<p>I wasn’t suggesting anyone encouraged him to falsify docs. But the OP clearly states that he has no problem breaking the rules which to me are crystal clear. Custodial parent is the one you live with, regardless of whose mailing address you use.<br>
OP isn’t looking for clarification he is looking for support to break the rules.</p>
<p>he’s not getting support from me! I hope he considers this: What’s the price of looking over your shoulder all the time? What’s the cost of being afraid you’re going to get caught? What’s the cost of selling your soul by doing something immoral? It’s just not worth it. If you get comfortable in doing things that you know are wrong, then you’ll corrupt yourself. If you’re uncomfortable, as you should be, you’ll be living in pain. Dont do it!</p>
<p>My response is in post 4 of this thread. There is no loophole to this.</p>
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<p>While it still won’t fly, this kid is not lowering his EFC to the point that he’s Pell/ACG/FSEOG eligible. At best, he’d receive a small TAP grant from the state. I don’t know NYU’s need based aid availability would increase, especially at this point, but they may offer him additional loans.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t see this kid as the bad guy either…I can feel his pain and frustration at seeing his chance disappear and he’s grasping at something some GC said to retain what hope he has left. It’s unfortunate that the 3 parents in his life didn’t plan for his education and now he’s left to figure it out, though he did say that they called the finaid officer at his school so maybe at least one parent is helping. This guessing game system of FA/college costs frustrates even wise, mature parents, so no big surprise that a 17/18 yo is having trouble navigating this, his first foray into the financial/bill-paying world. At least he posted and asked for advice, and apparently has another issue to deal with which may impact the decision.</p>
<p>Why should OP’s stepdad be compelled to pay toward tuition? Perhaps he has other financial obligations, pre-getting married to OPs mom, that he must consider. </p>
<p>Sure, mom could always get a job, but it sounds like there are other kids. Maybe she has to stay at home to take care of them. Yeah, there;'s always daycare, but I have a bro who has medical/health issues and there’s no way my fam could put him in a daycare.</p>
<p>What Ive learned so far: the FA process is pretty confusing. And, it’s best to be completely honest and upfront when filling the forms out.</p>
<p>what you should learn is that remarrying when there are kids that are going to be going to college can have a HUGE impact on the family. In all seriousness, if the custodial parent is going to get remarried, they should have the ‘talk’ about college finances BEFORE getting married. Same goes for non-custodial parent. I guarantee you that 99.99% of the time NO thought whatsoever is made about how remarriage will affect your EFC. If a guy doesn’t want to help with step kids college, then don’t marry their mom.</p>
<p>I had the opposite happen–EFC doubled. The first year the divorce was not final but we were separated. I was the custodial parent. The FAFSA contact told me to separate out my earnings based on my W2 from my now ex’s. I was working part time and making about 1/3 of his money. I was also told to divide up assets in the same ratio. I was quite poor that year. My S got a retroactive grant after we had already paid all the school bills. It was a surprise. This year divorce final, assets split and I work more and get spousal support. Am better off of course, but with the EFC doubled and the two in college only got the Stafford loans and the unsubsidized loans–no grants.</p>
<p>When a parent marries, their spouse becomes a member of their FAMILY. The FAFSA computes an expected FAMILY contribution based on the assumption the married parent/stepparent contribute to the family expenses. Even IF the step dad isn’t paying for college, he IS contributing to rent/mortgage, utilities, food, clothing, misc expenses, cars, gas etc. Once you become part of the FAMILY, your income and assets are considered in the FAFSA formula when computation for expected FAMILY contribution is made.</p>
<p>Reading these threads for a few years, it seems there’s as many biological parents, or more, as there are step parents who won’t pay for college. Not many marry, or divorce, based on their EFC (thank goodness)! There’s usually extenuating circumstances, but it’s still the parents’ (bio and step) decision at the end of the day.</p>
<p>Before I found CC and the finaid board 2 years ago, I had no idea what the implications of remarriage would be on my sons’ financial aid possibilities. The reality of FAFSA and Profile reporting certainly gave me pause, but since S1 and S2 were unlikely to be eligible for need-based aid anyway, the decision to remarry didn’t include that consideration.</p>
<p>An acquaintance is in a similar situation as the OP’s mother. She has allowed the non-custodial father to fill out FAFSA; the student has received a fairly generous financial aid package as a result. When she was first looking into FAFSA, I sent her a number of links to articles about the rules for determining who the custodial parent is, plus cut and pasted paragraphs that clearly showed she and her ex couldn’t legally do what she was intending. There’s no ambiguity in her situation; she’s the custodial parent, the father doesn’t live anywhere near the student’s high school district and sees the student at most every other weekend. It makes me sick to think of what might happen to the student if he/she is audited.</p>
<p>That is the more unusual situation. Most often the mother is the custodial parent as well as the poorer parent. (Not always of course.) The FAFSA is very specific. Only the custodial parent counts. Another designation where people don’t follow the rules is the “head of household” for federal taxes. You need to have the person actually living with you to file head of household (or at least during the summer). In divorce settlements often parents switch off the dependents on their taxes and this is not the same as head of household.</p>
<p>What stinks is that the stepparent has the (perceived or real) obligation to contribute towards college costs because they’re considered family, but have none of the benefits that go with the legal status of being a biological/adoptive parent.</p>
<p>My future husband has no perceived or real obligation to contribute towards college costs. What benefits did you have in mind? Being a mentor to two teenage boys is both challenging and rewarding, and only occasionally aggrevating ;)</p>
<p>But if you mean the obligation as implied by the financial aid formulas, then I think what thumper1 said earlier on this thread is spot on - a new adult in the household presumably contributes towards the well-being of the entire family.</p>
<p>The rules are the rules. They are there. If you want to break a rule, you take the risk of getting caught and having to suffer the consequences. </p>
<p>There are couples who do not legally marry so that they do not get stuck with “marriage tax” in the form of taxes, being on the hook for college costs via FAFSA, etc. I know a couple who had a celebration without a legal marriage for those reasons, and it has paid off in the last few years.</p>
<p>Vballmom, wow, that family took a big risk and they better hope that no one catches them now or later. Wasn’t there a story several years ago about a degree being rescinded due to fraud? So not worth it!</p>
<p>I do know a family who switched from joint custody to sole custody in their D’s junior year specifically for the FA…not against the rules though as she actually did spend more time at her mom’s house. At the time I felt like it was a bit of game playing but now I completely understand why people would use any legal advantage they’re allowed to keep their kids from drowining in college debt!</p>
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<p>Actually, I don’t see it this way. The way <em>I</em> see it is that this step parent IS contributing to the family living expenses thus freeing up some of the bio parents money to pay for college.</p>
<p>It has nothing to do with fairness. It’s the way the system is set up. A student with a billionaire non custodial parent whose custodial parent is Pell eligible gets Pell and associated goodies. A step parent is considered in the FAFSA formula for financial aid whereas a non custodial bio/legal parent is not. </p>
<p>It can be a huge problem because many marriages after the first one when there are children, history and obligations involved may have contractual agreements about the finances. College aid rules trump any such agreements and if you don’t know about them, it can be a very big problem. A child that may have been eligible for financial aid may suddenly become ineligible because mom marries someone who is making $100K a year, who is not likely to have had paying for a stepchild’s college in his financial plans. But the rules are there and anyone who is thinking of getting married with kids’ college plans looming, had better take the financial rules about who is expected to pay into account.</p>
<p>Heck, I know a few folks who have two residences who have been legally separated because they get a huge tax advantage from the arrangement. When Obama’s surtax for those making over $250K comes into effect, they’ll be saving more with their arrangement.</p>
<p>OP, don’t make a risky choice to do “what every one else is doing”</p>
<p>First off, that is what people did in the housing market, bought crazy loans they could not afford because every one else did, but every one else is not helping them out of their mess.</p>
<p>Secondly, do not believe what people tell you about their aid and what they are doing- people call need based aid a merit scholarship, people fudge numbers, and even make things up, do not risk your future based on what some one says they are doing- people exaggerate and try to make themselves look better or worse or more wicked or more able to play the system, doesn’t mean it is really true.</p>
<p>That being said, just as a person can make a financial decision based on what is best income tax wise, and many pay accountants a great deal of money to help them do that well; a person can certainly make choices based on fin aid formulas. If I had $50,000 in cash above protected assets and I could pay it against my mortgage, AND if that would help my EFC, I would do that. </p>
<p>The first key is whether the maneuvers will help your EFC and the second question is how the lower EFC will be funded.</p>
<p>Definitely a smart thing to do to adjust your circumstances to allow Pell qualification, esp if you can then get ACG/Smart grants. But it does you no good to change everything in order to simply obtain more loans!</p>
<p>Run the EFC numbers in both scenarios and ask your school what the package with that EFC would look like.</p>
<p>If you find it better to file FAFSA under your other parent, you must then actually live with that parent.</p>
<p>Interesting question. D’s friend’s parents are divorced and the mom is about to remarry. The soon to be step-dad is very well off and the dad is currently unemployed. They split custody and their agreement has the kids with the dad 3 days of the week (actually he sees them a lot less, but that was the agreement) and they both live in the same school district. I believe (not sure) that they alternate years claiming dependents. Seems to me that in that case, they could legally fill out the FAFSA anyway they want.</p>
<p>I think kids who have divorced parents need to talk to the colleges in question. Some schools I know are very lenient in how they define the custodial parent. Some are also very lenient in state residency when a child of divorce has parents in two states. This can be a gray area, since it is the college financial aid departments that are the assigned watchdogs for these situations. </p>
<p>I know a young lady who has a non custodial parent she sees once a year maybe in the last 5 years who lives in one of the Carolinas. That was sufficient for her to be considered a Carolina resident to get preferable treatment for Duke admissions, for instance.</p>