<p>How are non-custodial parents' incomes handled in the case of financial aid? My non-custodial parent makes twice what my custodial parent makes, but probably will not contribute very much to my college education. I know that colleges don't take into account, but is the non-custodial parent's income treated the same as the custodial parent's??</p>
<p>The college looks at it from the angle of that many more people to tap when it comes to determining your potential financial aid. If parents are remarried, the spouse's income is counted too.
I can tell you from our experience, it didn't work out well.</p>
<p>Your non-custodial parent's income is handled from the perspective that the financing of your education lies first with your parents. If your non-custodial parent refuses to contribute to your education, you may find your self between a rock and a hard place because your will recieve need based financial aid based on how much the school thinks your parents can afford to pay, not how much they want to pay.</p>
<p>If you want financial aid based on only on your custodial parent's income and assets, you may have to apply to a FAFSA only school.</p>
<p>But when schools/EFC calculators say "Family's income", do they mean my mom's income or both? For example... with Harvard's new initiative, for under 180,000, with just my mom's income, it's 50K<X<80K, but including my DAD's income it's just over 180K (yeah....). Granted, I probably won't get into Harvard, but which income would determine the 10% rule? And in general, when EFC calculators say "Parent income," do they mean both or just custodial? Probably depends on the school, but just wondering in general...</p>
<p>For Harvard, and other schools that require the CSS Profile, "parent income" means the combined income of both parents and any step-parents. As sybbie719 said, "If you want financial aid based on only on your custodial parent's income and assets, you may have to apply to a FAFSA only school."</p>
<p>dntw8up is correct. For schools using the CSS Profile, the income and assets of BOTH of your parents must be provided. In addition, if the parents are remarried, the income and assets of the new spouses also are added in. </p>
<p>For FAFSA only schools, the income and assets of only the custodial parent (and spouse if there is one) is used.</p>
<p>So this brings up an interesting question. Do all the CSS profile schools look at the non-custodial parent's income and assests the same. If they don't require the non-custodial portion of teh CSS profile what do they use to determine financial need?</p>
<p>^^ That's a really good question, one I am trying to find out the answer to, also.</p>
<p>One thing I don't understand about the above responses is:</p>
<p>Caltech's financial aid estimate included an EFC AND a non-custodial contribution. Does this mean that the noncustodial parent's info was probably not used to calculate EFC? The reason it makes a difference is that after getting numbers from 2007, there is a HUGE difference between teh two incomes, and given that scholarships are often based on EFC (and given that scholarships decrease just about everything before EFC), I want to know if my dad's income will just influence a non-custodial parent's contribution, or if it will influence the actual EFC, or if it depends? Have any other people seen schools calculate a separate non-custodial contribution like that?</p>
<p>Since there are both custodial and non-custodial parents involved, you have for a lack of better terms, 2 EFC:</p>
<p>You have the EFC which is based on your mon's income and assets and a non-custodial contribution which is based on your dad's income and assets.</p>
<p>So when doing your financial aid package they will calculate it as follows:</p>
<p>Cost of attendance - (EFC+ non-custodial contribution) = demonstrated need</p>
<p>for example</p>
<p>COA + 45000
EFC = 3000
Non-custodial = 20000</p>
<p>Demonstrated need = 20,000</p>
<p>If your mom's EFC based on the FAFSA makes you eligible for Federal work-study, Pell, ACG, Subsidized stafford loans you will received those things if your school calculates aid based on a combination of the federal methodology+ institutional methodology.</p>
<p>One thing that I became aware of recently is that not all Profile schools require that the "Noncustodial Profile" be submitted. This is the College Board's noncustodial form. Most of the big name schools do, but a far greater number of Profile schools do not. This is found on the College Board web site.</p>
<p>However, there must be a sort of middle category of Profile schools that do not require the Profile version of noncustodial form but have their own forms that ask about the same noncustodial information. I know of at least one pretty big name school on the west coast that fits that category. This may be true of most schools not in the all-Profile form category; someone else can chase that down.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Do all the CSS profile schools look at the non-custodial parent's income and assests the same. >></p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Schools using the Profile are using the information collected from it to distribute THEIR institutional money. They can use the information any way they choose to...and the ways vary wildly. This is one reason why financial aid awards, even from schools that meet full need, can be VERY different from school to school. Each school has a way of using that Profile information. I have heard (no personal experience) that you can ask the finaid department what their policy is on the non-custodial parent information and some will share it with you. You can give them a call and see.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if there is a list anywhere of FAFSA Only schools ?</p>
<p>Flutemom, you can find out what the college(s) require by going to their finaid websites. That is the best place to find out whether they require the Profile or not. Most public universities do NOT require it, although there are some that do (someone else can correct me...but I believe UVA does...and maybe UMich). There are FAR more schools that do NOT use the Profile than do.</p>
<p>Flutemom, that has been attempted in the past [thread=285798]here[/thread], but nothing comprehensive or current has been done AFAIK.</p>
<p>If you go to the college board site and link to the profile, it lists all the schools that use it and then lists which ones require the non-custodial parent and which ones don't.</p>
<p>The list on the College Board Website is not completely accurate...or perhaps it just isn't completely updated often enough. Check the colleges' websites to be certain. The college website deadlines are also the ones to follow...not the ones on the College Board website.</p>
<p>Thanks to all that replied. I guess we stick to the college websites. So much for wishful thinking :)</p>
<p>To the OP, I'd say that the 2 EFCs explanation is best.</p>
<p>If your mom makes around 60,000 and your non-custodial dad makes 120,000, it's NOT the same as having married parents who make 180,000. After all, they have separate, respective living situations, bills, etc. to worry about. So it's more like you calculate your mom's expected contribution on her own and then your dad's on his own and add them together.
I hope my situation helps clarify:
My custodial mom makes 100,000 and my non-custodial dad makes 50,000.
At Yale, they expect my mom to pay about 10% of her income (10,000) and my dad is expected to pay nothing (since he's below the 60,000 threshold). Now if they were together, that'd be 150,000 combined so they'd be paying 15,000 instead of 10,000. So it comes out to be slightly better.
In your case, your mom may have to pay nothing or just a couple thousand. And your dad (assuming he makes 120,000) will pay around 12,000. So I think if you get into Harvard you'll be expected to pay 12,000-13,000. Just my guess. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Are there stepparents involved?</p>
<p>If yes, then their income and assets will also be included in your EFC.</p>
<p>Just remember that Yale has a huge endowment and just changed their financial aid policies for students with families earning the amount posted in post 18. This is definitely NOT true for all colleges.</p>
<p>As noted several times, for institutional monies (like Yale awards mostly), the university can use the information on the Profile ANY WAY THEY CHOOSE TO. It's their money.</p>
<p>Not every school computes financial aid the way Yale does...not every school has the financial resources to do so.</p>