<p>** 3togo quote: *
Look into schools that only consider the FAFSA for financial aid … in these cases they will only consider your Mom’s income (which I believe will be considered abotu $60k … $15k from work and $45k from support).***</p>
<p>This is very wrong. A FAFSA-only school will use BOTH mom and step-dad’s income. COMBINED. The custodial household’s income is used. </p>
<p>You will not get much/any aid from virtually any FAFSA-only school because your EFC will be toooo high.</p>
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<p>Leah…please don’t think I’m being harsh with this answer…but please read the above paragraph. I think you are RIGHT to look for MERIT aid…but need based aid? No. Your family is able to somehow pay for expensive ECs, vacations (even infrequent ones), two cars for kids and an intense music program three days a week (those usually are not free either). Families with real financial need do NOT have these options.</p>
<p>Now for some hopefully helpful suggestions…with your stats, you could receive significant merit aid from Santa Clara University. However, I would strongly suggest you look at schools that are “outside” of the box. The suggestion for Case Western is a very good one. You might also want to look at Arizona schools (the Barrett Honors college…I think at ASU…is well regarded). You would (I think) be guaranteed a very good scholarship at U of Alabama (Mom2 can elaborate on that one). You should apply for the McNair Scholarship at U of South Carolina (full ride plus laptop…application is a tough one but well worth the time if you get the nod). Check out College of Charleston in SC. They give nice scholarships to OOS students…costs are modest to begin with. Look at the SUNY schools…you might not get much aid but their costs might be manageable for you as well. University of Pittsburgh offers VERY generous merit awards to high performing OOS students. U of Michigan offers about 40 scholarships to incoming freshmen (well…at least they used to…check to see if this still is the case).</p>
<p>*I will be getting 12-15,000 per year from my dad. *</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about child support and tax implications, so I’m just asking…</p>
<p>In the past, your dad has been paying your mom about $40-50k per year in CS for 3 kids. With your sister’s graduation, he’s now going to be paying about $30k for two kids and will be giving about $12-15k to your older sis. And, you’re guessing that he’ll be doing the same for you. At that point, he’ll only be paying your mom about $15k per year for child #3.</p>
<p>Others who know more about these things can answer. Was/is the dad getting some kind of tax deduction or something while paying these large amounts in CS? Or does he not get a break at all? If so, wouldn’t that mean that when he’s down to just paying $15k child support for one child, that it might make it much harder for him to hand out $25k-30k also to the 2 kids in college?</p>
<p>Or maybe there isn’t any tax situation here to speak of. I’m just wondering that if he loses some kind of tax advantage, that it will make it harder to pay out that much money when only earning $120k per year.</p>
<p>Again, I’m just asking. I have no idea how paying child support and its tax implications work.</p>
<p>The intense music program is expensive. But that is for my younger half sibling. She is my stepdad and mother’s child and there is plenty of money for her. But that is irrelevant. </p>
<p>Also, the money going toward my car, ECs, etc. is all from my child support. which is the same 12-15,000 that will be available to me when I am in college.</p>
<p>I’m not looking for need based aid whatsoever. The point of this thread is that I know I don’t qualify for any and I’m not looking for any. It would be a lost cause. I’m looking for schools where my stats are above average that would offer me close to a full ride. If I’m going to take on huge sums of debt, I would rather they be from med school. </p>
<p>Thanks you for the suggestions. They are extremely helpful. </p>
<p>@Annasdad: Thank you for saying that. I truly appreciate it and it means a lot.</p>
<p>Too bad you kids didn’t realize that your mom is just using you all as child-support cash machines and you don’t go to live with your dad to end this crazy scenario.</p>
<p>Honesty…they go on pricey vacations and don’t take you three kids? Ugh. I’m having to “bite my hands” to prevent myself from typing what I really think of your mom/stepdad.</p>
<p>I don’t for a minute think that your mom has been using all that money for YOU kids. That is a huge amount of child support.</p>
<p>*The intense music program is expensive. But that is for my younger half sibling. She is my stepdad and mother’s child and there is plenty of money for her. But that is irrelevant.
*</p>
<p>Ugh!</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids I’m not guessing that he will be giving me the money. We talked about it as a family, and I know I will be getting it. They wanted to be absolutely clear with me about my expectations and goals when it comes to ivy league schools and my ability to go, and I’m glad they were/are.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about the tax implications. I’m pretty sure that since I live with my mom, she lists me as her dependent but I really don’t know.</p>
<p>I know exactly what is going on with the child support. But I don’t want this thread to turn into that. I want this thread to be about what I can do, not about what has been done. I have seriously considered moving in with my dad, but my mom lives in a much better school disctrict with much better opportunities.</p>
<p>Your doing the right thing determining your options, and you have a lot of good info on this thread. At least there are places to start. There are gov’t grants for people that want to go to medical school, and there are even private scholarships for med school. Especially if you want to enter a field that really needs more MD’s (like primary care). They do ask for a commitment after graduation. So look for those. The good news is that you will have options to help you out. The info you probably did not want to hear was that there is not really significant merit aid at the top tier schools. But now you know that info, and can continue to plan and still get a great quality education and go on to med school. You will do great!</p>
<p>Also look at SUNY Stonybrook. They offer merit based scholarships to out of staters, as well as merit money for women in engineering and science. (I’m assuming you are female from your name.) Stonybrook also has a med school.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.stonybrook.edu/finaid/programs/freshmanmeritbasedscholarships.shtml[/url]”>http://www.stonybrook.edu/finaid/programs/freshmanmeritbasedscholarships.shtml</a></p>
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<p>Even if the OP wanted to do this, it might not be an option, if the divorce decree gives custody to the mother and she doesn’t want to give it up. Courts will sometimes give weight to the desires of an older dependent child, but that would be messy and probably expensive.</p>
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<p>Me too.</p>
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<p>For financial aid purposes, how you are listed on the taxes doesn’t matter at all…it’s who you LIVE with 51% of the time or more. </p>
<p>If it’s your mom…SHE is listed as your custodial parent on the FAFSA (and your stepdad is then listed as well), and the Profile. Your dad would complete a non-custodial parent Profile where required. </p>
<p>If you reside more with your Dad, then he would be listed on the FAFSA (along with his wife, if he has one). Your dad would complete the Profile as the custodial parent and your mom/stepdad would complete a non-custodial parent Profile (where required).</p>
<p>I’m not guessing that he will be giving me the money. We talked about it as a family, and I know I will be getting it.</p>
<p>Oh I didn’t mean to suggest that you don’t know that your dad will be giving you the money. My concern was that if your dad loses some kind of tax benefit (if there is one, I don’t know.), then it may prove to be harder than he thinks to pay out that much money.</p>
<p>For instance… Since I pay a $2000 a month mortgage, I have a nice mortgage deduction. If I sold my house, and decided to rent something that is $2000 per month, I would soon find that not as affordable. </p>
<p>Again, I have NO IDEA of how child support works with taxes, etc, so it may be a total non-issue. For your sake, I sure hope it’s not. :)</p>
<p>Anyway…study hard for the PSAT. Do you have some good practice books? What section is your weak area? Maybe some here can give you some tips. The Xiggi Method is a good one. I don’t have the link for that, but maybe someone does.</p>
<p>Another choice…University of Maryland College Park…also gives merit awards to out of state students. So does University of Delaware.</p>
<p>Child support is not deductible for federal purposes, nor is it taxed as income to the recipient. Also, child support does not automatically end at age 18 as one would think. It would depend on the support order in place. It’s odd that the mom is not saving a portion of the current support for the kids’ college expense. Best to have a candid discussion with both parents, I think.</p>
<p>@vlines thanks, I will look into the government grants. I’m not really interested in primary care but hopefully I can find some in my interest areas (oncology or pathology). thanks for the encouragement, it really helps!</p>
<p>@Megmo Yes, I am a girl. Thanks for the input!</p>
<p>@annasdad No I don’t have the option to move in with my dad. It would be a very messy and expensive court battle. </p>
<p>@thumper1 & mom2collegekids I don’t think taxes will play a part. At least I’m hoping. that would be an unfortunate surprise 
Ill ask my dad to look into it. </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids I have the bluebook, I’ve mostly been studying for the SAT because I figure that it will cross over. CR kills me. It’s by far my lowest section, I average around a 690. Its the vocab. I hear Direct Hits is good? Any suggestions?</p>
<p>@thumper1 thanks for the continued input! I will look into those as well.</p>
<p>@sk8trmom there have been a few discussions, most of them not very “candid,” but the relevant information in this thread is that I will have 12-15,000 per year.</p>
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This depends a lot on the school … UNC is something like 85%-90% North Carolina kids. However a lof of state schools in smaller stats have a lot of kids who are OOS … my second applied to UVM and UDel, for example, both of which have a lot of OOS kids.</p>
<p>PS - You’re right about your step-dad being on your FAFSA submission … I was wrong in my earlier post … sorry about that.</p>
<p>@3togo thanks for the information. I wasn’t aware of that. That makes OOS flagships much more appealing :)</p>
<p>And it’s all good about the FAFSA :)</p>
<p>PS - and both UVM and UDel gave him some merit money … you’re a much stronger student so I’d think you’d get alot more merit aid. One other advantage in my view is that these small state flaghship schools are not that big compared to many other state Us … UVM has about 10,000 undergrads and UDel is something like 12-13k undergrads … which is A LOT smaller than some of the real big state Us (I also think Alabama is relatively small and gives big merit money to top students). These are just a few examples … I’m sure there are many other similar options.</p>
<p>It’s odd that the mom is not saving a portion of the current support for the kids’ college expense.</p>
<p>I was thinking the same thing…but I guess the siren’s call for awesome vacations is just too appealing.</p>
<p>*My main worry with going to an OOS public flagship is that most of the other students will be in-state, and I really want to have a diversified college experience with kids from all over *</p>
<p>That would be true for some flagships, but not all. I know that you’re probably used to what the UCs do. </p>
<p>My kids’ flagship is about 35% OOS (or higher). And this year’s frosh class will be about 45% OOS.</p>
<p>What about adding Tulane and University of Miami to the list? They are both expensive - but have very generous merit aid for top students. And they both have plenty of diversity and would be appropriate for pre-med.</p>
<p>@3togo That sounds like a better fit.I would love to go to a relatively small (3-6,000) private school in the New England area, preferably Boston, Providence, NYC, or Pittsburgh. Of course, none of those fit the main requirement (free ahaha), but I guess it shows a referance point if anyone has suggestions for schools that get close to that.</p>