Single mom here, chances for financial aid

Hi there: I am a single mom with one kid. I earn less than 100k (live in NYC). Was divorced for 10 years but had support from ex. – but ex passed away a year ago. Will the fact that I am a single parent and now the only parent help my child’s chance for financial aid?

The answer is…maybe. If your child applies to schools requiring the CSS Profile, yours will be the only parent income considered. When your former husband was alive, there are colleges using the Profile that require non-custodial parent information. That will no longer be the case.

Your $100,000 or so income and your assets will be used primarily to determine your child’s need based aid. Policies vary by college…so it’s not possible for us here to even speculate about your student’s aid. Some colleges meet full need. Some don’t. Some are more generous than others with need based aid. Some not so much so.

Does your child have any assets? Savings, for example.

Minimal saving and I have little in the way of assets other than a 401k. My parents own my apartment so we don’t pay rent but we also don’t own anything…

Just submit the financial aid forms and wait and see. Does your kiddo have an affordable college option on the application list? That is what matters.

If you are not paying any rent, then that should free up some of your current income to help with college costs. Did your kiddo apply to CUNY or SUNY schools? With $100,000 income, I think the student would be eligible for the Excelsior award which I believe pays tuition. @sybbie719

On your other thread, you were inquiring about the Profile, and IDOC which makes me think you are looking at private universities. Is that correct? Are they schools that have very generous meets full need awards for all students?

If you are single, your income and assets will be judged as the ‘family income.’ They don’t give extra points because you are single (in fact, you only have family size of 2), but often schools have a target income and if you are below that income, say $125k, you qualify for the maximum FA (or tuition, or whatever). Those are the schools with the very best FA like Harvard or Stanford. It might work out for you, it might not. Your friends at the IRS don’t think you deserve a break, and you AOTC phases out between $80-90k, so if you make $100k you won’t get a credit.

You are kind of threading the needle with some good things and some not so good. I don’t know if the NY tuition scholarship is for a married couple under $125k or a family (single, HOH) under $125k.

yes looking mainly at private but one or two public options as well. Hoping for some solid aid but will wait and see

Hope those public options are instate NY ones. Otherwise…they could be unaffordable.

In terms of the very expensive private universities that meet full need, the first hurdle will be admission to the schools. Some of these colleges have admission rates below 10%.

Every student should have an affordable, sure thing for admissions, that they would be happy to attend college on their applications list. Hope yours does.

You are a NYS resident with a household size of 2, earning $100,000 a year.

Your FAFSA EFC is probably around $15,000

If you qualify for Excelsior Scholarship, tuition would be free at CUNY and SUNY.

https://www.hesc.ny.gov/pay-for-college/financial-aid/types-of-financial-aid/nys-grants-scholarships-awards/the-excelsior-scholarship.html

Fees, room and board would run about $15,000.

Can you afford that? OOS publics would not come in under that number, unless your son would get merit of full tuition or more.

He would need high stats for that, and apply to the right schools.

Also coming from NYC, which has the biggest public school system in the country, the pool will be wide and the talent will be deep as far as students chasing private schools that meet full need along with selective OOS schools.

The hardest school you will have to choose is a true safety . The SUNYs are no longer a lock for everyone (especially at the research centers- Bing, Albany, UB and Stony Brook) because more NYers are taking advantage of the free tuition through Excelsior.

Unfortunately, I see this every year, students get shut out of the selective school pools and the schools where they are selected are unaffordable. You have until Feb 1 to toss a few SUNY/CUNy applications in the mix.

And adding…the SUNY schools also have very favorable prices relatively speaking for OOS students…and from where I am, students from outside of NY also are applying in good size numbers.

Run the Net Price Calculator on each school’s web site to get an idea of what aid may be available.