<p>My aid today was extremely depressing. My EFC=0; my mom makes ~15k per year. I have no idea what my dad makes. Uchicago gave me 10k in grants and 3k in Odyssey scholarship. I got 8k in Pell Grants/SEOG. My family contribution is ~36k per year. This will leave me ~150k in debt over 4 years.</p>
<p>My parents are divorced, but my father will not contribute to my education. Also today, Vanderbilt gave me 55k in grants. I absolutely do not want to go to Vanderbilt. I don't know what I can do. My family has always been extremely poor.</p>
<p>They surely must have made a mistake.
From the income you have stated, it definitely does look like a mistake. What about federal aid?
Did you try contacting them and asking them how they gave you such a high EFC?
Plus, you should also try telling them that Vandy gave you 55k. That will definitely add strength to your argument.</p>
<p>Also, in the initial stuff you sent the fin aid office, did you remember to ask them to waive the non custodial parent contribution? AFAIK, this only happens in very few circumstances, such as if there has been no contact throughout your life, or similar stuff. The college expects your non custodial parent to pay too if there are no extreme circumstances…</p>
<p>Ironically, I had exactly the opposite situation- I got 47k in grants from Chicago and literally 6K in grants from Vandy- no joke. I was appalled, but I decided soon after I turned in my Vandy app that I wouldn’t go there if forced, so I don’t really care. </p>
<p>Perhaps if you included a non-custodial waiver Vandy chose to recognize the waiver and Chicago did not. I’m not really sure how that works, but that sounds like the only reasonable possibility to me.</p>
<p>Vandy doesn’t take in consideration the non-custodial parent. I still want to go to Chicago; I’m not afraid of loans, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to obtain them.</p>
<p>You should definitely call Chicago and talk to the financial aid office, but be prepared for a struggle. They didn’t make a mistake. Noncontributing noncustodial parents are a huge problem for everyone in that situation – and an even huger problem if they don’t produce any information.</p>
<p>Like most of its peer institutions, Chicago counts as available resources the income and assets of both divorced parents and their current spouses, if they have them (also taking into account stepchildren in college, etc.). They are all very reluctant to give a break to students whose noncustodial parents refuse to contribute. If they did that routinely the noncustodial parents of the world would very quickly stop contributing. And right now most of them, who overwhelmingly tend to be fathers, and tend to have much higher incomes and more assets than the custodial parents, do contribute to their children’s college education.</p>
<p>Every college will in theory allow you to prove that you can’t get anything out of your noncustodial parent, but most of them will make you jump through lots of hoops to prove it, and you can’t be sure you will succeed. You ought to try, though. People will be sympathetic at least, and try to do their best for you.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt isn’t exactly a fate worse than death, either. It’s a real, quality university, and it’s offering you a boatload of money. You should not even think of borrowing $150,000 to go to the University of Chicago rather than Vanderbilt (and no one should lend you that much, anyway – it will be way too hard to repay after you graduate without help from parents with money). You can get a superb education there, even if once in awhile you have to see a frat boy with a Confederate flag, and on a normal day the women are wearing more makeup.</p>