Is there no way around my husband of four years having to be responsible for my child’s college education? As I understand it we had to list his income on the FAFSA and my daughter is only getting $3,000 financial aid in federal loans. I make less than $40,000 and her dad has moved to another state and says he has no money to contribute. I just don’t think it’s fair, my husband has 3 children of his own and one in college. If I had thought this would be the way FAFSA worked I probably wouldn’t have married him when I did.
Sorry, but the FAFSA requires info from the custodial parent and spouse. No way around that.
Including your husband’s income gives a better picture of your financial resources. If you were living on only your40K then a big chunk of that would be going to housing and other necessities (I earn 35K), But with your husband’s income to offset those household expenses, it is assumed that more of your money can be freed up to help her.
You need to have your daughter look at the types of schools that my kids did - ones that offer generous merit scholarships that do not factor the income of the family.
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Including your husband’s income gives a better picture of your financial resources. If you were living on only your40K then a big chunk of that would be going to housing and other necessities (I earn 35K), But with your husband’s income to offset those household expenses, it is assumed that more of your money can be freed up to help her.
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^^^ This!!
If you were to only use your income, then the process would be WRONGLY assuming that YOU are the only one paying rent/mortgage, utilities, food, repairs, and all other home expenses. But, you’re not. Your H is likely paying for at least half.
Money from filling out FAFSA is federal money. It’s “not fair” that your exH says that he “won’t contribute”. Does that mean that the US taxpayers should have to pay?
PARENTS are first in line to pay for college.
When you consider that your child has your household income and your ex’s household income, there is probably some money to go towards college. Is everyone just saying that they won’t pay?
Your child will likely have to attend her financial safety school. Did she apply to one? If not, then that was a mistake. If she doesn’t have an affordable option, then likely she’ll have to start at a CC or take a gap year (no classes) and reapply.
Even if you hadn’t remarried, if it was just you and your child, then you may not have qualified for much of a Pell Grant anyway. You still may have been “on the hook” for much of the cost.
What school is this? Is it a private? Is it an OOS public?
What are her stats? Does she have a financial safety school?
I think you need to understand, that fed aid isn’t much anyway. It likely would NOT have paid for college no matter what your EFC was.
The max Pell grant is about $5700…and that’s with a 0 Efc, which you would not have had.
There is no clause in your divorce agreement about college?
If you don’t have much money, then look for ways to save on college.
Apply to colleges where she has a high chance of merit scholarship.
Go to CC for the first two years and then state school for the second two.
The easiest way around this (although probably too late in your case) is to send the child to live with the other parent for their last year of HS. This is financial relief to them to stop paying CS a year earlier than otherwise (so they actually can recover if they are hurting financially), but much more importantly it is a chance to strengthen their emotional ties to each other AND get the other parent emotionally invested in the whole college subject
The presumption in the FAFSA is that whomever is raising the child prior to college will be paying for the child to attend college. It is determined by household, and in your case that is yourself and your new spouse, together.
Nothing about divorce and custody litigation is ever “fair” to the children - it’s not “fair” to her that she didn’t get to grow up with both her parents, for example - but at least there is rationale behind this.
I think the only way around it now would be if you and your husband split up. That wouldn’t shift responsibility to her father, but it would relieve your husband.