<p>My parents divorced when I was young. My mother got married at the beginning of this year to a man with a substantial salary. My father is single and unemployed. </p>
<p>I am looking into ivy-league schools.
Will my step-dad's income play a role in our expected family contribution?
How is EFC computed, anyway?</p>
<p>If you are looking at Ivy League schools (and equivalents), most of them use the CSS Profile in addition to the FAFSA as financial aid application documents. The Profile will require information from your mom, her husband AND your dad. The FAFSA will only require information from your custodial parent (is that your mom...the parent with whom you live?), and your step parent.</p>
<p>If you lived with your dad and he was your custodial parent (meaning you lived with him and he provided your financial support), for the FAFSA, you would just be using his income. BUT since you are applying to Ivy League and equivalent schools, this doesn't matter. Income and assets for your parents (mom and dad) and step parent will need to be reported on the CSS Profile which is required by those schools.</p>
<p>EFC is Expected FAMILY Contribution. Your step father is contributing to your family's financial support and presumably you and your mom are benefiting from that. He is a member of your family now...and therefore is included in the "family" part of that equation.</p>
<p>If your mother is your custodial parent, your stepfather's income and assets will be included on FAFSA. FAFSA will determine your eligibility for government money. When it comes to PROFILE, which is what most private colleges use for determination of aid, you need to get ALL the info, including from your father. THumper has pretty much covered the situation.</p>
<p>EFC is computed by formula comprised mainly of your family and your income and some of the assets. Your famiy assets outside of qualified pension assets and primary residence will be assesed at about 5%, your personal assets at 20%. THe exact formula is individualized depending on parent's age, number of dependents and some other factors. This is all very ball park.</p>
<p>Ugh, this is awful! I live with my dad. He brought in a grand total of $10,000 in income last year. My step-father isn't willing to pay for my college tuition costs at all, though he makes a good deal of money. Our EFC will probably be astronomical but we won't be able to pay it! I know I don't want to be in major debt when I graduate. </p>
<p>Advice?</p>
<p>You might want to focus on FAFSA-only schools or schools where you would have a good chance of getting merit aid based your grades/scores/talents.</p>
<p>Grinnell is an example of a FAFSA-only school (I think).</p>
<p>Vogue...if you live with your dad, he is your custodial parent. You might want to consider some FAFSA only schools. On these, you would only put the income and assets of your dad and not your mom/stepdad.</p>
<p>Also, I looked at your ACT scores, GPA and class rank on another post. These are strong stats...and could put you in the running for some merit scholarships at some places. I mentioned U of South Carolina's McNair Scholarship. It covers full cost of attendance AND a laptop computer. You might want to search this forum for posts by getouttabuffalo...or send a PM to this poster. This student got some excellent scholarship offers to some fine schools and those posts might be helpful to you.</p>
<p>Don't dismiss your own flagship university. Look and see if the offer any scholarships for high achievers in state. Many schools do.</p>
<p>And lastly if you have the competitive stats for an Ivy League possibility, you may find some schools lower ranked who would welcome you with merit aid.</p>
<p>Are you a National Merit Scholar? I didn't notice SAT scores on your posts. Your ACT was great!!</p>
<p>Your EFC will be calculated on your dad's income. However, any child support paid to him will be included in that amount. Take a look at your state schools and the sites on schools with merit awards. Those may be your best bet.</p>
<p>I'd hate to rule out my favorite schools because I project they won't cover my financial need, but I guess that'll make the narrowing down process easier!</p>
<p>Can someone give me a more elaborate list of FAFSA-only schools? Grinnell, Princeton...?</p>
<p>And thank you, thumper! I was only commended for National Merit. If I had one more point, I would've been a finalist! Oh well. That was sophomore year. I thought the PSAT didn't carry much weight. Hah. Was I wrong!</p>
<p>vogue, </p>
<p>Roughly speaking, most of the most elite private schools will be Profile schools or have their own forms that mimic the profile; top public colleges will be more likely to be FAFSA-only. </p>
<p>Here is a list of Profile schools but realize that some schools that don't use Profile still have their own forms that require non-custodial parent info. Princeton is on the list.
<a href="https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet.srv%5B/url%5D">https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet.srv</a></p>
<p>Here is Grinnell's supplementary form:
<a href="http://www.grinnell.edu/admissionnew/apply/tuition/includes/2008FinAidScholar.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.grinnell.edu/admissionnew/apply/tuition/includes/2008FinAidScholar.pdf</a></p>
<p>You don't have to rule out your favorite schools. You just need to find one school to be your financial/admission safety and understand that this could be where you go. Take a peek at momfromtexas's thread, and you can find some full ride schools. If you get one in the pocket early enough, you can then go to town and apply to anything you want in hopes that they come up with the money. You just don't want to be standing there at the end of the year unable to afford any of your schools.</p>
<p>An acquaintance of mine, a wonderful woman, went through this recently with her daughter. With their terrible year, and so little money, she was assured that her bright daughter would get enough to go to any school she wanted. Did not work that way. The stepfather situation just took her out of the running for any financial aid, and she did not get enough merit money. I can tell you that my son got a $20K scholarship which I thought was so wonderful, but you know, the COA for that school is $52K. Still a fortune that has to be coughed up. Even with a Stafford loan, his savings, and work, he could not make up much of the gap. We have to pay. </p>
<p>Is your mother willing to put anything towards your college expenses? You need to have a sit down and find out what they are willing and able to pay, and that they understand that the fact that your stepdad is married to your mother is going to put his income and assets on the financial aid sheets whether he wants them there or not, whether he is willing to pay or not. That is going to affect your financial aid. Everyone needs to know this.
Discuss it now while the options are open, not when you are down to the wire.</p>
<p>vogue,</p>
<p>I looked at your stats. I think you have excellent chances at many of the schools you are looking at and, if it weren't for financial aid, would tell you to add in Bowdoin and Claremont McKenna-- and Connecticut College as a safety. </p>
<p><em>However</em> many of those schools do not give merit awards and I think you're in a good position to get merit $. You would be in the running for merit aid at some schools that are ranked <em>lower</em> than what you're looking at, schools that use merit to attract top students like you. </p>
<p>Vogue, how about you make a few phone calls? Call some of the financial aid offices of these colleges and tell them that your custodial parent earns less than $10K. Tell them what your non-custodial parent earns and tell them your <em>non-custodial</em> parent just remarried and her dh won't help you pay for school. See what they say. Also find out if you're eligible for Questbridge.<br>
QuestBridge</a> Home Page</p>
<p>If I'm not mistaken, ALL of the Ivy League schools require the submission of the CSS Profile, and that includes Princeton. As mentioned above, some schools (like Grinnell) which don't require the Profile, have their own finaid application that asks very similar questions.</p>
<p>I agree with others...you would be in the running for some merit aid as some schools. Just make sure that the schools you are looking at for merit aid don't use financial need as a criteria...some do.</p>
<p>The nice thing about the Grinnell supplementary form is that it asks about the non-custodial parent but not their spouse.</p>
<p>You are in a tough situation. You certainly have stats that make you ivy-competitive (remember, no for-sures in the ivy admissions game). However, the reality is that ivy schools may be a problem due to the stepfather's income. That shouldn't keep you from <em>trying</em> --- but you must understand that you may not be able to afford to go if you get in.</p>
<p>Please try to find some good merit alternatives & some good FAFSA-only schools. There are so many great schools that offer merit scholarships. They don't have the ivy names, but they are wonderful schools. Please search the forum threads for ideas.</p>
<p>My D had similar stats & did not get any full ride scholarships (although she did get some very good amounts). She might have if she'd concentrated on schools that had average stats a bit lower, though. We knew what we could afford to pay & she searched for schools that would be affordable for us. That's a good strategy, but it will be harder for you, given your situation. I really think heavy thought should be given to schools where you are quite a bit above the average, where there are a number of good scholarships available.</p>
<p>vogue,</p>
<p>I definitely would include your favorite schools when you apply, keeping in mind that the Ivy's and other top schools will at least look at the total financial picture. You may not have heard that there is 568 President's Group consisting of 28 schools, which use a "Consensus Methodology." The list is in the link below. These schools take a slightly different approach to aid, and some of them consider only the income of two parents when assessing financial aid. I would definitely not set my whole heart on a specific one of them just in case, but there is no harm trying. This assumes that your stepfather would be willing to put his information on various forms. (I know about this situation because of a divorce/remarriage situation in my own family, and I encouraged my sons to look only at 568 schools and FAFSA-only schools. I have one at Brown which is a 568 school, and one at Earlham, which is a FAFSA-Only.) I concur with others that you should include FAFSA-only's on your list.</p>
<p>568</a> Group Member Institutions</p>
<p>Appendix</a> A</p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>
<p>Momofthree</p>
<p>You would have to ask each school that you are considering as to how they will weigh in your stepfather's income and assets. Though the 568 schools have tried to come up with a consensus in giving out financial aid, there are still going to be very wide variations on the packages that they give out. The one thing that stands out about this group is that they are committed to need blind admissions, and meet 100% of need as they define it.</p>
<p>Look for schools in your region that offer merit money, like Baylor in TX and Whitworth in WA, and are also FAFSA only; one or two of those, with rolling admissions and you have a financial safety and an admissions safety in your pocket in October, then you can see what the others offer come spring</p>
<p>I just used College Board's EFC calculator and I'm even more confused. I entered in my father's tax info for 2007. Our EFC was zero. I then completed it again using only my mother's. She had a huge loss from selling her business last year, so our EFC was zero. Surprisingly, it was the same when I added in my stepfather's income. But this won't be the same for next year. When I completed it without a loss, our EFC was ~20,000. She flipped out and claimed she couldn't pay that much.</p>
<p>Sooo...
Will colleges base financial aid on 2008 tax returns?
Should I include my step-father's information in the EFC calculator?
Should I fill out the CSS PROFILE now and get my family's EFC from that?</p>
<p>Thank you to everyone who has responded thus far! The 568 member links were heartening. It's good to know that some schools have promised to use a more holistic, considerate method for determining financial aid.</p>
<p>make sure you are selecting 'institutional methodology under' Need Analysis Methodology because that is what Ivy league schools will be doing (more like CSS profile + fafsa. Federal methodology is more like FAFSA only </p>
<p>If you are going to college starting fall 09, then your 2008 tax information will be what is used.</p>
<p>Also, if you report that your custodial parent made 10K, you might be asked for tax returns to prove that. The college may also ask you to show how you live with an income of 10K.</p>
<p>Your EFC from FAFSA just made you eligible for subsidized STafford Loans if your mother is your custodial parent. Unless you get a much lower EFC, you are not going to get Pell money. The max there, however, is not even $5K which you may get if your father is your custodial parent. To meet college expenses, you will need to get the money from the colleges, not the government unless you are commuting to an inexpensive school. PROFILE is what will determine what those schools expect your family to pay and they will generally look at everyone's income. And, yes, your 2008 information is what is going to be needed for fall of 09.</p>