<p>Has anyone had the experience of having the noncustodial parent's financial information waived -- s estranged from father, difficult situation. spoke with couple of private colleges who have waiver forms, and others who say they will review letter of special circumstances. wondering about others' experiences...thanks</p>
<p>Yes, we've had it waived. I was a little discouraged when I first read about it here, because on CC most responses were like "It will never happen", but that's not what happened for us. </p>
<p>Basically, even before being accepted to schools, in January/February, I sent email to schools on son's list explaining the situation and asking for a waiver. The schools varied <em>really</em> widely in how they responded. Son's two top schools were at the far ends of the spectrum. </p>
<p>School A responded to the email by saying that the email was enough documentation, and they would contact us if they needed more. Their award was based on my income. No forms, no hassle -- pretty much, they took my son and I at our word about the situation. </p>
<p>School B responded that they did not do waivers, that we would have to go through a process and they would evaluate the request and give the award based on their decision. They then demanded a statement from us, from the school, and a "third party". The third party letter couldn't be from a lawyer or teacher, but had to be from a social worker, spiritual advisor like a priest or minister, or someone "not related to the student, not legally involved, not just a family friend". The subject of my ex's estrangement from the children is a real sore spot for my son expecially, so he doesn't talk about it with people, and we don't attend a church or anything like that, so we couldn't come up with someone who met these criteria. I ended up having to pay for my son to see a counsellor just so that my son could get that person to document his relationship (or lack thereof) with his father. </p>
<p>After all of that, both schools accepted son, but school B never did send an aid offer. As far as we could tell, we still hadn't jumped through enough hoops for them. Our concern was even if we were able to provide whatever documentation they wanted, were they going to do this every year? And what to think of a school that has an honor code and trust students to have unproctored exams, but doesn't trust a student that he has no contact information for father and hasn't seen him in years? </p>
<p>Given all of that, we went with school A. I continue to really love their financial aid department, which is very upfront and easy to work with. </p>
<p>The point of all of this is that schools handle this differently, and that you can kind of get a feel for that up front by how they respond when you ask about it. Remember that you will be dealing with their financial aid department every year, so if they're difficult when you're applying, you can expect that for the entire time your child is there.</p>
<p>Oh, yeah, and the other big thing to take from this is not to be discouraged, that there are schools that will waive noncustodial information. People may tell you it's very hard and almost never happens, but that's not always true.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm going through this process now. Three of the schools I have applied to require a Noncustodial Statement/ Profile. Unlike TrinSF's experience, however, two of the schools pretty much had the same policy regarding what I should do, while the other had an online form.</p>
<p>School A: Simply requires a written letter from my mother indicating that there has been no contact for a while (over ten years, in fact). After calling again, however, I was told that I should also include a letter from a "third party."</p>
<p>School B: Requires two letters; one from my mother, and the other from a "third party." However, this school said that this could be a spiritual leader, or a teacher, which I found surprising.</p>
<p>School C: Actually has a waiver form on the internet. This school says if they receive the waiver and it looks "legitimate," then they will waive the information.</p>
<p>I'm a little worried about how all of this will affect the financial aid I receive. I have not asked anyone for a letter, and to be honest, I have no idea who I can ask. I mean, none of my teachers are aware of my mother's marital status, and certainly none of them know that I have had no contact with my biological father for the majority of my life, so I think asking them is out of the question.</p>
<p>I mean, I guess I could go to my church leader and ask for a letter, but it seems a little pointless because I will pretty much have to tell him exactly what to write, because he is also oblivious to our situation.</p>
<p>thanks for the responses--I received varied responses thus far-</p>
<ol>
<li>will review letter I sent and decide if they will waive non custodial info</li>
<li>sending me waiver frm--listened to situation, took notes</li>
<li>reviewing docs--"should agree to not look at father's info"</li>
<li>reviewed letter of special circumstances I sent--won't look at father's info</li>
</ol>
<p>we did have a counselor aware of the situation and she wrote a letter to support estrangement and limitation of support</p>
<p>It's good you have someone aware of the situation. Our situation was like strandlib's -- my son didn't talk about it to anyone, so none of his teachers was aware of it, though many family friends were. In our case, my ex-husband was angry that son asked to change custody and that daughter had alleged abuse (by my ex's girlfriend), so he cut off all contact with the children once the custody modification went through. We had to go through our state to have his state enforce the child support order, and to this day we don't have any contact info for him other than an email address. </p>
<p>It seemed silly to have to say to someone "let me explain to you what the situation is, so that you can write a letter telling this university what the situation is."</p>
<p>strand: WRT how it will affect your aid, School A in our story offered son a full ride, need-based with an additional scholarship to cover loans/work-study. It was a very happy ending.</p>
<p>trin--glad you had a happy outcome</p>
<p>will keep fingers crossed..good luck strand</p>
<p>So will this work? (from a custodial mom)
We're dealing with five schools (I know, dumb) that require Profile info. and noncustodial parent information. Noncustodial dad has not submitted any info. despite our requests.</p>
<p>My plan:
1. Use the online form for one school as a guide on what info. is needed. Send that form to that school, plus,
2. Include a letter from me.
3. Include a backup letter from a third party.</p>
<p>Send my letter and the backup letter to the schools that do not have an online form.</p>
<p>All by next week. It seems more efficient than calling each school that does not have an online form or formal process listed on their website. Postage costs? I'll just have to deal. Wish I'd gotten this done two weeks ago though.</p>
<p>probably your best bet. having a letter from you and a third party should definitely help your case. I had my non-custodial waived and it helped tremendously</p>
<p>aka may I ask which schools waived non custodial info?</p>
<p>and good luck purplexed--I sent mine in to 10 schools over last couple weeks--it's like a second job :-D hopefully will be worthwhile effort for all...</p>