<p>Recently, my mom has decided that she plans to move us into her new boyfriend's house. The boyfriend is a doctor, and it occurred to me that if we move in, our income will change, which may make me ineligible for certain aspects of financial aid that I was depending on, should I go to a school that offers it. Mom and her boyfriend don't plan on getting married, and mom by herself can only work part-time, making our income well below $60,000. Would colleges now consider the entire house's income, or will nothing change?</p>
<p>If they are unmarried only your mom’s income will be considered.</p>
<p>Depending on the school that you are applying to, they may still ask about the income and assets of your father and stepmom if he has remarried.</p>
<p>In fact many schools that give large amounts of institutional aid, will require the CSS profile, Non custodial profile or their own financial aid forms requesting information from both custodial and non-custodial parents.</p>
<p>If I am remembering correctly, the FAFSA asks for information about support received from other individuals. That means, if mom’s boyfriend pays the rent/mortgage, food costs, electricity, etc, you will have to list that “outside support” and that will be taken into account in determining how much aid you are eligible to receive. After all, if mom is working but doesn’t have to spend her money on those costs, that is more money she has to put toward education costs. She may want to rethink this plan.</p>
<p>Your mom’s doctor boyfriend’s income will not be included on the financial aid forms. If they are not married, he is not a member of your family.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone that replied. My plan for a while has been to rely pretty solely on scholarships and any money I can make beforehand to attend college, so this is really good news.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that if you’re applying for private scholarships, those are mostly ONLY for freshman year, so they’re not going to pay for college. If you need scholarships to help pay for ALL FOUR years of college, then you need to apply to the COLLEGES that give those scholarships.</p>