<p>While filling out my FAFSA and Profile, I jokingly asked my mother about her marital status. Then, for the first time in my tender 17 years, I was presented with the shocking truth: my parents were divorced. At first blush, it seemed entirely plausible, except for one glaring fact: they still lived in the same house.</p>
<p>I've seen the official documentation and all, but this still seems fishy to me. Is it even possible to be divorced and still live in the same house? What the heck am I supposed to put on the finaid forms? How will I explain to my colleges the fact that the finaid forms now say "divorced" as of May 1999 when my original applications said "married?" </p>
<p>I really need some advice here, because I have no idea what to think myself. :o</p>
<p>It’s more important for the financial aid information applications to be correct. You can let the college admissions office know at some point, but marital status wouldn’t be a crucial factor in admissions… at least I hope not!</p>
<p>Your parents can certainly be divorced and living in the same house.</p>
<p>So how are they filing their income taxes? Each separately with single status? I do hope they’re not filing jointly as married… then you have a problem on your hands, or rather they do.</p>
<p>If they are, in fact, divorced then I imagine (since you live with them both) for FAFSA you would use the parent who contributes the most to your support as you custodial parent. For Profile you would do the same, and have the other parent file a non-custodial parent app with their own financial information.</p>
<p>^The way those folks treat each other, there’s no way they’d be remarried. And they do have all the appropriate divorce documentation. </p>
<p>^^And 'rent of 2, thanks for the great advice. I had done that for both forms, but was just having mounting doubts (and blood pressure) about whether or not what I was doing made sense.</p>
<p>In a common law marriage state, you can be married just by both agreeing that you are married and holding yourself out to the public as married. That could have happened after the divorce, so the remarriage is the common law one.</p>
<p>have you talked to your parents about the situation? You would need their tax returns to be able to fill out the forms. Have you talked to them about how you they plan to help pay for your education, who contributes how much? What does the divorce settlement say? I think you need to have a talk with them. It is going to be emotionally upsetting but you need some straight answers.</p>
<p>So, your parents got divorced when you were less than 10 years old, and they never told you? Do they live in separate parts of the house? </p>
<p>This FAFSA question has come up before…when the child lives 100% with both parents (in the same house), but I can’t remember what the right answer is. </p>
<p>Some think you would use the income of the parent with the highest income, but you might also have to include some or all of the other parent’s income because that income contributes to the household. Since both parents’ incomes are available to the household, it would seem both incomes would get counted. ???</p>
<p>It’s also a question of how many people get counted in the household. It wouldn’t seem right to count BOTH parents, but only one income (if both work).</p>
<p>@mom2college kids: They do live in separate parts of the house. Only 4 people are counted in the household (for my dad’s returns) and my mother counts herself as her own household. Spending is spread 80-20 between the two when it comes to me and my siblings. </p>
<p>@Mazewanderer, my parents split my brother’s college tuition 80-20. I have no worries about whether or not they’d be willing to pony up the money, because no matter how much they grouse about it, the bill will get paid eventually. And since my mom is a current grad student at an expensive private school (who makes 1/3 of my dad’s income), she’d be contributing a lot less than my dad would. I have both their tax return forms and will be faxing both of them over. And the divorce settlement didn’t say much about paying for us, since they both continued to live together. I’ll take a closer look at it with both of them later.</p>