Step son has been lying to Ivy League School and stealing $44K/semester...school doesn't seem to care?

Paying for College
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My wife’s son (my step son, I’ve not adopted him) has been lying to his school and stealing $44K needs based scholarship a semester for tuition, room, board.

He’s been living with me since he was 7 but when he came back for winter break freshman year his mom and him got in a fight because he failed a class and he essentially has been living with his dad since.

His mom’s income is low and reported accurately. My income was reported at $40k (I’m a medical doctor) and my assets were lied about as well. His biological father’s income and assets were not reported because he indicated the biological father’s whereabouts were unknown, which is a lie, he has always talked to him regularly. I don’t know his biological father’s income but he runs a successful business and has a $7M home.

I contacted the school receptionist who first told me my income/assets were used for the needs based scholarship and when I tried to report my income/assets were not accurate she then changed the script and said it didn’t matter because they only look at the two biological parents. I tried to talk to the financial aid office who just closed the door in my face and said the student signed a FERPA Buckley Amendment and they could not discuss anything without the student being present…

I posted on the school’s reddit page and every student said the same, both biological and step parents income and assets are required and both biological and step parents incomes are factored for needs based scholarships.

Does anyone know who I should try to contact to report this?

I’m not too familiar with the US college system. But it’s not fair for people like me, who had to join the military to pay for college and paid for remainder working.

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There is so much wrong with this post.

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His mom’s income is low and reported accurately. My income was reported at $40k (I’m a medical doctor) and my assets were lied about as well

Let’s start with this.

All colleges either require you to link to the IRS data retrieval tool to verify accurate income information…OR they require signed copies of tax returns and all schedules either sent to the college or done via IDOC (if the college requires this). So…unless your tax returns were fraudulently submitted, the college knows your real income.

@kelsmom?

And this…in order not to include this parent, the student would have been required to request a non-custodial parent waiver. These are NOT easy to get and require significant documentation.

You are right. You do not know the income of this person. And there are plenty of people out there with pricey homes who don’t have very significant income. And people who seem to have successful businesses that net a very low amount.

Totally agree!

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Sir, this is an Arby’s.

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Since the OP has already reached out directly to the college, I don’t believe there is anything else left to discuss. Anything else would be speculative since the other parent info isn’t known.

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