I am trying to identify some affordable schools that my D, a junior, is interested in to go and visit. I don’t want to waste time visiting schools that we cannot afford. The NPC seems to not be very friendly in situations where there are remarried bio parents. I am remarried and my ex is not and has 0 income and does not have the ability to complete a CSS Profile when the time comes. It seems like some calculators say use the stepparents info and the others say don’t but run it again for the non-custodial parent and add it in and others just come out and say that it won’t work in situations where there are remarried parents. How can I get accurate information to make an informed decisions when the NPC calculators do not appear to be geared to my situation?How have others handled this? Was your EFC from any NPC close to what the actual cost was? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!
Most will include stepparents info. There are only a small number who don’t, so assume that your new-H’s income will count.
As for your ex-H, he has no income, but can he supply info that indicates that? Is he in another country?
The NPC will be an issue if the school requires NCP info and that can’t be supplied…they won’t give aid. If the NCP is incarcerated or something, then a waiver might be granted.
As backups, have your DD apply to a couple of schools where her stats will get her very large merit so that you can afford the remaining costs.
For the high end, I would run it twice and add both households together. However, if the schools your D is interested in require the CSS Profile, they’ll also require the NCP (non-custodial parent) to fill out the Profile. Of course, they’re under no obligation to pay, but if they won’t fill out the Profile, your FA application will be considered incomplete. In some circumstances (on an individual, case-by-case basis), the schools may grant a NCP Waiver, but that usually requires no contact/no child support for a number of years.
Additionally, there was mention of a post on here where a school asked for additional verification from a NCP with 0 income (the boyfriend’s info) because they wanted to know how the NCP was living on 0 income.
In your case, high-merit opportunities (a mix of guarenteed and competitive) may be your best bet. With a 0 NCP income (if the NCP Profile can be filled out, or you are reasonably sure that a waiver is likely), the NPC may be likely for private, CSS-profile using schools.
As for visiting schools, you might start with type (so large state school, small private, commuter v. residential, LAC v. research, etc.) and begin the search there. Public schools and schools that don’t require the CSS profile will also likely be accurate.
Thanks for the quick responses.I am pretty sure we can get the waiver for the ex. He has been incarcerated for a while. I looked at Smith’s NPC and this is what it says:
“Smith’s Financial Aid staff will ask for information from your non-custodial parent as well. Please be sure to include any step-parents in the household size. Smith’s policy is to evaluate the entire family unit and then isolate the biological parents’ contribution. This will be determined based upon the percentage of total household income earned by the biological parent. Unfortunately, this calculator does not have the ability to isolate the contribution on only the biological parent when there has been a remarriage. In this case, your Net Price may be higher than the actual amount calculated by Smith College”
When I read this it seems that they will somewhat take my husband’s income into account but not really. Confusing! I don’t want her to apply and get her hopes up. We plan to visit some of our state schools were she can definetely get merit aid but she is interested in LACs on/near the east coast,particularly women’s colleges.
It might be worth applying (not only Smith, but a vareity of other women’s colleges), but setting a cap of $X amount beforehand. If you haven’t already, have the budget talk and lay out what the family max is.
I would be concerned that once the waiver is granted excluding NCP due to incarceration, that all the schools will require the StepF’s income. So, be prepared.
Even if the StepF won’t be contributing, the school will assume that he’s contributing to half or more of the household expenses. This means that your income won’t be computed as being a “sole household earner”.
this is one reason why the NPCs may not work well. If it appears that there is only one earner in the household, the calculation will be wrong. The NPC will be assuming that you are the only one paying household bills. So, I wouldn’t trust the NPC that much.
@mom2collegekids That makes sense. I think I should consider worst case scenarios and include both of our incomes on the NPC calculators going forward. I assume then that I can include the amount he pays in child support but can’t include his children as part of the household as they live with his ex.
We have had some discussion with D about the cost of college so she is aware that finances are a huge part in deciding where she will eventually attend.
Yes, use the worst case scenario for the net price calculators (include both parents’ incomes and assets, including those of any new spouses from remarriage, unless the school in question specifically excludes any of them). Then, any real financial aid offers are more likely to be pleasant rather than unpleasant surprises. (Note that federal financial aid and some (mostly public) schools use only the FAFSA form, which considers only the custodial parent household income and assets. But most good-financial-aid private schools use the CSS Profile with the non-custodial parent form.)
However, if a parent is uncooperative with financial aid forms (even if the income and assets are $0), then a school requiring a financial aid form from that parent may refuse to offer financial aid at all.
If the parents are divorced, the net price calculators will not be accurate. If you do the parents and spouses separately, make sure you delete any duplicate awards…you won’t get two Direct Loans, you won’t get two need based scholarships, you won’t get two of anything.