So my parents are divorced and my father has legal custody of me, but I’ve lived with my mother for the past 6 years. My question is, what defines a custodial parent for the CSS Profile? On the FAFSA the custodial parent was the parent with which you’ve lived with most in the last twelve months.
Your custodial parent on the Profile should match your custodial parent on your FAFSA. It doesn’t matter who was awarded custody. It matters who you live with the most in the year prior to your FAFSA and Profile filing dates.
If you have been residing with your mom, she is the custodial parent, and your dad is the non-custodial.
Your mom would complete the Profile and your dad (and spouse if there is one) would complete the non-custodial form.
Do you have a feeling for what difference it would make? Do they evaluate both ex-spouses equally, or do they scrutinize the custodial parent, and do a cursory review of the other parent? Do you know what difference there is in how they scrutinize the ex-spouses according to whether they are custodial or not?
Between school away and summer internships, it seems that the applicant could carefully choose at whose house s/he spent the odd additional days if all else was essentially equal.
Thanks @thumper1
@ItsJustSchool each school will evaluate the NCP differently. There’s just no way to answer your questions.
Yes, students can pick and choose which parent to make the custodial parent if it is possible to live with either one more in the 365 days before FAFSA is filed. That is what determines the custodial parent, so only one night more spent at the designated parent can make the difference.
It’s usually more advantageous to have the lower income household parent to be the custodial parent, but there are exceptions to this. Some schools will exclude step parents or not consider the NCP at all.
This student wants to know who their custodial parent is. They live with their mom and have done so for six years. They don’t live with the father. That being the case, the mom is the custodial parent.
The question, I believe, was related to,the “custody” awarding. That doesn’t matter for financial aid purposes. What matters is where the student actually lives.