@calmom I will look up that CUNY. What does LORs mean? Thank you. Great information!
Most LACs don’t offer business majors.
You will want to look carefully at each college FA page to see what paperwork, if anything, is expected from the non-custodial parent. Some schools will require you to submit a waiver request, and they decide whether they will accept it and move forward with FA without the info. If he has been paying child support, and you know he lives in the area, they may expect you to try to get his paperwork. But you have to work with each college to figure that out and apply for a waiver.
@Kjskies228 LOR = Letters of Recommendation
Ok now I’m stressed out about the non- custodial parent issue. It’s complicated. As her biological father, he was court mandated to pay child support. He has nothing to do with us in any other way, providing no other financial support. My daughter has never met him, never had anything to do with him. Why should his income be added to ours to determine financial aid? That is absolutely unfair!
LOR = Letter of Recommendation
Also, I’d have your daughter try the ACT. She should do some prep and take a timed test and see how she does. Some do better on the ACT vs. the SAT, and others vice versa.
@intparent But if he contributes nothing to us financially, why can they ask for his income?He has nothing to do with us, contributes nothing! He has two other children of college age that he will be responsible for, so hopefully that will also work in our favor if his income is asked for, though I don’t understand why it would.
I sure hope someone will address in better detail what CSS profile means and how colleges use it. The main point I have learned in reading through CC forums is that some colleges require it, and some don’t. And the colleges that require it will need both parents (and any step parents) to fill out the form with their financial information. It is like a supplement to the FAFSA form.
If you have a legitimate reason (like court order for bio dad not to contact due to violence) you can appeal to try to get a waiver. But the fact that he pays child support will most likely negate any attempt to avoid him filling out the CSS profile. I believe that CSS schools will consider all the financial information of all the parents/step parents as they consider a financial award to your child.
That said, you know this information early enough to change your strategy. You simply read through each college’s website and find out if they use the CSS profile as part of their decisions to award financial aid.
Again, I am hoping that others with more CSS knowledge will chime in to educate you in more detail, or to correct any errors in my post.
This list has all the schools that use/don’t use the CSS profile in determining aid. If you don’t want to have to rely on contributions from your D’s other parent, you’ll want to focus on the schools that have a ‘no’ in the non custodial parent column.
https://profile.collegeboard.org/profile/ppi/participatingInstitutions.aspx
@Kjskies228 Lots of things in the college app process are “unfair” - just limit schools apps to schools that don’t require the CSS profile, since you have been getting child support I doubt you can get a waiver
@powercropper can I private message you? We won’t be able to apply to those schools then because I can not contact him.
I get child support because he was court mandated to do so. Other than that he has NEVER been in our lives. This is ridiculous that I would have to get him involved in my d college application process.
Some LACs DO have Business Majors, so you want to research college websites to determine majors.
A good tip I learned here is to check out the department faculty for each potential major at a college. Are there 2 faculty members, or 6, or 20, or 100? All teachers are humans, and some are better teachers than others. If you are in a larger major, with more students and more faculty, you might be able to pick and choose which professor you take a class with, or fellow students may advise you to steer clear of a certain professor. If you are stuck with only a couple of professors in your major, you may want to choose another college instead.
And another resource is college navigator. Google it. You can learn so much from the school’s profile on that site. As you drill down to the details, you can find out how many business majors graduated from X college last year. Was it 2, or 20, or 100? You don’t need to go to the college with the largest major for student’s interest, but you do want to factor it in as one of the considerations as you compare College A to College B and College C.
Best case is you find a college that has decent programs for all of your child’s interests. Can pre-dental students major in a variety of undergrad subjects?
Barnard uses CSS and requires non-custodial parent information, but it can be waived in some circumstances. You could send an email to their financial aid department to get a sense of what they would require. See #16 at this page for more info: https://barnard.edu/finaid/frequently-asked-questions/regular-decision-applicants
Most private colleges that promise to meet 100% need also require financial info from both parents. There are some exceptions, but basically part of the promise to meet full need means that they are also going to be more discerning in determining who is truly needy. They don’t have unlimited funds in their financial aid budgets.
@calmom I’m pretty depressed about this whole situation now.
Okay, don’t panic. First, someone asked why some schools use the CSS Profile. The profile asks a lot more detailed questions about finances. Schools that meet need are understandably interested in making sure they are getting a full and honest accounting of the family finances before granting aid.
Waivers are given for NCPs sometimes. I’d say you are on the cusp – getting child support will count against you, but NO contact except court ordered support could work in your favor. You can submit the waiver request early in the process. Say spring/summer before senior year to schools she is interested in and that seem like she has a reasonable chance to get in. They will respond before she puts in her app, sends test scores, etc. So don’t rule those schools out – but know it is a hurdle to get over, and take care of it early.
In our own experience (my D’s), the real SAT is about 50 to 60 points higher than the PSAT’s conversion score. If your D studies hard for march, and does more practice during the summer (get whatever the practice that she can get from library or on-line; she also need to time the practice to insure she will have a good pace to finish each section and not guessing), she can improve a lot. Also check out the PSAT score report, its sections tell your daugher what part of the math that she would need to improve and just concentrate on those parts. You also can encourage her to try ACT if her SAT score(s) is not at what you would like. Sometimes, students can do better in ACT than SAT, or vise versa. The difference could be another 50 to 100 points of SAT equivalent scale (there are some published conversion on the website which is quite useful).
if she can crush the SAT that will open up good options. it might put her in play for a big merit award. until you get a score, a lot of this is speculation.
community college will offer a very cost-effective option for first 2 years. my daughter is getting her nursing degree from CC.
There are thousands of ‘FAFSA only’ schools. Being in NY, you might qualify for TAP or the new scholarship based on your income.
I think colleges are becoming more understanding that families are formed in different ways and that some bio parents have no contact or relationship with those children. About 6-7 years ago I know that many who adopted as single parents had to jump through hoops to show that there was no second parent. Adoption paperwork, letters, birth certificates had to be produced, letters of appeal sent. I think now it is accepted with just a statement that it was a single parent adoption (or showing the birth certificate with no second parent).
Before giving up on all CSS schools, and there are some that give a good deal of aid, give them a call and ask what they require. It may be enough to file a statement that there was court order child support but no contact. Look at some of the school specific forums here and see if anyone else was successful in getting a waiver and what it took. If you have all that paperwork for getting the child support set up 16 years ago, you might have to provide it to show it was just a financial arrangement and that it will end on xxx.
I do agree that if you are looking for fairness, you won’t find it in the college admissions game. Someone with a 32ACT and 3.9 gpa got in and you didn’t with a 33 ACT and 3…8 gpa. Someone with a rich bio father got lots of aid at a FAFSA only school even though the father is paying . Someone won the lottery after filing financial aid documents.
@twoinanddone Thank you. 
@Kjskies228 - There really is a lot of useful information for you in the Financial Aid Forum. Go to the main page where all of the forums are listed, and scroll down to find it. Here is one thread to start reading: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1486647-financial-aid-faqs.html#latest
It is good that you are learning now about things like NCP paperwork. You and your daughter can eliminate any places that require the NCP information from the application list, and just move on.
Print out the FAFSA formula, and work through it on paper to see what factors most affect your own results: https://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/071017EFCFormulaGuide1819.pdf That will help you with your planning.