<p>Like the title says, my parents are divorced. However, they are both remarried, and I was wondering how this changes my chances at receiving any need-based financial aid. In my opinion, both of my parents are pretty firmly in the middle class. 3 out of 4 (including my stepparents) have gone to college and the last one is in the process right now with online classes. Even though I don't know about how need-based aid is given, I feel like there's a good chance I will get shafted because of my family situation (or is that completely wrong?).</p>
<p>What kind of info do I have to provide on my application? As I'm getting ready to visit a couple colleges here soon, I'm also wondering what I should ask/tell any people in admissions offices that I talk to. </p>
<p>It depends on where you are applying at what the school requires. </p>
<p>At minimum you will file the FAFSA which will look at the income and the assets of your custodial parent and their spouse. </p>
<p>If you apply to a school that uses the CSS profile (the ivies, elite LACs and schools that give large amount of need based institutional aid) they will look at the income and assets of both your parents and their respective spouses.</p>
<p>At the very least, I'll probably apply to Purdue, Vanderbilt, Bucknell, and Notre Dame (definitely not going there though, there's a funny story behind it) if that means anything. Most of the Ivies are way too liberal and pretentious for my tastes, and my stats probably aren't good enough anyway.</p>
<p>You should try some financial aid calculators before applying to have a good idea at what you can afford. Some of your schools, if not all use profile and you'll have to know what your parents and their spouses are willing to contribute. Many schools expect the new spouses to contribute but many new spouses have their own kids to put through college later or just don't want to contribute.</p>
<p>All of my parents (sounds funny doesn't it?) support me 100%. However, there are 3 other kids between my two families that will need to be put through college as well.</p>
<p>Do I just need to know all of my parents' income for the financial aid calculator?</p>
<p>I do not think you are getting hosed (you should consider your self very fortunate) if you haver 4 parents who support your education, who can and are willing to pay for it. To me, that sounds very freeing and means you are able to make almost any choice that you want.</p>
<p>Your other option would be to look at schools (even if it means coming "down" a notch) where you stad a good chance of getting merit aid.</p>
<p>I agree with Sybbie, I think it's pretty unusual to find step parents willing to contribute, we've seen many kids of divorce have to choose a State school. Sounds like you'll have lots of choice but I would still run the calculators like Princetons so your family can get a realistic view of what a private college will expect them to pay. Many people are shocked that the formula assumes that you have extensive savings for college.</p>
<p>We had this same problem, although in my S's case, his father was reluctant and that spouse unwilling. In fact, she even cashed in thousands of $ of her mother's CD's and put them in her name and SSN, not knowing (or caring) that this would affect EFC.</p>
<p>The calculators do not help you in this situation because they do not take into effect the income stream from 2 families. My son was accepted into the 3 schools you mentioned (didn't apply to Bucknell) plus 6 others. </p>
<p>I asked most of the financial aid offices how they calculated the EFC for students of divorced parents. Answers were very vague and not straight-forward at all. I was, and am, somewhat miffed regarding this. It should be at least as transparent for these kids as for others.</p>
<p>Purdue is a FAFSA only school. EFC will be calculated only on the income of the parent with which you live. Their financial aid is not good. Vanderbilt is very generous; Notre Dame less so. Duke also very generous.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies guys. I hope I don't come off as a whiner; I just want to be relatively debt free at the end of college. Hopefully I can get Purdue to give me some merit aid since I'm in-state. My neighbor that's going to IU just told me that he's getting about 90% paid for through a merit scholarship. This is encouraging to me because we have very similar grades and my SATs are a little better actually.</p>
<p>My problem with merit aid at a more prestigious place is that I don't think I'll qualify for it. Granted, I do very well in my rural IN school, but college at a top university is an entirely different animal because nearly everybody there is as smart as you or even smarter (as likely would be my case).</p>