<p>I'm a high school junior living in Florida with my mother and step-father. Step dad is a civil engineer in the Air Force making about $70k a year and mom is a middle school teacher making maybe $30k.</p>
<p>My step mom and father currently live in Pennsylvania, but they have plans to move to either the same town as I live in or a neighboring town in May 2014. Dad is currently going to college to be a teacher (he graduates Spring 2014) and step mom is a high school / part time college professor. Dad is unemployed at the moment because the company he worked at (a driver's education school in Maryland) went out of business in June 2013. I'd estimate their household income is about $40k now.</p>
<p>When they move to Florida, both of them are going to be looking for teaching jobs at the local high schools (step mom may get her PhD though so she can teach at the university level instead of just community colleges). Either way you cut it, though, at the time I will be applying for colleges (September 2014), their household income will be at most $60k or so because Florida teachers are paid less than Pennsylvania teachers. This is assuming both have jobs by then, my step mom didn't decide to go back to school, etc. At most $60k household I would assume.</p>
<p>Why wouldn't I live with my dad? Or at least change my legal address to him? Wouldn't this allow me to get more financial aid if I'm applying to Florida public, Florida private, or even out of state public or private schools? I'm going to be 17 when they move here, so the only thing that would change is my mom would pay my dad child support and my address would change legally. But that doesn't mean I have to live with my dad full-time, I could always bounce between houses and still go to the same high school, etc.</p>
<p>What do you think? I don't see a downside to doing this as far as financial aid goes.</p>
<p>FAFSA doesn’t go by which parent you live with in the case of divorce. They will ask for both parents financial information and compile your aid package based on both parents income and ability to contribute regardless of who you live with.</p>
<p>Maybe more knowledgable posters can comment, but I believe FAFSA asks for the parent info for the one you live with because they provide most of your support (regardless of child support paid by the other parent). And PROFILE/a college’s supplemental forms take into account both parents. I could be wrong.</p>
<p>It’s CSS profile that ignores divorce, not FAFSA. On FAFSA, if your parents are divorced, use the one supporting you only. If that parent has remarried, put the spouse’s information where your other parent would go.</p>
<p>aubs…you are absolutely wrong about the FAFSA. The FAFSA ONLY ask for financial information from the custodial parent (the parent with whom the student resides) and spouse if there is one. The FAFSA NEVER asks for financial information from the non-custodial parent…NEVER. However, if the custodial parent receives spousal or child support, that would be included on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>What matters when you file the FAFSA, is the parent who you have lived with most in the past 12 months. That can be just ONE day of difference. Who has legal custody doesn’t matter, and who claims you on their taxes doesn’t matter. It is the parent you have lived with most.</p>
<p>However, it is critical that you understand that very few colleges and universities will meet your EFC. Most will leave a ginormous yawning gap between the aid they offer you, and your EFC. Even more important than whether living with mom or with dad will result in a lower EFC, is knowing just exactly how much both of your parents (and their spouses) are ready, willing, and able to chip in for your education each year, and under what conditions. Find that out now. For example, if they will split the costs of your home-state public U, but not pay one cent more, it could make a big difference in how you draw up your college list.</p>
<p>If you apply to any colleges or universities that use the CSS Profile or their own financial aid forms, it is almost certain that you will need to provide the income and financial information for both parents and both stepparents. Talk with them about that too.</p>
<p>If your father doesn’t move to Florida, there is the possibility that you could be an in-state applicant in FL and in the state where your dad is living even if you aren’t living with him. This varies by state (and often by college/university within a given state) so you would need to check each institution separately once he is settled.</p>
<p>Assets come into play as well. If your Dad and his wife have more money stashed away than your mom and her husband, that could affect your financial aid…</p>
<p>When you file the FAFSA on 1/1/2015, you must use the income/assets of your mom and stepdad if you have lived with them more and if they that is who you have provided most of your support for 2014 (which is what financial aid for school year 2015-2016 is based on). If you live with both parents equally, then you must use the income/assets of the parent that makes the most money.</p>
<p>Even in the event that you move in with your dad/stepmom and they don’t get jobs (there is no guarantee that they will get teaching jobs in FL), it would automatically prompt a low income verification, because the college will want to know how are they eating and who is paying the bills (keep in mind that if your step mom willing leaves a job ; she would be leaving a job in PA to move to FL, that she would not be considered a displaced worker if she is unemployed by the time you file the FAFSA in 201%)</p>
<p>For schools that give their own institutional aid, many require either the CSS profile and non-custodial profile or their own financial aid forms for both the custodial and non-custodial parents. This means that you will have to include the income/assets of your mom/stepdad along with your dad/stepmom. IN any event which ever parent pays child support, it has to be reported by the other parent on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>Just to be clear - no you can’t. Your “legal” address is irrelevant - it’s who you live with that matters. So unless you live more than 50% of the year with your dad, you’d be committing fraud if you declare him to be your custodial parent.</p>
<p>And the year that counts is the year (the entire year) that immediately precedes your filing of the financial aid application. So if Dad moves to your town at the end of May 2014, you’d have to spend almost all of the following 6 - 7 months living exclusively with him, because you’d already have spent 5 months living exclusively with Mom.</p>
<p>And if he moves to a neighboring town, instead of your town, that would likely mean you’d have to change schools as well, or pay a fee to continue at your current school as an out-of-district student. (And, yes, you and your mom could lie and say you still live with her . . . but when you get caught, your mom could be in some serious trouble!)</p>
<p>Yes, living with your dad would likely increase your eligibility for financial aid (unless he and spouse have significant assets) . . . but is it really worth all of this???</p>
<p>Most FAFSA only schools do not meet need. It may not make a difference in what you will have to pay for school. You may just be gapped for a greater amount.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the replies. I think I will just ignore it and keep everything the way it is, whether they move here or not. It’s not worth the hassle if it won’t make much of a difference. It’s not like I’d get 25% more aid if I lived with Dad, so it’s probably more worth my time applying for scholarships and grants.</p>
<p>Please understand that most independent scholarships you find will only cover your freshman year. The vast majority of good aid (four years worth) will come from the college itself. Do yourself a favor and pick your colleges with that in mind - go for schools where you’ll get good merit or financial aid. Use the Net Price Calculators on each school’s web site.</p>
<p>I don’t want to pick a school based on how much it’ll cost. I’m somewhat concerned, but I have the grades/ability to go to a private Ivy like Stanford or Harvard, so if I got accepted, why wouldn’t I go no matter the cost?</p>
<p>I’m planning on being a college professor in psychology or economics (maybe sociology?), so the school I go to matters.</p>
<p>It’s great you are researching this now because you have a couple of holes in your plans…</p>
<p>RE Private Ivy’s: You wouldn’t go because they don’t guarantee to give you enought FA and you cannot get enough money. Your amount of loans are lmiited. They won’t LET you take out however much you want. </p>
<p>You also might want to research that career path…the ft tenured “college professor” track is going extinct. Recent thread on this and the Nation article called, IIRC, faulty towers and higher education (you can google).</p>
<p>You have time and apparently good stats so you will figure it out…best.</p>
<p>And since the OP’s family income is closer to $160k/year, how, exactly, is this relevant, PAVenturer?</p>
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<p>With combined family income over $150k, the chances of you getting any significant aid from Stanford or Harvard is slim to none. So how do you propose to pay your cost of attendance for four years? Seriously, if you don’t understand the reasons NOT to spend money you don’t have, then perhaps economics isn’t the best field for you to go into . . .</p>