<p>@thumper</p>
<p>Thanks for raising that point - I guess I’ve been a little jaded and confused by all of the terminology. I snooped around the Penn Financial Services site a little more and found this page </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.sfs.upenn.edu/pdf/2011-12/QA-FinAid-Canadian.pdf[/url]”>http://www.sfs.upenn.edu/pdf/2011-12/QA-FinAid-Canadian.pdf</a></p>
<p>It states that Penn considers Canadians “need-blindly” AND guarantees that it will meet their full demonstrated need!</p>
<p>*As for the “technically single” line, sorry for the confusion. My stepdad has lived with us for 12 years, they are not married though. I was wondering if including him would be beneficial, as then I could include the child he and my mom had together and his step daughter on the application. If I were to omit any mention of him, then I think we would only include me, my brother, and our mom and dad. *</p>
<p>Does anyone know how CSS is going to consider the mom’s live-in boyfriend with whom she has a child? </p>
<p>It sounds silly to completely exclude the boyfriend’s income AND count the child when obviously some of his income goes to support that child. To not count the boyfriend implies that the mom is the sole support for their mutual child - which isn’t true.</p>
<p>itsinreach…what are your financial safety schools?</p>
<p>^ Exactly. Which is why I would have some qualms including my half-sister without mentioning her father. I have assumed that it would be okay not to mention him as long as I don’t mention her (which is fair). That’s why in one of my two original scenarios I had only my brother, me, and our parents.</p>
<p>My financial safety schools are all Canadian ones I suppose. I reckon you don’t consider the Ivy League schools to be financial safeties in my case?</p>
<p>You might want to check the common law marriage guidelines in your state. It very well might be that your parents are CONSIDERED married (by common law) in your state.</p>
<p>I can’t see any scenario in which you would exclude your little sister. She lives in your house and you have the same mom. (You do live with your mom, right?)</p>
<p>I don’t know whether you are supposed to include your mom’s longterm boyfriend. </p>
<p>Even if you do have to include him, you may or may not have to include your college-age stepsister. Even if you had to include her father, I think whether or not you include her depends on whether primary non-school residence is with her mom or dad. (If her primary residence is with her mom and you do end up having to include your stepdad but not her, you can always put in the comments section that he pays X amount for her college.) </p>
<p>Honestly, if one of the financial aid officers here doesn’t give you an answer, call FAFSA and call College Board and get the answers from them. It may or may not seem ‘fair’ to you (like including the little sister without her dad or including the dad but not the college-age stepsister) but all you have to do is follow the rules. I don’t think you should apply ED to Penn, however. I do think you will get financial aid because you have listed 3 adults with an income of about $150K supporting 3 kids in college. However, I don’t think you’re going to get the $45K you want. You need to find out what your parents will definitely agree to pay.</p>
<p>*I reckon you don’t consider the Ivy League schools to be financial safeties in my case? *</p>
<p>Uh…no…</p>
<p>A financial safety school is a school that you KNOW that you’ll get accepted to AND you know that you can afford because of assured grants and scholarships and family funds.</p>
<p>Since you don’t know if you’ll get accepted to an ivy and you don’t know how much they’ll expect your family to pay, an ivy can’t be your financial safety school.</p>
<p>The whole half-sister thing will be a bit strange. Obviously, your mom doesn’t get “child support” for this child because the dad lives with your mom. I don’t know if there’s a question on CSS about any other money that comes into the household (which would be your “step-dad’s” income).</p>
<p>mom2college, regarding your last paragraph… I understand your qualms but I still don’t think it affects whether or not the child would be listed in the household. The child lives with this student, is his sister and depends on the mom. I think, as long as those things are true, the child is included and, frankly, I don’t think the mom’s boyfriend or the boyfriend’s daughter are included – at least not on FAFSA. I believe Profile has a question about ‘other’ money, such as a person paying expenses for you but I don’t remember how it’s phrased.</p>
<p>(Oh yeah, OP, don’t forget to consider any assets your parents have. Do they own a house? It’ll be counted.)</p>
<p>Here are the FAFSA directions on who is a parent and who is in household. The tricky thing with this student is he’s an intl, so no fafsa to file and no ‘state’ to depend on for common law. I think the issue will come down to whether or not the boyfriend is considered common law in Canada and, if he is, whether or not he provides more than half the support to stepdd:</p>
<p>Who is considered a parent?</p>
<p>The term “parent” is not restricted to biological parents. There are instances (such as when a grandparent legally adopts the applicant) in which a person other than a biological parent is treated as a parent, and in these instances, the parental questions on the application must be answered, since they apply to such an individual (or individuals).</p>
<p>If your parents are both living and married to each other, answer the questions about both of them.</p>
<p>If your parents are living together and have not been formally married but meet the criteria in their state for a common-law marriage, they should report their status as married on the application. If the state does not consider their situation to be a common-law marriage, then you should follow the rules for divorced parents. Check with the appropriate state agency concerning the definition of a common-law marriage.</p>
<p>A foster parent, legal guardian or a grandparent or other relative is not treated as a parent for purposes of filing a FAFSASM unless that person has legally adopted the applicant. An adoptive parent is treated in the same manner as a biological parent on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>If one, but not both, of your parents has died, you should answer the parental questions about the surviving parent. Do not report any financial information for the deceased parent on the FAFSA. If the surviving parent dies after the FAFSA has been filed, you must submit a correction to Question 53, thus updating your dependency status to independent, and correct all other information as appropriate (for example, you will no longer fill out Questions 59-93). If the surviving parent is remarried as of the date you complete the FAFSA, answer the questions about both that parent and the person he or she married (your stepparent).</p>
<p>If your parents are divorced (or separated-see below for more information), answer the questions about the parent you lived with more during the 12 months preceding the date you complete the FAFSA. If you did not live with one parent more than the other, give answers about the parent who provided more financial support during the 12 months preceding the date you complete the FAFSA, or during the most recent year that you actually received support from a parent. If this parent has remarried as of the date you fill out the FAFSA, answer the questions on the remaining sections of the FAFSA about that parent and the person he or she married (your stepparent).</p>
<p>If your parents are legally separated, the same rules that apply for a divorced couple are used to determine which parent’s information must be reported. A couple doesn’t have to be legally separated in order to be considered separated for purposes of the FAFSA. The couple may consider themselves informally separated when one of the partners has permanently left the household. If the partners live together, they can’t be considered informally separated.</p>
<p>A stepparent is treated in the same manner as a biological parent if the stepparent is married, as of the date of application, to the biological parent whose information will be reported on the FAFSA, or if the stepparent has legally adopted you. There are no exceptions. Prenuptial agreements do not exempt the stepparent from providing required data on the FAFSA. Note that the stepparent’s income information for the entire year prior to application, 2009, must be reported even if your parent and stepparent were not married until after the start of 2009, but were married prior to the date the FAFSA was completed.</p>
<p>Here are the FAFSA directions on who to include in household: </p>
<ol>
<li>Number in parents’ household. Enter the number of family members in your parents’ household.</li>
</ol>
<p>The following persons are included in your parents’ household size:</p>
<p>You (the student), even if you do not live with your parents.</p>
<p>Your parents (the ones whose information is reported on the FAFSA).</p>
<p>Your parents’ other children, if your parents will provide more than half of their support from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011 or if the other children could answer “No” to every question in Questions 46-58.</p>
<p>Your parents’ unborn child, if that child will be born before July 1, 2011 and your parents will provide more than half of the child’s support through the end of the 2010-2011 award year (June 30, 2011). (If there is a medical determination of a multiple birth, then all expected children can be included.)</p>
<p>Other people (including your children and/or your unborn child due before July 1, 2011), if they live with and receive more than half of their support from your parents at the time of application and will continue to receive that support from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011.
To determine whether to include children in the household size, the “support” test is used (rather than a residency requirement) because there may be situations in which a parent supports a child who does not live with the parent, especially in cases where the parent is divorced or separated. In such cases, the parent who provides more than half of the child’s support may claim the child in his or her household size. It does not matter which parent claims the child as a dependent for tax purposes. If your parent receives benefits (such as Social Security or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF] payments) in the child’s name, these benefits must be counted as parental support to the child.</p>
<p>Support includes money, gifts, loans, housing, food, clothes, car payments or expenses, medical and dental care and payment of school costs.</p>
<p>These are the Profile directions. It seems even less likely that the boyfriend would be listed: </p>
<p>Understanding Who We Mean When We Say Parents</p>
<p>• If your parents are both living and married to each other,
answer the questions in the registration step and on the
application for both of them.
• If your parents are separated, divorced, or were never married,
answer the questions only about the parent you lived with
most during the past 12 months. If you did not live with
one parent more than the other in the past 12 months, give
answers about the parent who provided the most financial
support during that time.
• If your parent has remarried, you must also include
information about your stepparent. Note that in this case,
whenever the word “parent” is used, it refers to both the
parent and the stepparent.
• If you have a legal guardian, answer the questions about your
legal guardian.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This sounds like FAFSA…but if it IS for the Profile, keep in mind that some of the Profile schools will require the non-custodial parent (and spouse if there is one) to submit the non-custodial parent profile form. NO…the custodial parent doesn’t put the info on THEIR form…but if required, the non-custodial parent MUST put their info on the non-custodial form.</p>
<p>The above info makes it sound like the Profile doesn’t require non-custodial parent info and that is NOT always true.</p>
<p>the profile does ask about money from other sources. This is where the money that the money the little sister’s dad contributes to the house would go as mom and the household benefits from his income (even if he simply pays child support). the Profile asks about the household as a whole in addition to number of students in college. The little sister would be included.</p>
<p>Thumper, those were Profile instructions that I found on a Profile booklet online and, yes, you are absolutely right about the non-custodial parent form. Frankly, every Profile school we looked at required that for divorced or separated parents.</p>