My parents never married. I am with my mom 60% of the time, and my dad 40%. My mom makes MUCH less than my dad, she makes around 50k while my dad makes over 100k… But my dad doesn’t want to pay for my college. Neither does my mom. Anyway. Do I need to report my dad’s income on FAFSA? Can I just report my mom’s income? I was doing financial aid calculators and it looked much better when I just used my mom’s income.
For FAFSA, you report the income and assets of the parent you live with the most days in the 365 days before filing. It would appear to be your mother.
Will you get FA? You might. For federal aid, you might qualify for a Pell grant, but that depends on income and assets and the number of people in your household. Much will depend on whether your mother has assets, if her income is just over $50k, if she meets any of the tests for qualifying for simplified assets. The most you can get is $5900 but you could receive less.
Some schools also require the CSS financial inform, and both parents must submit information for that.
You’ll need your dad for schools that require the non-custodial parent form of the CSS Profile. Most very selective schools do, but not all.
Just adding…your situation is not weird. There are others with the same scenario.
Your situation isn’t unique at ALL…most Moms AND Dads want try to figure out how to get someone else or something else to pay for college :))