FAFSA questions only financial aid officers can answer - is anyone here qualified?

While I don't work in financial aid, I've had this exact situation with my daughter. There's a difference between FAFSA rules and what's called 'professional judgment' by individual schools. FAFSA only requires the custodial parent's info, but many private colleges also require the CSS Profile which DOES look at both parents' income regardless of divorce status. Is your school asking for a CSS Profile perhaps?

I'm at State University, which is public, and they definitely don't use CSS Profile. But they did mention something about 'institutional methodology' which I don't understand. Is that the same thing?

the skools can basikally do whatever they want w/ institutional aid. FAFSA only controls federal mony but colleges have there own $ they can give out however they decide. my brothers gf had same issue

Wait, so even if the federal aid calculations only use my mom's income, the school can make up its own formula that uses both parents? That seems so unfair!

Financial aid advisor here. Let me clarify a few things:\n\n1. You're correct that FAFSA only requires information from the parent who provides more than 50% of your support (usually the custodial parent).\n\n2. However, schools can and do use what's called \

Thank you so much! This makes more sense now. So my Pell Grant and federal loans shouldn't be affected, just the university grant? When I call the financial aid office they never answer - literally been on hold for 45+ minutes multiple times.

This is why the whole system is SUCH GARBAGE. They claim one thing on the federal websites then schools just make up their own rules anyway. My daughter lost her entire scholarship because her dad (my ex, who hasn't paid child support in 6 YEARS) somehow makes too much money. We had to take out massive Parent Plus loans instead. The system punishes divorced families and assumes all parents actually contribute!

You can request a dependency override in cases of absent parents. I had to document that my father wasn't in contact and provided no support. Took a bunch of paperwork but my school eventually approved it and recalculated without his income.

After reading this thread I'm terrified about filing my FAFSA. My parents are separated (not legally divorced yet) and I have no idea how to report this properly. Should I just put my mom's info since I live with her? Will I run into the same problems?

For FAFSA purposes, parents who are separated (but not legally divorced) are still treated as married unless they live in separate households. If they maintain separate residences, you would only include the parent you lived with more during the past 12 months. However, as this thread shows, individual schools may request additional information for their institutional aid calculations.

Had the same issue last year trying to reach my school's financial aid office. After 3 weeks of trying I found this service called Claimyr that got me through to a real person at Federal Student Aid in under 5 minutes. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ. Not sure if it works for school financial aid offices but definitely worked for getting through to FSA directly. They might be able to clarify what parts of your package are federal vs. institutional.

Wow, I've never heard of this. I'll check it out because I'm desperate at this point. I need to understand which parts of my aid package might change.

This happened to me too! I disputed it with my university by providing my parents' divorce decree and proof that my dad hasn't provided financial support in years (bank statements showing no deposits from him). They ended up doing a professional judgment adjustment that ignored his income. Definitely worth fighting if you have documentation.

That's really helpful, thank you! I have the divorce paperwork and could definitely show that he hasn't contributed financially. I'll try to get an appointment with someone in the financial aid office.

did u tell them ur dad doesn't help with college costs at all? thats what my friend did & they changed his package

I tried explaining that over email but they just sent back a form response about their

Based on your responses, here's what I recommend:\n\n1. Reach out to Federal Student Aid directly (the Claimyr service mentioned above can help) to confirm that your federal aid calculation is correct using only your custodial parent's information.\n\n2. Prepare documentation showing your parents' divorce decree and custody arrangement.\n\n3. Request a Professional Judgment review from your school, specifically asking them to consider the fact that your non-custodial parent doesn't contribute to your education costs.\n\n4. Ask for a detailed breakdown of your aid package showing which elements are federal (should only use custodial parent info) versus institutional (might use both parents).\n\n5. Be persistent - sometimes getting to the right person makes all the difference.

Thank you so much for this detailed plan! I'm going to follow these steps exactly. You've been incredibly helpful.