<p>I'm just a junior now, but I'm curious about this for the fall. My dad has a form of lupus that causes him to get zero restorative sleep- therefore, he has been unemployed for two years. However, our income with his disability insurance and my mom's job is still relatively high. Do colleges consider that the cost of living is much higher with a chronically ill parent? Would this be considered a 'special circumstance'?</p>
<p>Special circumstances will kick in for example if you have a lot of medical expenses, more than what would normally be expected. So your income may be high, but if you have a lot of uncovered medical expenses (e.g. if you are in the donut hole situation i.e. some of your medical expenses are not covered by Medicare etc.), you can ask that to be factored in. The schools will not automatically take that into consideration, but you can talk to the individual schools and ask them to consider it and they may need additional documentation. Good luck with your process.</p>
<p>I don’t think they’ll take into account a generic “it’s more expensive to live with a chronically ill parent” but if you have documentation of the particular expenses they may be willing to consider that. Document as much as you can. Good luck!</p>
<p>Document all of your out-of-pocket medical expenses for 2011.
Keep an ongoing list & make copies of the bills your family paid. </p>
<p>Some schools may consider the out-of-pocket medical expenses if they exceed a certain percentage of your AGI. I have seen 5%, 8%, 10%, 20%, at private schools. You would probably have better luck with a private schools considering these medical expenses to be a special circumstance rather than public schools. </p>
<p>Buy “Paying For College Without Going Broke” Princeton Review, Kalman Chany, the 2011 Edition is the current one. A great book! Best of luck in your college search!</p>
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<p>State schools and CC’s will use high medical expenses as a way to help lower the students EFC if possible. Just be sure when providing documentation to the schools fin aid office, they are PAID medical expenses. It does no good if you show them a hospital bill for Dad and he never paid it.</p>
<p>If your dad’s medical bills are covered by insurance, then those bills won’t be considered. </p>
<p>If your family’s income is highish, then the uncovered amounts need to be rather high for an adjustment…and the adjustment won’t be dollar for dollar. </p>
<p>Since you’re only a junior, you need to make sure that you have some affordable options for school.</p>
<p>Have your parents said how much they WILL pay for college? If not, then you need to ask them.</p>
<p>Even if you get some adjustment, schools may still expect your parents to pay more than what they can/will pay.</p>
<p>Do you have strong stats? If so, you need to protect yourself by applying to some schools where you will get strong merit scholarships as your safety schools.</p>
<p>Another thing to keep in mind is any prognosis (future prediction of health) of your folks. Since his condition has made him disabled for two years, what is the likelihood he will not ever be able to return to a full-time job? If that is the case, please keep this in mind with your folks when deciding how much expense your family can afford while taking care of other debts and obligations.</p>
<p>I agree that it’s VERY important to have several options that will not cost you or your family much–good in-state schools and schools where you are a very strong candidate for merit that makes them similar to in-state schools in terms of expense.</p>
<p>Lupus is a tough condition–some folks are fortunate and able to have relatively long remissions and “normal” lives while others have much more aggressive disease and it imposes great limitations on their lives.</p>
<p>*Since his condition has made him disabled for two years, what is the likelihood he will not ever be able to return to a full-time job? If that is the case, please keep this in mind with your folks when deciding how much expense your family can afford while taking care of other debts and obligations.</p>
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<p>Very good point!!!</p>
<p>The sad but true situation is that you need to be sure that your folks will not spend money on YOU that they need to meet THEIR needs. This is a much more basic issue than what amount of financial aid you may or may not receive from whatever school. Hopefully your folks have a social worker who can help with some of these issues, as well as your guidance counselor. Good luck on sorting out these issues.</p>