Question: I will be a high school senior in the fall. My parents are divorced and my father refuses to pay for college unless I attend the private university where he works … Will colleges consider only my mother’s income and give me financial aid, if I explain that I have a “deadbeat dad?”
WHAT DID “THE DEAN” SAY?
See http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/will-financial-aid-officers-understanding-dad-refuses-pay/
The dean forgot to suggest looking into any tuition exchanges that your dad’s university might participate in. If your dad’s concern is about money, there might be some reasonably cheap options for you through a tuition exchange, even if they aren’t as cheap as his employer.
You do not have a “deadbeat dad.” You have a dad who has provided you with a way to attend college at a greatly reduced price, and you’re choosing to opt out of that opportunity.
I say you own your choice-- if you don’t want the option that dad can afford, you find a way to finance your own way.
The tuition exchange program, which @happymomof1 cites above, is definitely something I should have mentioned in my “Ask the Dean” response. BUT … chances are good that it wouldn’t be the right option for the boy who sent the initial question.
The Tuition Exchange Program offers free tuition to children of employees at participating colleges. However, the vast majority of member schools are not the “elite” colleges to which this guy aspires. And the competition to be named a TEP recipient at ANY school is fierce. Moreover, TEP doesn’t typically include room and board, and many TEP members cap the tuition funds they provide at $35,000 per year, which doesn’t cover full tuition at the handful of private colleges on the TEP list that this kid might consider.
Thus, if this boy views himself as Ivy-eligible and doesn’t want to attend his father’s college, he would probably more satisfied by snagging a merit scholarship at a strong non-Ivy (e.g., Emory, BC, Tulane, ND, Wash U, and many more … ) than by aiming for a TEP award.
So, in this student’s case, TEP would be a red herring, but it’s certainly worth investigating for OTHER students in similar shoes … those who have a parent working at a member school who won’t spring for tuition elsewhere.