So right now I am living with just my mom, but according to the divorce decree I should be living with both of my parents. My dad has said that we are old enough to decide where to go, and given his abusive nature I have chosen to live with my mom full time. I am a junior now but I am worried that when I apply for college I won’t get the financial aid I need since he makes a considerable amount of money that I will have to report even though he won’t be contributing to my college. My mom is making 23,000 a year so I have little to no money available for college. Is there any way to get around reporting what my dad makes?
For state schools or other schools that use only the FAFSA, your mom is your custodial parent because you physically live with her more than 50% of the time, and only her income will be on the FAFSA. Your dad’s income will not be reported. For other schools that use the CSS and include the non-custodial parent’s finances, when the time comes, I think you should write a letter to the financial aid officers explaining your situation. Lay it out, just like you did above. Sorry you are in this situation. But I think chances are good you can find a school that will help you sufficiently with financial aid, probably a state school, and you can have a great college experience. It’s good that you are thinking ahead of time about all of this, and you can do some research on the best schools to apply to for someone in your situation.
The FAFSA will only consider your mom’s income. State U’s normally use only the FAFSA, so if you want to go to a state U you’ll have no problem.
A lot of the “better” or “meet full need” colleges also require the CSS Profile and noncustodial information. Sometimes exceptions are made on a case by case basis but it is usually something like actual documented violence or not knowing where the noncustodial parent is (again has to be substantiated).
There are private colleges that only want the FAFSA. Earlham and Denison come to mind. You can easily find a list of the colleges that DO require the CSS Profile and you could work backward from there to find other colleges that DON’T require it.
Will you dad cooperate and fill out the Profile? If so, you could consider applying to some schools that require it. Your idea of what he should contribute financially and the colleges’ ideas may be different. If he refuses to fill it out you could contact the colleges and see if they will make an exception.
Finally, there are some schools that offer automatic merit scholarships based solely on GPA and test scores. There are other schools that don’t award them automatically but are still generous. Merit scholarships have nothing to do with need. So if you got a merit award plus PELL grant and work-study, that could potentially cover your expenses or close to it.
Take everything you read on cc with a grain of salt and ground-truth it by going to direct sources. But cc can be a great place to get ideas. Search on cc and/or on the web for “automatic merit scholarships” and check them out. Maybe “colleges that don’t require Profile” will get results.
Junior year is a good time to familiarize yourself with this process, so you’re doing great. Like my D, you’ll need to analyze college’s financial aid practices when making your short list. You can always throw in one or two wild cards if you want, you never know.
Finally, use College Navigator, a government site, http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/. Look at Net Price, then Average Net Price by Income. That’s what the average student in that category pays after grants and scholarships. That means you have to use cash, student jobs, parent income, and/or loans to make up that amount.
You will find some schools with net price for poor folks that equals half or more of their entire year’s income! NYU expects families with incomes in the 0-$30,000 bracket to come up with $25,000! Don’t waste your time applying to any schools with results like that unless you automatically qualify for a generous scholarship.
Also when using that site, if you’re looking at a state U, the net price is for instate students so if you’re not from that state you would need to add the out of state differential to your net price. Out of state tuition can easily be $20,000 more. In general you should not look at state U’s outside of your home state unless they are one of the few that offer generous merit scholarships (Alabama, Kentucky, and West Virginia come to mind).