<p>Hi guys. I'm a rising junior and I'm starting to look at colleges. I know that I am going to need a decent amount of aid but I have no idea if the calculators are right. Also, I need some tips on talking to parents about money. /:) My situation is kind of weird, so bear with me.</p>
<ul>
<li>divorced parents, joint custody, live with my mom</li>
<li>mom claims custody on returns</li>
<li>mom makes 60k/yr</li>
<li>dad makes 40k/yr</li>
<li>I have a fund set aside (not sure what type, sorry) around 90k</li>
<li>I have a younger sibling, 11 years old by when I go to college</li>
</ul>
<p>I am counting on some good merit aid but I'm at a loss on how to figure out how my parents' divorce is going to affect this all. Help would be appreciated?</p>
<p>FYI, this is not in any way a weird situation. I’ve seen hundreds of posts from kids with similar info. At FAFSA schools only your Mom’s income will be considered. At Profile schools many will also consider your dad’s. <a href=“CSS Profile Participating Institutions and Programs”>CSS Profile Home – CSS Profile | College Board; The Profile schools tend to hand out more financial aid than the FAFSA schools. If you do need merit aid then look at the stickied threads at the top of this forum.</p>
<p>It’s always good to start early. </p>
<p>Since you are counting on good merit scholarships, go to the threads that list schools that provide generous merit aid. Look at some of those schools to see if they interest you, and find some that do, and see what their requirements are for guaranteed scholarships to see if you are likely to qualify.</p>
<p>Since your parents are divorced, schools that are FAFSA only (the federal form for receiving government assistance like the guaranteed student loans), only ask for your mother’s financial information - they only look at the income/assets of the parent you live with for the majority of the time. Many private colleges (which are often the ones with the most generous merit scholarships) want to know the income of both parents. If you have a step-father, his income will go on the FAFSA. If you have a step-mother, hers (and your stepfather’s) income will go on the Profile (the financial aid form the private schools often use).</p>
<p>Need-based aid will be hard to come by for you because of the 90k that you are so fortunate to have available. </p>
<p>You just need to sit down with your mom and tell her that you are looking at colleges and need to know how that 90k is saved for you, and whether she thinks that she will be able to contribute any additional money to help with school. Then ask your dad if he is able to help at all. Every college has a tool to use to estimate your cost to attend - put your financial information into a few of them to see what kind of expenses/scholarships you might expect. </p>
<p>Also clarify if that 90,000 is for your college only, or is it a savings account for both you and your younger sibling. The net price calculators are available for each school and should give you an estimate of what different schools expect you (family) to contribute. They are less accurate if your parents are self employed or divorced as not all NPC capture the contribution that they expect from non custodial parents. NPC that ask for GPA or test scores are more likely to factor merit aid into their estimation. </p>
<p>Simply by dividing that $90,000 by four (assuming that $$ is for your use alone) you are way ahead of many, many students beginning this process. </p>
<p>Okay, thank you all for the advice. I’m still a little confused but this gives me some great info to start with.
What I’m most worried about is that my savings fund (for me only) will run out, and colleges will expect me to keep paying the same amount every year. It’s not as though it is continuously building - it’s just a one time fund that I’m hoping to save for grad school.
I do know, thankfully, that I will be able to have full tuition at schools like Alabama and my state flagship.</p>
<p>When the colleges figure your aid based on NEED, they will look at mom’s income, and assets (and likely Dad’s too). they don’t care if you earmark assets for other things. You aren’t going to get free money from them so you can then keep a fat savings account for grad school, vacations, a car, a house, etc. Free NEED money is given to people who don’t have any means to go to undergrad school.</p>
<p>Now MERIT is different, mostly it will not be based on your financials. It will be based to attract a higher qualify candidate to the college. If you are counting on merit, you’d better be applying to schools that give it because they don’t all do that.</p>
<p>If the savings in your name or a parent? That is an important point. </p>
<p>schools wont care that you want that money for grad school. schools are NOT going to give you more money so that SOME OTHER school will get that money later. lol</p>
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<p>You may need a good bit of aid, but most schools do NOT give great aid, so you need to have a good strategy.</p>
<p>are either of your parents remarried? the schools that give the best aid will include everyone’s financial info.</p>
<p>You may want to apply to two types of schools…</p>
<p>ones that give great aid (the hardest to get accepted to)</p>
<p>ones that give large merit for stats. </p>
<p>""I also took it in February of this year and got a 34. “”</p>
<p>as you mentioned, alabama will give you free tuition…so a safety for you.</p>
<p>Find out what kind of account that $90k is in. If it’s a 529 plan, for fafsa it will be treated as a parent asset and count at 5.6% toward your expected contribution each year. If just a regular savings account in your name it will count at 20% each year. Profile colleges will likely treat it somewhat similarly though it will vary by college.</p>
<p>If you parents are civil to each other and cooperative concerning the college process you are in a much better position than many children of divorced parents.</p>
<p>While private schools may award more need-based aid than publics, they also cost more to begin with. You will have to look at the bottom line of what you are being asked to pay, not at how much aid you get. You will need to ensure by your choice of school and what the bottom line cost is that the $90k doesn’t run out early. Schools aren’t going to give you need-based aid so you can save the $90k for grad school, to do that you would likely need to go for the big merit.</p>
<p>Spend some time this summer prepping for the PSAT. If you can become a National Merit Finalist, that will open another good set of guaranteed (and competitive) scholarships to you. If you have a 34 ACT, you should be able to pull off a strong PSAT, but a little prep to make sure will be well-invested.</p>
<p>Also, if the college savings is not in a 529 plan, you may want to research legal ways of getting some or all of the money into a 529 plan as soon as possible. </p>
<p>Okay, thank you all for the help! I was not implying that I need the money to be saved for grad school, just that I would like to get good merit aid so maybe some of it might be left. 
Sorry about the confusion.</p>
<p>I’ve already started prep for the PSAT, so I’m in good shape there. I don’t think it is a 529 plan but my state’s is incredibly weird so I’ll have to look into that.</p>
<p>You don’t have to use your own state’s 529 plan, though sometimes there are tax advantages to doing so.</p>
<p>The huge financial aid benefit of a 529 comes from the asset being a parental asset rather than a student asset. Colleges understandably expect students to spend a higher proportion of their own assets than their parents’</p>
<p>As others have said, your situation is typical rather than unusual. First of all, the way the colleges determine who the custodial parent is, doesn’t give a fig as to who claims you on the tax return or what the divorce decree says. The definition is simply the parent with whom you lived with the most for the 12 months before you fill out the FAFSA. The FAFSA is the basic form that most all colleges need you and your parents to complete in order for you to get federal aid, and really any aid, though some colleges also want an additional form. In your case, it would be smarter to make sure you spend at least one night more with your dad, and do document this, since his income is less. You’ll get a lower Expected Family Contribution (EFC) that way. My friend made sure of this with her son, since she made much more than her ex, and he would not have gotten any aid based on her income. He got a lot including PELL grants using his father as his custodial parent. </p>
<p>If that money of yours is sitting in an account that is NOT 529 in your name, 20% of it will be hit up on the FAFSA. Get it into 529 or have it in an account joint with a parent with parent’s name and SSN first so that as a parental asset, some of it is excluded and 5.6% of it goes towards EFC instead of that whopping 20%.</p>
<p>Bear in mind that those schools that use FAFSA ony and really most schools do not guarantee to meet full need. Your family EFC is often the LOWEST amount you can expect to have to pay, since you don’t get a dime of federal money until you pay it in most cases. Exceptions are if you are going to a very low cost college or you get big merit scholarships, not need based ones that cover the bulk of the cost. Pure merit awards do not take need into consideration, and to get them you should be in the top of the top group of kids at any given school. They are usually integrated in with need packages in that they reduce the need figure.</p>
<p>The more generous schools, for the most part, use CSS PROFILE as well as FAFSA to define need, and many of those schools will want both parents’ financial info though it often is still beneficial to have the lower income parent be custodial. PROFILE often takes into account other things as well, that FAFSA does not, like primary home equity values, amounts in siblings’ accounts. </p>
<p>Good luck. You are getting an early start so you can read up and start working on the best deals you can get. Remember, it’s not what your parents or you WANT to pay or feel you can pay, but what the colleges have that you can pay buy formula. But colleges do vary as to their formulas so you should have some varied choices on your list, and the most important college or colleges are the ones you KNOW you will be able to afford that will take you.</p>