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You can ask for special circumstances but I fail to see how having NO way to contact a parent is like your situation (cross posted with Sybbie).</p>
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Even if you use estimated figures on FAFSA and CSS you have to go back and correct them to reflect the actual tax returns. Preliminary aid may be offered based on estimates but will not be finalized until tax returns are completed. Financial aid will not be disbursed if tax returns are not completed.</p></li>
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<p>You can help your parents do their return or even do it for them. But they have to sign them, not you.</p>
<p>dude! if you have no money at all and are going to get a full ride to college somehow, i think you need to get a job or do odd jobs to pay the deposit/get yourself there. geez!</p>
<p>ask if they can reduce or take care of the deposit … but if not then you need to find a way to take care of it.</p>
<p>i WISH all we had to come up with is a deposit and transportation!!!</p>
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<p>I’m talking about reapplying for aid from 2011 onward.
This year’s stuff is done.</p>
<p>I’m thinking that I should start a different thread… but the OP brought up my own concerns in this matter…</p>
<p>What should students who have applied to and been accepted to lets say, an in-state local public (example: Living in Riverside, CA and being accepted to UCR.) from families that are nearly destitute but who have FA covering all of their expenses for school do if they are unable to afford the deposit? </p>
<p>I have heard of a child of one of my mother’s friends who is dealing with this issue. The parents have filled out FAFSA and there are no issues on that end. </p>
<p>Should the parents see about the possibility of filing a waiver, if such a thing exists?</p>
<p>Michi…I think the same suggestions apply to any student who is in the situation…talk to the cashier’s office/admissions/finaid and see if you can pay the deposit on an installment out of your spring/summer job earnings or make sure you’ve applied for local scholarships and if you gain one, see if they will dispurse the check early. You all will need to supplement what the college is willing to gift you. Work/study will begin at some point near the start of your school, but your first paycheck is not going to come for several weeks. You will still need some cash of your own until your financial aid is all accounted for and credited to your account.</p>
<p>Antonio,</p>
<p>I understand that you have a less than stellar relationship with your parents, but it seems as if either you are not getting it, or you are in denial. </p>
<p>The way you start is the way you finish. IF your parents separate or divorce, you will only need your custodial parent when it comes to filing the fafsa.</p>
<p>If you are at a profile school, if you start out with 2 parents, unless one dies, you better make it your business to know where the other one is because it will be highly unlikely that you will get a non-custodial waiver down the line. </p>
<p>If your FA info is incompete in future years, you will probably not get aid because your not dealing with your non-custodial parent is not grounds for either a wavier or a financial review due to extenuating circumstances.</p>
<p>Also, I’ve heard of fellow students who were unable to get in contact with one of their parents–usually the noncustodial–and they wrote letters to financial aid offices detailing their extraordinary circumstances.</p>
<p>You are not unable to get in contact with your dad. You know where he is, you know his contact info. People who are able to get these NCP waivers usually have to provide some kind of documentation verifying that you can’t locate your father…such as a letter from your minister, priest, or rabbi or some other trustworthy 3rd party. As you can imagine, if all a student had to do was say, “I don’t know where my dad is,” then many kids would do that. </p>
<p>You say that you’re on speaking terms with your mom. So, then, why would you never see her again? If your parents are divorced, then certainly you can see your mom without your dad (or are you the kid whose divorced dad lives in the basement???)</p>
<p><a href=“or%20are%20you%20the%20kid%20whose%20divorced%20dad%20lives%20in%20the%20basement???”>quote</a>
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<p>Yes, I am that kid.
Good memory.</p>
<p>If you would also recall, I’ve also said that in a year’s time, this house may belong to different owners with my parents gone on their seperate ways.</p>
<p>So yes, I unfortunately do know the whereabouts of my father.</p>
<p>But, in a year’s time, that may (and probably will) be different.</p>
<p>Sorry Antonio,</p>
<p>I write request for non-custodial waivers for my students and nothing you have written so far, would qualify you for a non-custodial waiver.</p>
<p>Ask the school directly. In my son’s case, with some deposits, we asked and had them waived. For other deposits (like the housing one), they essentially granted him an advance on his financial aid awards and took it out of that in the fall. We will be doing the same thing for my daughter’s colleges; at least two likely schools have deposits that are beyond our means. My experience is that if a school has given you enough aid to attend, they will try to ensure the deposit doesn’t keep you from attending. </p>
<p>WRT the parent thing, I have to tell you, I remind my children frequently that once they go off to college, they need to stay in enough contact with me to get their financial aid forms taken care of each year. Because our family has a multi-generational tradition of estrangement during the college years, it’s a thing we struggle with even now. So as optimistic and supportive as I am about deposit waivers, I agree with other posters that you can be <em>sort of</em> distant, but you need to maintain enough contact to get your forms signed off each year – or work with the FA office IN ADVANCE about it once you’re attending.</p>