Thanks everyone! FAFSA is not an issue. I am custodial parent, and my finances are really simple. It’s the Profile I’m wondering about, because that requires cooperation from exH. Our student still has a large and changing list of schools she wants to apply to (since she has no hooks, feels like a lottery). Probably safest thing to do is get them all filled out…
For the definitive answer, call the FA office for each school on your child’s list, and ask them if you need to apply for need-based aid as a freshman in order to be eligible for institutional need-based aid in subsequent years. My children’s lists never included a school where we had to apply freshman year. Your child’s schools may be different.
Also, check to see if any schools on the list are need-aware in admissions. Some schools will be need-blind until they reach their aid ceiling; after that, they will only admit those who aren’t asking for need-based FA.
Make sure your student casts a wide net…she needs to be accepted to a school where the bills can be paid.
I hate to say this, but your situation is not unique or complicated at all. Unfortunately parents who are divorced have these financial issues. And sometimes both parents are not on the same page with regard to paying.
If the college requires financial info from both divorced parents…you just need to provide it.
If your income is substantially lower, look for colleges that do not require the non-custodial parent profile
D checked that she was not applying for financial aid on her applications, but I wasn’t sure whether we needed to submit them or not for merit aid consideration. Right before the FAFSA deadlines, I decided we ought to fill it out just in case and so D would qualify for certain student loans (if needed). We were contacted by a few schools who “complained” that D hadn’t put on her application that she was applying for FA. Colorado College in particular was unhappy; they contacted D to ask why she applied for FA when her app said she wasn’t. Bowdoin was a little unhappy, but still pleasant.
The required forms felt really intrusive. Ok, the forms themselves were ok, but then you had to upload all your financial documents. I forgot what all we had to upload. Tax forms definitely but I think there were more. I remember thinking that if I’d known when I’d started how many forms and endless documents I would have had to fill out and upload, I never would have done it or would have researched more whether they were really required. Hopefully their servers are secure because they have all your financial info and docs.
We all hope the servers are secure.
Thanks @thumper1 but I think you are jumping to a lot of conclusions… I didn’t say our situation was unique, just complicated, in a zillion (possibly common, but that is not the point) ways that are not appropriate to go into in a public forum.
Thanks to everyone else too! And oh, holy cow @liska21, they make you upload a bunch of supporting documents? That is going to be a big hurdle for exH-- I know that he will strongly dislike the idea that he has to disclose a whole bunch of private financial information (probably for his business as well as for himself) when it is entirely clear that there is absolutely zero chance for need-based aid and we are not requesting it.
But in that situation, the FAFSA can be filled out later-- not as part of the college’s merit aid decision timeline.
The question about future ad is important. Reed said if you did not apply for financial aid during the first application, you would not be able to apply. For Smith, where my D1 is attending, you have to wait two years before you can get institutional aid. We can fill our aid forms right away and get loans but she cannot receive “merit” money until she has two years under her belt. Mount Holyoke required one year. So, it pays to investigate.
@vanvalen Now it’s painfully coming back. We had to upload tax forms, business tax forms, and W2s, 1099misc for H, me, and D. I can’t remember if we had to do investment accounts too or not. I was, as I said, shocked. I thought filling out the FAFSA was it. Ha!! You do the Profile and then you get an email where all the schools have listed the supporting documentation that they want. The list of required supporting documentation went on forever (it seemed). Maybe the schools D applied wanted more than usual, but if your kid has a long list, you’ll probably hit some of those too. But as other have noted, some schools say if you don’t apply year 1, you can’t get FA later. I caved. Kept thinking what do we do if the house catches fire and H’s business tanks? Better play it safe… If only I’d known…
@liska21 Oh my! and Ugh. Serenity now.
@lspf72 what you listed there is all,used to complete your taxes. It sounds like your school wanted to clearly verify that what you put was accurate. Or they used IDOC. Which was it?
Sounds like IDOC.
And you can’t hook anything but your taxes to the FAFSA form…via the IRS Data Retreival Tool.
You can only do this if your file your FAFSA online…so if you do…most of that information is already on the FAFSA form.
Did you or your accountant file your taxes electronically? If so…it’s all online someplace anyway.
The FAFSA is linking to the IRS. Both are secure online sites. If you don’t believe that, you need to file all paper forms by mail. Did you do that?
Oh, it might have been IDOC that asked for all the supporting stuff. Probably was. That was part of the shock. FAFSA, ok. Oh, Profile too? Ok, we can do that…too. What?! IDOC too and all these documents? Yeah, we had them for taxes of course, but still took up a whole weekend of getting organized and had to contact the accountant for the business. Ug. If I’d been divorced and had to get all this from an ex? Oy vey. I think the document list is auto-generated from the computer based on the boxes that are checked on one of the forms. Profile, maybe? We got the email basically right after filing the forms so it wasn’t like we were getting ‘special’ treatment. I think it was more for us because H is self-employed (a business) and I have 2 side-jobs, really minor but I had to provide the documentation nonetheless. If you just had W2s and your taxes, then might not be so bad. But the self-employed, freelancers, and business owners should brace yourselves.
When schools require financial information from non-custodial parents, it doesn’t get sent through the custodial parent; it gets sent directly to the school or through a service like IDOC. Divorced parents aren’t having to ask for or getting to see each other’s tax returns/financial information.
Right… If divorced, the custodial parent is NOT responsible for collecting any data from the custodial parent at all…ever.
In fact, the custodial parent can’t see the non-custodial parent forms at all…and vice versa.
Thanks all-- very informative.
@thumper1, re: your last post, that is exactly the point. I don’t give a hoot about seeing exH’s forms/ info, but I also cannot exert much influence over his behavior and I don’t think he is going to be excited about jumping through all of these hoops, considering we are full-pay anyway. Thus the OP trying to suss out whether it is even necessary…
@thumper1 @BelknapPoint Oh, I wasn’t thinking one would have to actually collect the docs from the ex. But I’m guessing in some cases, you (or your kid) would have to get on the ex to actually find the documents and submit them by all the deadlines… What if the ex is really disorganized or thinks it’s just not necessary to do this? That’s not in your control.
Sadly, there are uncooperative parents…married and divorced. There have been many married families who have had a parent post here because the other spouse and the one posting just didn’t see eye to eye on college funding.
And yes, I know there is a layer of not being in the same household when one is divorced.
You don’t have to answer this here…but were college costs discussed and included as part of the divorce settlement? If not, and the other parent has lots of income…can this be revisited?
Is there any chance that you all can have a conversation about college costs, forms and funding? I know it’s not easy but might be worth a punt.
And as I mentioned earlier…you student may need to cast a wider net than if all of the money and forms were easily forthcoming. On another thread, you mention she is interested in Stanford. That school is very generous with need based aid, offering at least some to families even with $180,000 in income. But the firms need to be submitted.
This student sounds like she has the stats to gain admission to some competitive schools but none really are a slam dunk. Her higher stats could garner her significant automatic merit aid at a number of places. Start with University of Alabama where she would get a great scholarship. And if she is an engineering major, she would get an additional $2500 stipend. They used to give more to NMSF as well…not sure if that is still the case. @mom2collegekids
Also, if she is willing to look out of the top 20 colleges, she could be in contention for very good merit aid at a number of places but these require special applications…and early applications. For example, the Trustee Scholarship at Boston University is a full tuition award. There are others.
So…cast that wide net…very wide of finances end up being a consideration.
If you can afford the costs to be full pay…then just ignore this post!
It sounds like you need to have the “talk” with the Ex now to find out what they will contribute. And find out if they will fill out the forms if required. I would let them know you are and your D are looking for “value”.
Thanks everyone for all the feedback. This post was really just asking whether FA forms are required for full-pay families. Sounds like the answer depends on the specific schools, so I will get on the phone and sort that out once she has a list.
As for the rest… no worries- we’re all good. D will have the money she needs for college. But some of the schools on her list simply aren’t “worth” the sticker price. IF it turns out that she thinks one of those is the best fit among her eventual options, she will need merit aid that pulls the cost down to match the UCs.
MODERATOR’S NOTE
As the OP has received the information s/he needs and has a plan going forward, this is the perfect time to close the thread.