<p>After seeing the great advice on Sage's thread, I thought I'd put mine out here.</p>
<p>I'm applying as a transfer to a couple of prestigious schools that use the IM or some variant (Bryn Mawr, Brown, Barnard, and Weslyean).</p>
<p>My mom has considerable assets from an inherritance from my grandmother (130k liquid, and a condo she's renting at a loss) and I'm getting a nice amount of money from a settlement from a severe car accident I was in as a kid. Our EFC together is going to be around 15k (because she makes less 30k with child support for my younger brother) and we're completely fine with that.</p>
<p>The problem is my father. My parents are divorced, and those of you who read in the cafe a lot have probably guessed that my dad is a late stage alcoholic. For the current school, which only used the FAFSA, they agreed to split the EFC. After a small arguement over christmas break, he withdrew all financial support and no longer speaks to me -- telling my mom that she should take my college money out of the child support for my brother. And he's trying to get that reduced.</p>
<p>I don't want to be dependant on his mood swings, but besides Brown (who has a nice form for occasions like this), all of the schools expect him to pay. He's refused to fill out the NCP form, and the time he did it last year he did it wrong and I was lucky he sent it to my mom to look over first, and she redid it.</p>
<p>I know I need to call the FA officers to see what they can do, but I have no idea how to approach this without sounding like I'm begging. But the reality is, there's no point in applying if I know the financial aid (even if they're just loans I can take out) won't be there.</p>