So my parents were never married and I’ve submitted a non-custodial waiver request to the 5 schools I applied to that require the non-custodial profile. One has already accepted it. Another has said it will not review it until after the due date of Feb 15th.
I’m not sure what to do if some colleges accept the waiver request and others reject it. I could probably get my father to actually fill the noncustodial profile out; the reason I’ve been granted a waiver is because he never supported us financially. But if he fills it out it will go to all 5 schools, even the ones that accept the waiver request. Also, after Feb 15th he won’t be able to submit the non-custodial profile anyway, as it’s past collegeboard’s deadline or whatever.
So is there any way of sending the non-custodial profile to some colleges but not others? It looks like it just automatically sends it to all the schools that say they require it on the main CSS profile. I’m hoping all my waiver requests are accepted, but if one is rejected what will I do? And if he does fill out the non-custodial profile, will the schools that granted the waiver actually use it if they receive it?
You are in a catch -22. If you fill it out , they will use it. If a school doesn’t grant your waiver and you don’t submit one, your package will be in complete and you will not get aid from that school.
Keep in mind that your parents are first in line to pay for your education. It is based on the ability to pay, not whether or not they want to pay. Some schools will ask to contact the non-custodial for you to tell them that supplying the information does not obligate them to Kay ( they won’t give you any additional monies) but just like intact families, no one is going to force a parent to pay.
Make sure that you have some financial safeties that ask for the FAFSA only.
The whole NCP waiver thing is definitely a “gray area” at each school. Some who make these decisions may be pre-disposed to thinking that kids who have NCPs who didn’t pay child support deserve a waiver…and other schools believe that if you know where the NCP is, they want the info.
I don’t know how far back CSS schools look, but it seems that if “NCP never paid CS” gets a waiver, then some might strategically hide evidence of such payments for a couple of years in order to get that waiver later.
I said I probably could… but there is no chance of him paying. If I do manage to make him fill it out I don’t think I’ll get any aid anyway, so I’ll just have to hope the waivers work. The school that accepted the waiver was a top 10 private school
Hugo, if your dad has never paid child support, I doubt he would be willing to fill out all the information required for the CSS Profile’s NCP. Why? Because he owes your mom and/or the state tens of thousands of dollars! He will not want to risk disclosing that information. The only thing you can do is apply to many schools (including schools that don’t require CSS) and have a financial safety-- a place you can attend if you are not given the waiver. That place could be a school your mom can afford without financial aid, a place where you get a merit scholarship, an instate public or even a community college.
mom2collegekids, Of course it’s a judgement call-- just about everything in college admissions is. But it’s not as easy as stopping payment for a few years because it’s not a matter of getting behind on child support. When I have applied for NCP waivers, the colleges/ universities wanted to see proof that I had gone to court to collect on back child support. I supplied a LOT of proof-- legal documentation, a letter, supporting letters from professionals, etc-- and, even then, had at least one school ask for ‘more documentation’ without specifying what they wanted.
I understand NCP waivers can be a sore point for intact, two-parent families, but the cases I know of include parents who’ve been in prison, who were abusive and who were mentally ill. Yes, in some cases the students knew where the parents were, but they were not reliable and it was safer for them not to involve these people in their lives. I have heard of people who have said they would abuse that system but I have only heard of a couple of cases of a family who, on face value, shouldn’t have had a waiver. In one case, there was severe mental illness and abuse. (Sadly enough, the student ended up developing the same mental illness.) I don’t know what the circumstances were in the other case but the school knew about them and gave the waiver anyway.
My brother never paid child support and he’d have been willing to fill in the NCP information (in fact probably did because his son applied to Cornell and Brown and NYU). Nephew’s mother made a lot more than brother so his ordered support was very low anyway, and when she wanted to take nephew to another state to live, they agreed to drop any support because the costs of travel for nephew to visit would increase.
So many different arrangements between parents, it’s difficult to know what the agreement was.
These stories of informal arrangements between divorced or never-married parents always make me sad even though it’s none of my business. Seems like the kids always end up getting screwed. Best case- there isn’t a lot of acrimony because the parties have figured things out without involving the courts and a judge. Which usually works great until somebody remarries. (neighbors of mine- one of the kids- a middling to indifferent student is at a pricey private college due to a deceased parents insurance policy which has been administered by a grandparent who knew what the parent would have wanted. The step sibling- a stellar student- is taking the bus to a local commuter college since nobody is interested in paying dime one for his education although they are letting him live at home as long as he is otherwise self-supporting now that he is 18.)
And when it doesn’t work- well I guess that’s why there are courts and judges.
2collegewego my parents were never married so theres no legal obligation for him to pay anything. He’s english and lives in England. The law there is that if you were never married then you don’t have to pay.
Whether your parent will pay is NOT the measure of whether you should get a waiver. My ex didn’t pay a penny for D1’s education, but he filled out the NCP. But the measure of the waiver requirement at most colleges is whether you have contact with the parent and can ask them to fill it out. The marital status also means nothing. And this has nothing to do with the law in England – colleges here pretty much expect expect bio parents to pay unless they are dead, missing, or incarcerated.
@hugo0777 you will be dealing with the policies of U.S. colleges if you apply to colleges here. If your bio dad is alive, you will likely need to get his financials…and it doesn’t matter if he lives in the moon.
Hugo, there is no requirement in the U.S. for parents-- married or unmarried-- to pay for college. There are, however, laws that require parents-- married or unmarried-- to support their children. The fact that your father is unlikely to pay should not affect the decision; whether or not your father has paid support (and why) may.