<p>Sorry, in two sentences I was unclear at what I was trying to say…</p>
<p>The “perceived” obligation I was referring to was that since the stepparent’s income and assets is included in a childs EFC it is perceived by the financial aid personnel that their income and assets are available to be used for the stepchild’s education. Depending on one’s point of view this obligation may or may not be real. Obviously there are mixed feelings on that. </p>
<p>I agree that the intangible benefits associated with being a stepparent are priceless. The benefits I was referring to are the legal benefits associated with being a parent that make it easier to manage day-to-day. During the child’s minority examples would include access to school records and personnel, ability to communicate with physicians and make emergency decisions, etc. Stepparents, even those who are more like “real” parents that the biological parents, have no legal standing in matters effecting the stepchildren.</p>
<p>I am a single parent (never married to his father, never got support), I’m obviously paying for my son to go to college. I have a ‘friend’ who is 13 years older than me with an 11 year old daughter that he supports. At this point, we are nothing more than friends, but if I was to ever marry him, and his daughter was to apply to a CSS school, all my income and assets would be ‘counted’. Even if I had no intention of wanting to contribute, my info could easily, by institutional methods, add 20K to the parental contribution. OTOH, if this same child applied to a fafsa only school, she would probably be eligible for Pell and every other type of low income grant because her mother has little reportable income.</p>
<p>So many loopholes, omissions, and inequities in the current system…I would love to propose to President Obama that he do away with the current FAFSA and EFC, which is a misnomer leading to heartache and confusion for so many. I think FAFSA should work more like Profile - use all parent’s (bio and step) info for every dependent student but disregard a threshold level of home equity and retirement assets since parents should not, imo, be expected to use below a certain level of these to send junior to college and, if fact, may not be able to access home equity at all.<br>
Also, the EFC could be renamed FAINT (Fin Aid Index - Needs Tested) which would be less misleading and an accurate reflection of how people feel when looking at their EFC, lol! It would score people on a scale of 0-100 for their eligibility for federal aid (100 being eligible for full aid, 30 is eligible for 30%), eliminating some of the “hard” cutoffs now in place. Just a thought…</p>
<p>I agree the system for divorced children is unfar. If I controlled rules, the answer would be in divorce, judges would be required to consider college expense as reasoanble need of child. Not to be ordered in every situation – but must be considered. Both bio parents are held accountable. Then second rule, steps are not automaticlally held accountable. The FAFSA takes the easy way out – I realize compliance difficult, but at a minimum, the FAFSA could say no joint return, no step parent required contributin.</p>
<p>lol if you thought you were going to get away with it at first, good job on making the thread all about it…</p>
<p>In all seriousness, if you can pay for it just fine with your current status just stay with it. There are a lot of families with problems caused by the economic recession and playing the system could deprive them from what they want/need. Its totally up to you, but morally i wouldn’t do it (if you can pay for it in full).</p>
<p>Does anyone know if it could be a problem if my ex checked the box “lived with you” on his tax return when claiming the exemption? Normally every year he checks “did not live due to divorce” when I sign the form to release exemption for my son. (Son has always lived with me about 70%). I filled out the FAFSA and everything is correct-I’m just concerned that if FAFSA did a review dad’s error could cause a problem for my son.</p>
<p>I can tell you that my office is not looking at things like that. We do have to make sure people file correctly … that is, they DO file if they made enough that it is required, or they don’t both file head of household unless they meet the very narrow criteria required for that, or they don’t both file head of household AND both claim the same kids … stuff like that. For financial aid purposes, though, which parent claims the kid on taxes is irrelevant.</p>
<p>kelsmom and other FA gurus –
I have a recollection that there was a question (PROFILE?) asking for “other sources of support.” If a parent is living with someone, but they are not married, wouldn’t the fact they are presumably saving money on expenses by living together constitute “other sources of support”? I’m thinking in particular if the partner rather than the parent makes the vast majority of income.</p>
<p>I know others on CC have talked about living together as an alternative to some of the FA hurdles, but I’ve always been curious about how that particular question should be handled in that scenario.</p>
<p>I don’t work with Profile, so I am not sure how Profile schools would look at that situation. For FAFSA, the aid officer could make adjustments based on the facts … but I don’t really know how that would play out, to be honest.</p>
<p>D’s “father” has never participated in her life in any way, (he has never met her, she’s never met him). for all intents and purposes, she doesn’t have a father. (it’s all good. he was never asked or expected to participate. D and i got our happily-ever-after and we honestly hope he did too, wherever his is.)</p>
<p>so, in lieu of there being a “he got on the next bus out of town and we haven’t heard from him since” circle to check-off at the top of the “Parent 2” section of the Common Application (where the options are: “mother” “father” & “unknown”)… I’m just wondering if it’s better to put “unknown” there and leave the whole section blank. or should I put his name and country of origin and then leave the rest of the questions blank or put “unknown” for all the questions about him (which is all true - i don’t know - no contact in 17 years).</p>
<p>by “is it better to do this or that”, I’m talking about the procedures of completing the forms, not about the best way to get money out of the system. i have no interest in playing tricks - just need a little help to figure out the most reasonable way to answer a totally reasonable question that happens to have a more convoluted answer than the form seems to allow. it isn’t my intention to have others pay for my questionable decision making 17 years ago. (that said, if there are available-to-all financial aid funds floating around in the economic ether, then i’d like her to have fair opportunities to apply for them.) </p>
<p>usually, on registration forms for school, aid, soccer camps, etc. - i just leave the “Father” section blank & never give it a second thought, (when i completed the fafsa4caster, i guess “unknown” wasn’t an option and i must have just left all the 2nd parent part out because i’m the custodial parent.) but… i’m imagining that there needs to be consistency across both apps and aid. and since ya’ll have more information than i, i just thought i’d check to see if there is anything special i needed to do. </p>
<p>anyway - just wanted to see if there is anything i should be aware of or manage differently. thanks for whatever input you might be able to lend.</p>
<p>Countingdown, if a parent lives with a partner, the parent does not need to include the partner’s income. If the parent does not provide at least 50% of support for the partner, that person should not be included in the household size (nor should any children of the partner). If a parent said he was single & was selected for verification … and the verification form listed another adult whose age signaled that she might be the dad’s partner … I would have to investigate the situation further & I might make adjustments based on what I found out.</p>
<p>Zimbdger, it doesn’t matter who claims the student for tax purposes (from a financial aid point of view).</p>
<p>1sttimemom, I am not sure it really matters what you put on the Common App. Just check off whatever seems to fit you best. You won’t need to list the dad on the FAFSA. If you have to fill out Profile Non-Custodial Parent Form, just write a letter of explanation to the school.</p>
<p>I never put any info about the father that doesn’t exist. His name is not on my son’s birth certificate (and for one Profile school that I won’t name that still wasn’t enough to get an exemption for the non-custodial form!)</p>
<p>I have tax returns from the time my son was born proving I never claimed receiving any child support (yeah I guess that doesn’t prove I didn’t get any, only that I never claimed it, but I really never got any!)</p>