My exhusband has nothing to do with our son. He has not seen or spoken to him in 15 years. He does pay me a very minimal amount of court ordered child support. I’m pretty sure he will be unwilling to provide any financial information when my son applies for financial aid. I’m not even sure I would be able to get in touch with him to ask. How will this affect his application? I am disabled and receive SSDI, and am very worried about paying for college.
I am remarried, if that makes a difference.
Thanks for any advice.
- Your financial situation will NOT affect your son's admissions. If your former husband doesn't provide financial info...that will be noted by the financial aid department...not the admissions folks.
- For the FAFSA....your former husband is NOT listed at all. The incomes and assets of both YOU and your CURRENT spouse MUST be listed. You also need to include any child or spousal support on the fafsa that you receive. But you do NOT list your former husband's income and assets on the fafsa.
- If your kiddo applies to schools using the CSS Profile, YOU will complete the Profile using your financial information...and that of your current spouse. Some schools require the non-custodial parent form, but some don't. If this is going to be a huge issue...you might want to look for colleges that do NOT require the non-custodial parent information.
- Your current husban's income WILL be counted.
- How much CAN you pay for college annually? That number is an important one. Can you fund an instate public university, for example? Your kiddo will be able to get a $5500 Direct Loan for freshman year to add to whatever you can contribute.
- What is this kid's SAT or ACT score...and GPA? Any chance he would qualify for merit aid anywhere?
- You do get child support, and it sounds like you DO know where this parent is...but you could still request a non-custodial parent waiver from the colleges. I'm not sure you have a good case to get one. "Former spouse won't complete forms or pay" is not a reason to get a NCP waiver.
- What sorts of school is your kiddo looking at? Most colleges require ONLY the FAFSA.
If you know how to reach his dad, then you are very unlikely to get a waiver. Him refusing to respond probably won’t be enough. Only schools that use the CSS profile in addition to FAFSA will probably request it, but those are also the schools that provide the best aid. UChicago might not require it now (?), but I have no idea if your son has the stats for that type of school.
At CSS schools, your current spouse & any current spouse of your ex’s will also have their finances taken into account.
What are your son’s statistics? What kind of schools is he considering? If he hasn’t taken the PSAT yet, he should study for it; there are some very good scholarships if he is a National Meri finalist.
For UChicago and probably a few others:
Non-Custodial Parents
We do not require additional information from students’ non-custodial parent. In cases where the applicant’s parents are divorced or separated, provide financial information from the parent who has primary custody of or contributes more than 50% of the student’s financial support.
There are a number of Profile schools that do NOT require the non-custodial parent Profile,
But to the OP…in ALL cases…your income and assets AND those of your current spouse WILL be required on both the FAFSA, and the Profile forms.
Here is a link to the College Board’s 2017-2018 list of schools that use Profile, including requirements for the noncustodial Profile:
@thumper1, don’t most of the ones that don’t require the non-custodial profile have a separate form of their own for the same info?
Some of these do NOT have any additional forms regarding the non-custodial parent AT ALL. They do not use non-custodial parent information…at all.
Students need to check the college websites…which will be very specific about what schools will require from the non-custodial parent.
However, the CSS schools that do require NCP info are usually the ones that give the better aid. Many of the CSS profile schools that do not use NCP info will gap. Vandy is an exception.
The family can’t count on the ex, so focus on schools that will cover most/all costs with merit or need based aid.
What is the EFC with mom and stepdad’s income??
How much can the family contribute each year?
What are the student’s stats? Career goal?
Yes…hoping the OP will answer the questions I posted in post one of this thread.
How old is your son? If he is a rising junior, take your ex to court NOW. It sounds as though nothing was written into your custody agreement regarding college costs? In MA, you have a right to go back and request an updated child support order if you believe the ncp income has increased by 10% or more, and in most cases it does that at least every few years.
Now, this could work for or against you. If your child goes to a non-profile school and works off FAFSA information the more child support your receive the higher your EFC so you’d be better getting a set amount or percentage towards college.
Even if the judge doesn’t increase your child support, you could request an order that he provide the schools with the financial information to allow your son to even apply for financial aid. You can then put on the CSS profile the amount of support you receive but that ncp will not contribute any more than that.
Sure…you can put on the form that. The NCP won’t contribute…but really…the schools care whether he CAN contribute…not if he WILL contribute.
Thumper is right. Schools don’t care if a parent won’t pay. If that worked, then all parents would simply say that they’re not going to pay.
When would your son start college? Prior, prior year tax return info is used of FAFSA and CSS profile.
So for 2018/19 for example, the FAFSA is available starting October 1, 2017 and income from 2016 is used.
I had the same situation, as it was explained to me, the CCS Profile assesses ability to pay, not willingness to pay. !y ex finally filled it out & we lost quite a bit of fin aid because he makes much more, although he will not pay for any of it. That sucks but it’s the way it is. Doesn’t effect admission, just fin aid. I asked several schools fin aid offices what would happen if he refused to fill out the CCS info. They said it would be incomplete & would kick out any aid generated from the CCS profile and we’d only get FASFA aid, making college unaffordable. As I had his address I could not file for a waiver. I’m glad he finally felt guilty enough to fill it out, even though it cost me some aid, it was better than no aid. Hope things got better for you!