<p>So, my parents are divorced, and I am wondering how EFC is calculated with divorced parents. My custodial parent alone makes under 35,000, and together they probably make 70,000-80,000 a year. I am considering mostly schools that use both parents' incomes and meet 100% of need, but I don't know how those schools take divorce into account. In financial aid calculators, when I do it for each parent separately and then add up the total cost, it is significantly less than when I add their incomes together and then run the calculator. A lot of schools also offer to eliminate student loans for families with incomes under 60,000, and sometimes even to eliminate the parental contribution. Would this apply to me, or not? I'm a rising senior by the way.</p>
<p>Depends on if you apply to colleges that only use the FAFSA to determine financial aid or if you are applying to selective private and the couple of publics that utilize College Board’s financial Profile. Since it sounds like you are looking at Profile colleges, both biological parents (and their partners if remarried) are considered when factoring financial need.</p>
<p>Divorced custodial parent here. The financial aid calculators on the college websites aren’t too reliable in this regard but I think running them separately and then adding the result is closer than combining the parental incomes and then running the calculator. The reason is that the colleges will take into account the fact that your parents’ incomes have to support two separate residences.</p>
<p>Are either of your parents remarried? If so that may change the calculation as some schools will consider the total income of each household. If neither is remarried, and each of your parents makes $35-40,000 per year, you should be in line for a good amount of aid at full-need colleges. </p>
<p>It’s impossible to know in advance how much aid you will get, even at “full need” colleges, because some consider loans that you will have to take out as meeting need. So apply to a good selection of schools and make your decision after you have all of the offers on the table.</p>
<p>Schools can require either one or two forms to be filled out to determine if you’re eligible for financial aid (this goes for all families, not just those with divorced parents). The FAFSA collects information about income and assets of the parent with whom you live with most and determines your eligibility for Federal aid. If this parent is remarried then the step-parent’s income and asset information is also required to be reported. The parent with whom you live with most may or may not be your custodial parent for legal and/or tax purposes. Schools that only require FAFSA will not ask for any information from your non-custodial parent.</p>
<p>A small number of schools use either PROFILE or their own forms. Some of these schools require non-custodial parent information, while most do not. For the schools that do require non-custodial information, they will also look at income and assets of that parent’s spouse if remarried.</p>
<p>Here’s a list of PROFILE schools with indications of those that require non-custodial parent information. Always check the individual school’s website to be sure about what information is required.</p>
<p><a href=“CSS Profile – CSS Profile | College Board”>CSS Profile – CSS Profile | College Board;
<p>Net Price Calculators don’t work well for divorced parents when both incomes are considered.</p>
<p>Are either of your parents remarried? If so, their spouses’ earnings/savings will get included as well.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info!! I am considering basically one fafsa-only school (safety and financial safety, I guess), and all the rest are profile schools. Neither of my parents are remarried.</p>
<p>I think that basically all of the match and reach schools I’m considering do consider both incomes, but I was just wondering, how do they consider both? How could I figure out what the EFC would likely be?</p>
<p>The schools that meet full need use both the FAFSA and the Profile, with the exception of Princeton which uses the FAFSA and it’s own financial aid form. </p>
<p>I have an idea…use the Net Price Calculators both ways…once with both incomes, and a second time using each one separately then adding the contributions together. It won’t be totally accurate but will give you a ball park number anyway. </p>
<p>There are some Profile schools that do NOT require the non-custodial parent Profile…so check for that too.</p>
<p>Do you think it’d be like an average of the two ways for the calculator? With both incomes added together the EFC was like 3x the amount of doing it separately then adding them together, which I thought was weird.</p>
<p>Loveart…different schools calculate the family contribution different ways. There really isn’t any way to answer your question.</p>
<p>Try contacting the financial aid office at one school and ask them. Maybe they will be able to tell you.</p>
<p>Here’s the problem: schools do this differently. And they are not at all open about how they do the calculations. From what I’ve been told, the schools that give good financial aid do take into account that the second parent is also supporting a household, but how any given school does this, I don’t know. There are some PROFILE schools that do not requires NCP info, though some that simply say they don’t require a full report for the NCP may have some information they request and take into account from the NCP. Things change from school to school, so do check what each school is currently requesting.</p>
<p>The schools that guarantee to meet full need and those that tend to meet most need, tend to be PROFILE schools. However, top students are more likely to get a better proportion of need met from FAFSA only school than those who are average in the applicant pool, and that is also the case with merit money. Try a variety of approaches and see what pans out.</p>
<p>Thanks! I guess I will try that, or otherwise I will just wait until after I apply to colleges and get into some. Can I expect to get adequate aid from these full-need schools, though?</p>
<p>LoveArt…once more…with vigor. Each full need school has its own formula for computing need based aid. Some schools are more generous than others, and offer more need based aid. A lot will depend on whether and how the school treats the income from your non-custodial parent. Most schools,will use that number one way or another.</p>
<p>I would venture that IF you get accepted at one of the schools meets full need (less than 10 % of applicants get accepted), you will receive some amount of need based aid. </p>
<p>Will it be enough for your family so that you can attend? That is not possible for us to predict.</p>
<p>Is there any way for me to find out how they treat income from a non-custodial parent before applying and without asking each financial aid office separately? Will it really vary that much from school to school? (I’m thinking about places like Amherst, Midd, Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Brown, Barnard, etc)</p>
<p>Also, where are you getting the less than 10% figure? I understand that these are selective colleges, but the list that claims to meet 100% of need includes colleges like Hamilton and Mount Holyoke, which have 27% and 51% acceptance rates.</p>
<p>The MOST generous schools that meet full need for all students accept less than 10% of applicants. Hamilton and Mt. Holyoke meet full need, but are not as generous as places like Harvard, Stanford, Yale, etc. </p>
<p>I will take a guess…A $70,000 family income will have a family contribution in the $15,000 to $20,000 per year range…or so at these less generous schools. That is a guestimate. Any assets your family has over the protected amount will count as well. Many Profile schools also tap home equity to some degree. </p>
<p>Many schools also have a student contribution as well.</p>
<p>Maybe you can post on the specific college forums on this site and see if there are others in a similar financial situation at these schools who can report on their financial aid.</p>
<p>Ok, yeah, that makes sense!</p>
<p>LoveArt…what CAN your family contribute per year? Really THAT number is more important than anything else.</p>
<p>You don’t have to tell us here…but YOU need to know that bottom line number.</p>
<p>Wow, would you really guess that a 70,000 dollar family would have a 15,000-20,000 dollar contribution? 
Also, there is no home equity, neither of my parents own their homes.
And I don’t know the bottom line number, I don’t even know if my parents know…</p>
<p>Generally, as a school’s selectivity goes up, would you say that its generosity goes up as well?</p>
<p>Love, you have to reach the very top (Ivy or close) before need based aid will be substantial. You may have to look at schools with merit aid that you qualify for.</p>
<p>So basically, when schools say 100% of need, they mean, 100% of “whatever we think is your need, even if it’s not really”? Also, what schools do you think are considered close enough to the Ivies to give substantial aid? Haha idk, I’m just figuring this out, but thanks.</p>
<p>Love, if you think you have the stats to get accepted to an Ivy or similar,school, you really should look at schools that will give you substantial merit aid too. Read the thread started by Bob Wallace about merit aid. Hopefully someone else will link it here.</p>