<p>Final divorce papers do not matter to FAFSA. It asks who the student resides with most during the prior 12 months. Some states do order child support for those over 18, some do not. Again, answer the questions asked on FAFSA and Profile.</p>
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<p>Nope…this is not accurate. If the parents are separated, they file the same way as divorced…both FAFSA and Profile.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! I will try not to worry about financial costs because my dad did do a good job of saving… As far as my stats go I have a 33 composite (E:34,M:34,R:33,S:30) on the ACT and I’m confident that I can raise it to a 34 by doing better on the science, 4.0 UW gpa (don’t know weighted), full IB program, and some good ec’s (eagle scout, cross country captain, model un secretary, economics club president). I intend to major in economics or history. I am not a National Merit Finalist.</p>
<p>Paperhairboy, you can call up a number of financial aid offices and ask outright if NCP information is needed if you cannot find the info on the website You can also outright ask the office if the financial aid calculations give the NCP less weight than the Custodial parent’s numbers. If you get an officer, you might get a direct answer to all of this. Some schools do give less weight the to NCP’s financials than others. Some do under certain circumstances.</p>
<p>In your case, your father has 529 for you, the separation is recent, and there appears to be every intent for the him to support you. IMO, the only consideration given in such situations is possible some consideration that there are two households involved. WIth your father’s income and assets at his level, I’d be surprised if you get any financial aid from the school itself.</p>
<p>The FAFSA EFC might allow you to get subsidized loans and if your mother’s income is low enough PELL, and if your state has certain programs that use FAFSA only for eligibility for college aid, you might get money from that. Bear in mind, however, that any support money your father is giving , and alimony or other support allowance goes into the income column for your mother. Unless she was left high and dry, IMO, it is unlikely you are PELL eligible.</p>
<p>There can be exceptions, however. My friend who has primary custody of her children made sure that her oldest spend more time with her ex than with her during the year before filling out FAFSA and PROFILE She makes about $300K; her ex makes very littly. The way BU looked at the NCP income and assets , which were hers, since her ex became the custodial parent, gave him a tidy sum in financial aid, much to their delight. Other schools using PROFILE were not so generous, nor were FAFSA only schools, because they simply did not meet need through the EFC did show it on the student’s father’s financial info. </p>
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<p>This would be really useful info for a lot of folks, I imagine. </p>
<p>It would be, and I find no place that lists this info. You can ask fin aid officers outright; sometimes they’ll answer.</p>
<p>Agreed. You need to make this inquiry with the financial aid offices. </p>
<p>I wish the NPCs took that into account. Most just tell you to combine incomes or do it twice, if they say anything at all.</p>
<p>If you do the NPC for each parent, you will get net costs for each parent. BUT this will not be accurate if added together, because you will not get double the financial aid. For example, if the custodial parent NPC indicates receipt of the Pell Grant AND the non-custodial parent also indicates receipt of the Pell…you will not get two times the amount in Pell money. It just won’t happen. Ditto school grants, direct loans, work study. You will get one award, not two.</p>
<p>So if your parents are divorced…doing two NPCs and adding them together really won’t give you an accurate picture. Not at all.</p>
<p>Plus, as noted upstream, some colleges actually deal with the NCP forms in a different way than the custodial parent. You gotta ask…and at each college because YMMV depending on the school.</p>
<p>I know…I have no idea why any NPC suggests doing that. </p>
<p>And yet…</p>
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<p><a href=“https://cc-seas.financialaid.columbia.edu/npc”>https://cc-seas.financialaid.columbia.edu/npc</a></p>
<p>That is Columbia…wonder how many of the other 3000 or so schools have NPCs with that level of information?</p>
<p>That’s the only one I’ve seen with that particular bit of (as you say, bad) advice. Most just don’t address divorce at all, which is odd since it’s not exactly an unusual situation.</p>
<p>^^^
Maybe because divorced parents may not be willing to each plug in their info into a NPC for the other to see.</p>
<p>Perhaps. But that doesn’t mean the schools can’t share their “proportional methodology”, as some do with capping home equity or other aspects of their FA formulas.</p>