<p>Hi, all. It's been a while since I last posted on CC but here's the deal. My parents are divorced (for quite some time now). My father has always had custody of me, making my mom the non-custodial parent. I will be attending a top 25 uni that claims to meet full need. My package was fairly generous and I am satisfied with what I have been offered. I only worry that my parents may not be able to meet their contribution given their low income status. My father makes enough to get by with me and my siblings. My mother is even more worse off and hasn't made any income this year. She lost her house and is now renting another house in the time being. She hasn't paid child support in 6 years and I have 4 other siblings including my self in my father's household. I wasn't very involved in the financial aid process but my father took care of most of it, but I was wondering if the college would be aware of fact that my mother has not paid child support and if this would have already been noted within the taxes he filed, FAFSA, and CSS Profile. If they aren't aware of this could I inform them in the hopes of gaining a few thousand dollars to cover their contribution. I think with a part-time job I can cover my expenses but I don't trust my parents to be on top of their contribution. And I'm worried if they don't meet their contribution I'll have to take on the burden with loans, which I'm trying to steer away from. Is it worth asking for a couple thousand dollars? I'm sorry that I'm being pretty vague, I just don't know how sensitive information about college plays out on the internet and I don't want my information in the wrong hands.</p>
<p>I think that if your dad was receiving CS from your mom, it would have been listed on FAFSA and CSS Profile. The fact that there was nothing to report, means that the fact has been considered. The calculation for your household was done using your dad’s income only supporting the family. If your mom had been paying CS, then that would have been included in your household’s calculation.</p>
<p>You can avoid loans if you want by working over the summer and maybe working part time during the school year. But, don’t be afraid to borrow a small amount. How much is the “family contribution”? Keep in mind that much of that is probably for the part of COA that is “personal expenses and transportation” so you have control over how much you spend.</p>
<p>Child support is income and would be included in financial aid apps. That there is none isn’t something you have to tell the schools, any more than any other things you ARE NOT getting. It’s when you GET the money that it has to be reported.</p>
<p>If you are attending a private university, then you’ve submitted both the FAFSA and PROFILE forms, and if your mother hasn’t paid CS, that’s been reported. If the income situation for either parent has changed significantly since the financial aid forms were filed, they can contact the school and submit supplementary information. Most likely though, this would affect your award for next year and not this year.</p>
<p>Has your father confirmed that he is willing and capable of paying the “family contribution” portion? That should be a fairly straight forward question/conversation.</p>
<p>As for your non-custodial mother who hasn’t been paying child support for years, has no income, lost a home–I doubt she will be contributing to your college costs, so I don’t know why you say “parents” in the plural when you talk about possible money for college. It seems you need to make this work with just your father and treat any contributions from your mother as a surprise windfall because to expect or depend on her contributions to make all 4 years work at college seems like a very unrealistic and unreliable plan.</p>
<p>Your mom’s child support received should have been indicated on the financial aid forms. I do not believe it is “income” for tax purposes as that money has already been taxed when your mom earned it…it is not (I believe) taxed again when it is passed on to your dad.</p>
<p>However, your dad would have indicated receipt of child support.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure your worry…you say your mom has NOT been paying child support. It’s not like she is going to stop doing something that she HAS been doing.</p>
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<p>What IS your parent contribution to this college? You need to make sure your father can meet this cost. If the Stafford loan was not included in your financial aid package, you can take that to help with the shortfall.</p>
<p>My parent contribution on the award letter was around $4,800 and my contribution was $1850. I was also given a work study amount of around $1700, would that amount be added on to my contribution or is that in addition to my contribution?</p>
<p>My father says that he is willing to pay for his contribution but being willing and actually paying it are two entirely different things. And I’m not sure if he’s counting on my mother to pay her share or not.</p>
<p>I think the OP’s question was whether or not the lack of child support was considered when his college determined his financial assistance. CS is noted on taxes and on the FAFSA I believe, so colleges should have factored this into your package. </p>
<p>As others have already said, ask your dad if he will be able to make his contributions. Depending on how much the college expects him to pay, I wouldn’t worry too much about taking out small loans.</p>
<p>You will need to get a WS job and earn that $1700…which can then be used to pay your student contribution. I’m guessing that personal expenses and transportation were included in your cost of attendance. If that is the case, this WS money can be used for those costs. They are NOT costs billed by the university.</p>
<p>If you haven’t received a Stafford loan IN your package, and you are concerned about the costs, you can easily get one in the amount of $5500 for your freshman year. That will cover your costs.</p>
<p>Thanks, thumper1. Yes, the personal expenses and transportation were included in COA. No loans were included in my package (but the school states that I can apply for them early in the school year). I’m still a bit hesitant about taking out loans because I’ve heard negative reviews of students in massive student loan debt and I’m not exactly sure how much me and my family can handle. Every family situation is different, you know. What may be reasonable debt for someone else may be too excessive for my family and I.</p>
<p>Which brings me to my next question. My family had an EFC of 0 and I am to attend a school that meets 100% of need. I was expecting the amount of student contribution I received but I thought my parents’ contribution was a bit “too” high for a low-income family. Maybe I’m wrong, I don’t exactly know on average how much a family is considered to contribute, but I was hoping that they’d have close to 0 to contribute with our income.</p>
<p>EFC is determined from the FAFSA which is completely separate than how much the school thinks you can afford to pay. Your FAFSA EFC is used to determine your eligibility for federal aid, and nothing else. "“EFC” is a misnomer and does not actually mean you are expected to pay $0 to your college.</p>
<p>The college has determined that your family’s contribution is ~$4k and they have met 100% of your need up to their calculated contribution.</p>
<p>If you take out the max stafford loans, your debt for all four years will be about $27,000 which is not massive debt in my opinion. Your payments would be about $275 a month which is less than many folks pay for a car payment.</p>
<p>Most schools require a student contribution. That is why you have that. You school sounds like it also required the CSS Profile which does take the income/ assets of both parents into consideration. The FAFSA only used your dad’s information.</p>
<p>You sound like you have gotten a very large grant award from your university and that they do not include loans in the aid they offer students. That being the case, the stafford loans ONLY in the amount you actually need would cover the rest.</p>
<p>Alright, thumper. What if I opted to take on a part-time job to cover my expenses instead of using loans (and my parents’ contribution if it came to that). How much money, on average, could I earn part-time? My only hesitation is that a part-time job might take away from my school work, extracurricular activities, and other social events. I need to stay relatively debt free because I’m considering graduate school in the future.</p>
<p>**My parent contribution on the award letter was around $4,800 and my contribution was $1850. I was also given a work study amount of around $1700, would that amount be added on to my contribution or is that in addition to my contribution?</p>
<p>** </p>
<p>??? Added or “in addition” are the same thing. </p>
<p>Yes, the work study is in addition to (added to) your contribution. Your “contribution” is often considered to be from a summer job…while work study is usually a “school year” job worked on campus. </p>
<p>**</p>
<p>My father says that he is willing to pay for his contribution but being willing and actually paying it are two entirely different things. And I’m not sure if he’s counting on my mother to pay her share or not.**</p>
<p>Since it’s already July, half of his share is due quite soon. You could ask him when he’ll be ready to pay for that. </p>
<p>** What if I opted to take on a part-time job to cover my expenses instead of using loans (and my parents’ contribution if it came to that**</p>
<p>As to your question about taking on a part time job. THAT has already been calculated in for the work-study (That IS a part time job)…and your 1850 contribution.</p>
<p>How are YOU paying that 1850 contribution? </p>
<p>And, you need to contact the school to find out what you need to do and attend at school to get your work study job…usually you have to attend something around the time school starts to get your ws job.</p>
<p>If you’re earning the 1850 for YOUR contribution, and your working your work study job to earn your 1700 WS…then you’re not going to have time to earn your parents contribution. </p>
<p>The 1850 is NOT part of work study. You have to earn that money separately…schools assume you’re earning that NOW…during the summer. Are you working NOW?</p>
<p>Your contribution is $1850 and minimum wage is $7.25, so that is about 255 hours per year. So if you work between 4 to 6 hours per week, at minimum wage, that should cover your contribution.</p>
<p>Your parent’s contribution is $4800 and minimum wage is $7.25, so that is about 662 hours per year. So if you work between 13 and 14 hours per week, at minimum wage, that should cover your parents contribution.</p>
<p>This is all on top of your work study that you were offered, which is probably another 8 hours a week.</p>
<p>So that means if you work between 25 to 28 hours a week, you should be able to pay for your contribution, your parents contribution and your work study. Which is a lot to work while a full time student…</p>
<p>I’m not working right now. I live in a small town where jobs (at least for teens) are very limited. But I have been looking. I hadn’t realized that WS ad Student Contribution were different amounts that the student had to earn (I thought they went hand in hand). I could limit my travel, personal expenses, and books (at least by half) to make up the difference. I only have $300 saved up in a savings account. I’m worried I won’t find a place to be hired this far into the summer (or find an employer willing to hire me for less than 2 months). However even if I did, would I be able to at least pay off my contribution?</p>
<p>Actually, for low income students, many colleges offer work study to help these students earn the money. So this WS job could very well be one that was offered to this student to help with the student contribution. That being the case, it would not be an additional amount the student needed to pay.</p>
<p>What this student needs to find out is if there is a shortfall in the college’s billable costs… The costs paid DIRECTLY to the school. These include tuition, room, board, fees, and sometimes health insurance (op…if you have coverage that is equivalent or better than your school, you MIGHT be able to get a waiver of the school health care fee). The school does NOT bill you for books, transportation, or personal expenses which were all included in your cost of attendance.</p>
<p>Find out how much, if anything, you will owe the school each term for billable expenses. Then figure out if you have the money to cover the other costs with a job and/ or money from your dad.</p>
<p>Call the school financial aid office and ASK!</p>
<p>As noted above, your EFC for purposes of federal grants & loans (your “FAFSA EFC”) will not necessarily be the same as what a private college calculates to be your family’s ability to pay. The school’s number will often be higher. But if you think it’s unreasonably high, then you should call the school and ask. They can explain . . . and it’s always possible there’s a mistake. It happens sometimes. So, don’t be shy - call them up and ask them to explain it to you.</p>
<p>At the same time, ask them if that $1850 you have to contribute is above and beyond your work-study . . . or if you can use the work study to help pay the $1850.</p>
<p>I hadn’t realized that WS ad Student Contribution were different amounts that the student had to earn (I thought they went hand in hand).</p>
<p>Yes, that can be confusing. The amounts are different so that should help clarify that they’re not the same things. </p>
<p>As mentioned above, the “student contribution” is assumed to be earned during the summer, while work study is from a job during the school year. So…you really won’t have time to work a SECOND job during the school year to earn your “summer contribution” and your “parent contribution”…so this year, you’re going to have to take out student loans. For future years, avoid the loans if possible.</p>
<p>See how much your dad can pay for this upcoming semester.</p>
<p>At the same time, ask them if that $1850 you have to contribute is above and beyond your work-study . . . or if you can use the work study to help pay the $1850.</p>
<p>I can almost guarantee that it is…that’s why it’s a different amount (and it’s higher). If it weren’t, the amount would either be the SAME or lower. this is VERY common at schools that meet need. They expect students to contribute from a SUMMER job (student contribution) and they expect students to contribute from Work Study for “day to day” expenses.</p>
<p>If you look at the amounts, the entire “student part” generally covers books, tranportation, and/or personal expenses. Schools seem to expect kids to earn that. Schools don’t want to be paying for toothpaste, pizza with friends, or plane tix.</p>
<p>Well, the college offers a 10 month payment program, so I think I might be able to bypass paying a large amount every semester. So for myself, my monthly payments would be $355 and my parents would be $480. With what I have saved up I could probably cover books, my parents have already bought my plane ticket (though I suspect that I will be paying to come back for holidays, however I’ll probably be staying on campus for the most part because of my sports), and I could be in charge of my own personal expenses given the WS. After my parents contribution, there’s about $1100 left to cover the direct costs. I’m hoping that any summer job I find can cover that.</p>