<p>I am trying to help my sister out as my niece begins to apply for college. My sister is not married and never was to my nieces dad. Niece has always lived with my sister and my sister claims her on her taxes. Dad gives a bit of money on occasion but no amount that could be considered real child support. There is no court agreements as to any amount of money he has to pay. Does my niece have to include his info on the FAFSA? She told me she did list his info on her college apps. Does this mean colleges will now expect him to contribute? On future apps, should my niece leave father info blank? Can you do that? My sister gets a pension and works a part time job to make ends meet but college is going to be a big struggle financially. We all know Dad should split the cost with my sister but he tends to pretend he has no idea that things cost so much and when presented with real figures he just says that is too much. College costs what it costs and it is difficult for my niece to deal with Dads attitude which is really just not wanting to part with $$$
Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>FAFSA includes only the custodial parent. However, many schools with good financial aid require additional forms like a non-custodial parent profile. So if the non-custodial parent is uncooperative, then the choices of schools would be limited to those:
- which are affordable at list price or with only federal aid, or
- do not require non-custodial parent profile (including FAFSA only schools), or
- give sufficient merit scholarships</p>
<p>As ucbalumnus states, the dad’s info is not required on the FAFSA except what he gave in support during the tax year used on the form. FAFSA does ask for child support payments that were made in the prior year.</p>
<p>However, most if not all schools only using FAFSA do not guarantee to meet financial need, nor do they tend to do so. They gap most of the time, sometimes badly. </p>
<p>I suggest your sister run her numbers through an EFC estimator to get an idea what her family EFC (Expected Family Contribution). Unless your niece goes to a school that costs less ,or get a big merit award, that EFC is the very least she will be expected to pay before getting a dime of financial aid. Your sister then should look at what she and her daughter can possibly afford. If the dad is unreliable, don’t count on anything from him, and let that all be gravy.</p>
<p>Schools that do meet full need as they define it, most or all of the time, tend to use the CSS PROFILE as well, which often requires non custodial parent (NCP) financial info and takes it into consideration whether the parent is going to pay or not. If such schools are on your niece’s list, her dad’s financial info, income and assets are going to be needed to run NET PRICE CALCULATOR ( NPC) for each such schools. There are some PROFILE schools that do not require NCP info and you might want to look at those. </p>
<p>What sort of schools is your niece considering?</p>