Significant change in income - how does it affect aid?

@thumper1 child support is part of the profile, not sure how each school used it in their determinations though which might be why our COA/need-based aid fluctuated from $8K-50K depending on the school. Crazy. But exactly why a wide net can be necessary.

@momofthreehrk I recently helped a relative who is in a complicated post-divorce situation involving alimony, child support, noncustodial parent unwilling/unable to contribute etc. The student had similar stats to your child with a slightly lower SAT and custodial income was Pell-eligible

First, figure out how much you are willing/able to pay on your own, including any loans that you or your student are willing to assume (Fed student loan is 5.5K for first year and gradually increases to 7.5K by senior year). Student earnings during the school year and summer add another 3-5K. That’s your budget. Work from there.

Some suggestions where your child might get merit:

U Mass Lowell
U Mass Dartmouth
Plymouth State (NH)
U Maine Orono will match the cost of your state flagship, but if it were me, I’d opt for U MASS over U Maine.

Do you know your child’s unweighted GPA? That would be helpful to know to determine her relative competitiveness. Also, might she prep to get a higher SAT score? Or try the ACT to see how it compares? A 1400+ score will put her into a different category for merit and admission.

There are many LACs (Colleges that Change Lives) where you child might get merit on the order of 20-30K per year but that would leave 35-45K per year to pay, which probably is beyond your budget. Maybe run the NPC with the 125K salary as baseline for Dickinson or Ursinus in PA to get a sense of what kind of package might be possible with current stats. Then compare a couple of generous (currently out of reach and high reaches for all) colleges like Amherst or Bowdoin (test optional) to get a generalized sense of the range of the possible.

Good luck!