<p>My parents have made it clear that they have no money saved for me to attend college, and that they do not intend on helping me pay for it.</p>
<p>My parents are divorced and they technically have joint custody of me, although, I stay with my Dad/Step mom the majority of the month and they make considerably more than my single mother does. Could I use my mother's salary, etc. for the aid I need, or no?</p>
<p>I will be a first generation university applicant if that matters.</p>
<p>If your parents have joint custody, both parents will be considered in PROFILE aid calculations. If you lived with your father the most, his income will be the one you must list in FAFSA. What are their incomes and have you calculated an EFC estimate?</p>
<p>I’m sorry your parents are unable/unwilling to help you pay for college. Unfortunately, this significantly limits your options in terms of financial aid, because the system operates under the expectation that parents will contribute to the cost.</p>
<p>You need to look for schools that you can afford out-of-pocket and with small Stafford loans, or seek out schools with generous merit aid for your stats.</p>
<p>If you stay with your dad/stepmom for more than 51% of the time, you must use their income for FAFSA. (Only 1 parent’s income, plus spouse’s if any, is required for FAFSA.) Both your parents’ and stepmother’s income will be necessary in most instances for PROFILE and many other college-specific documents.</p>
<p>ETA: The fact that your parents did not save for college, and do not “intend” to pay for it, is irrelevant. Colleges look at what your parents can pay, not what they will pay. Otherwise, every parent would refuse to pay in order to get more financial aid.</p>
<p>Well they’re in debt, so obviously they can’t really afford to pay anything else, it’s just unfortunate I’m penalized by it.</p>
<p>But I’m not sure exactly, collectively the parents I live with the most probably make just over 100k. I haven’t calculated an EFC estimate either though.</p>
<p>If you live with the parent whose family income is $100k or more and you don’t have siblings in college, then your EFC is going to be highish…like over $20k per year. EFC is often about 23% of gross income.</p>
<p>Since your parents won’t be paying the EFC, you only have a few options…</p>
<p>1) Commute to a local CC or state school where a 5500 loan and maybe some summer earnings will pay for tuition and books.</p>
<p>2) if your stats are high enough, go to a school that will give you a very large merit scholarship for your stats…very large.</p>
<p>What are your stats?</p>
<p>As of right now I’m looking at a 3.75 GPA, but after 2 hard semesters of work, I should be able to pull it up to a 4.0. I’m a rising junior, so I don’t have SAT scores yet.</p>
<p>If, for whatever reason, I was 20-25k in debt after graduation, would I be okay waiting out another 4 years of medical school to pay off whatever I’ve borrowed?</p>
<p>Yes…but borrow as little as you can for undergrad.</p>
<p>Since you’re a rising junior, here’s what you need to do… Be sure to take the PSAT in October…ask your GC as soon as possible if you don’t know if your school administers this exam. </p>
<p>Get a Collegeboard SAT practice book and use it to study for the PSAT. If you make NMSF/F, you could get a free ride to a few schools. </p>
<p>Also, study for the SAT and ACT…again, high scores there could mean large merit money.</p>
<p>Since you’re only a junior, you could move to live with your mom a majority of time (more than 50%.). That would mean that the year of 2012, you would be mostly living with your mom, so when you file FAFSA in 2013, your aid would be based on your mom’s income.</p>
<p>If you live with your dad the most…you are REQUIRED to list him on your FAFSA…you would be reporting both your dad and stepmom’s incomes/assets on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>For the PROFILE, the custodial parent on the FAFSA (dad and stepmom) would file the Profile as your custodial parents…and your MOM (and spouse if there is one) would file the non-custodial parent Profile if the school requires it.</p>
<p>Consumer debt is NOT factored into the financial aid calculations at all on the FAFSA. </p>
<p>Home equity (therefore your home mortgage on your primary residence is used to compute this) is used on the Profile for your primary residence.</p>
<p>I would venture that MOST students have no college savings.</p>
<p>*If you live with your dad the most…you are REQUIRED to list him on your FAFSA…you would be reporting both your dad and stepmom’s incomes/assets on the FAFSA.
*</p>
<p>True…but since this student is a rising junior, and her parents share custody, if she were to live more with her mom from now on, she would file using her mom’s info in 2013. Right?</p>
<p>If the student lives with the mom during 2012 MORE than with the dad, then yes…she would report her MOM’s (and spouse if there is one) income/assets on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>If that becomes the case, then her mom would do the Profile if required…and her dad/stepmom would do the non-custodial profile, if required.</p>
<p>Well thanks for the input… I doubt I’ll be able to make NMSF/F as I’m generally an ~80-90th percentile student, not a 97+ percentile. I would be leaving all of my friends etc. if I moved with my Mom, which is not something I want to do. I guess I’ll just probably end up in some debt after whatever scholarships I can manage to get hold of…</p>
<p>I would be leaving all of my friends etc. if I moved with my Mom, which is not something I want to do.</p>
<p>Ahh…Your mom doesn’t live close by so you could go to the same school. </p>
<p>Well, do as well as you can…GPA wise and SAT/ACT wise to get your best chances for scholarships. Otherwise, your choices may be limited to commuting to a CC or local state school and paying for it with a student loan.</p>
<p>What state are you in? can you commute to a local state school? How much is the tuition there?</p>
<p>Well I still have in state options. I live in Virginia, and my parents live about an hour apart. A two income household and my hometown make living with my Dad much more enjoyable, so I guess I’m stuck there.</p>
<p>But yeah, I definitely have CC options, I’m just not sure that’s what I want to do. We have CNU about 2 miles away and other colleges within a distance that is commutable. I plan on going into college for pre-med, so that’s really my only concern.</p>
<p>Enifrica – I teach at JMU, and one of the things I have be excited by since soming to VA is how many wonderful in-state options are available to VA students. Many of the CCs have great articulation agreements with VA four year universities. CNU is a very good school with a pre-med option – [Christopher</a> Newport University](<a href=“http://premed.cnu.edu/]Christopher”>http://premed.cnu.edu/) … in that part of the state. As you know, there are other options as well. Depending on your stats by the fall of senior year you could also apply for merit money (limited, but a possibility) at colleges around the state (and in other states) that might grant you enough merit to afford a “sleep away” college experience. You may also be able to save during our first two years by attending a local CC and going away for junior senior year. </p>
<p>All the best to you!</p>
<p>Involve your father (even though he isn’t planning on helping you financially) as ultimately he will have to complete a lot of paperwork on your behalf. Check out the financial calculators on most schools’ websites. I think you will find that depending on the school that they will looking at you contributing a lot less than 23% of your custodial parents’ joint income.</p>
<p>??</p>
<p>This student does not sound like a candidate for HYPS where super aid is given. When a family earns 100k or more than family contribution can be about 23k or higher.</p>
<p>And is that 23k a year, or over the course of 4 years? Their income this coming year will just be over 100k, with no investments etc.</p>
<p>But yeah, I was looking at JMU as one of the schools I could attend, I would just have to pay for room and board if I went there!</p>
<p>That would be 23k per year.</p>
<p>Your EFC is per year.</p>
<p>*But yeah, I was looking at JMU as one of the schools I could attend, I would just have to pay for room and board if I went there! *</p>
<p>Why would you only have to pay for room, board, books, fees at JMU? How would you get free tuition at JMU?</p>
<p>
Why wouldn’t you have to pay for tuition and books? Do you have a scholarship already lined up?</p>
<p>Xposted wtih Mom2CK</p>