I’m wondering how I should fill out my financial aid documents because my parents are making things really difficult and complicated. I filled out my FAFSA and put them as married, but on the CSS Profile, after consultation with my mother and me, my school counselor helped us fill it out and put them as separated and my mother did the noncustodial parent app. Problem is, my mother says they never got legally separated, though she did move out for about six months last year, and we all live together now though she may very well move out again. I’m trying to get this info as accurate as possible though my parents don’t care to see it that way. I have no idea which document to change now and this is getting me really stressed out. There’s also a few other things on the Profile that my counselor messed up that I’d like to fix. Help please?
Then your parents should be filing as married and both incomes/assets should be on the FAFSA
So I should change their martial status on the Profile?
Have you submitted the profile to all of your schools? If yes, you may not be able to go back and change it. In addition, if you got your fees waived by only having your mother’s income, you also most likely will owe the college board $
You really need to get it straighten out because you do not even remotely want the colleges to think that you are trying to get money fraudulently
Yes I did 
I think my fee waivers will stay the same regardless though
How much if any $$ did your dad make
the income of both of your parents combined, may not have warranted you for CSS profile fee waivers
He had nothing but unemployment income, and I used him as my custodial parent anyway. My mother has no income either. When I had it filled out as married I checked the submission page and it was the same amount of money waived.
So I suppose my next plan of action should be to email each school’s admissions or financial aid office, explain my situation, and request to alter my info?
I would call someone at the financial aid office of one of your target schools and ask for advice. I believe to be separated (but not legally separated), the instructions require that the parents are living at separate addresses, don’t they?
If the financial aid awards will not shift much, it would not be a great surprise if you are advised to wait and only discuss this with the schools to which you are admitted.
It sounds like your parents will separate as soon as they can afford to separate.
Just a bit of advice, if you do contact colleges, be sure to spell it correctly. Martial means ‘of or pertaining to war’. The word you are looking for is **marital **. (Even though your parents might be at war with each other).
In my opinion, the major issue you have is that the marital status in the FAFSA does not match the marital status on the Profile. They should be the same.
Can you update the CSS profile to show that they’ve reconciled? It doesn’t matter what your mom MIGHT do; what matters is that she lives with your dad now.
It doesn’t matter if they are reconciled or not, it matters what is on paper and who you lived with.
I think what you need to know is if they filed taxes for 2013 and 2014 as married filing jointly or married filing separately. As far as I can tell, that’s all the CSS Profile asks. And no matter their actual status, their tax status matters the most for CSS Profile anyway.
FAFSA definition:
Divorced or Separated The parent the student lived with most during the last 12 months. If the student did not live with one parent more than the other, provide information about the parent who provided more financial support during the last 12 months, or during the most recent year that the student actually received support from a parent.
If your parents are actually still married, and actually live together, my understanding is that if they are both contributing to the household you live in full time, they should be listed as married.
Also, it matters if she did not live with you six months in 2013 or six months in 2014 (last year is technically 2014, but we’ve only gotten a little of 2015 done…).
Ask them how they will file their taxes for 2014, and go with that. It is generally financially beneficial for married couples to file jointly.
So if they lived apart 6 months in 2014 and are filing married but separately… the marital status on both should be separated?