

<p>No question there are lots of sticky divorce and custody arrangements. But the situation as described by the OP will raise red flags in any Fin Aid office and the OP needs to know the real story going in.</p>

40

<p>The ON!Y red flag it’s going to raise is if there is a $0 income for the custodial parent. NO one in the financial aid office is going to give two hoots that the NCP declares the kid on his taxes, or doesn’t pay child support. For FAFSA purposes, that simply does NOT matter…not at all.</p>

<p>The $0 income on the mom’s FAFSA will likely trigger verification. But they will NOT be asking for the former husband’s verification info. They will be asking the MOM to verify what SHE reported.</p>