For parents
You're not behind. The system is bad on purpose.
The application calendar is opaque, the financial aid forms are written like tax code, and every paid consultant in the country profits from your panic. Your kid's high school counselor is free and assigned to your family by law. Start there. Then use this page.
Don't know an acronym? FAFSA, SAI, ED, EA, CSS, Pell, HBCU, DACA, LOCI — all defined in plain English on the glossary page. Bookmark it.
This month
Three things you can actually do.
- Run the net price calculator at three schools. Every college that takes federal aid is required by law to publish one (fafsa.gov links to them). The sticker price is fiction. The net price is what you'll actually be asked to pay after grants. Do it for an in-state public, a private with strong aid, and one reach school — our calculator runs the same math in one form.
- Open a FAFSA account before the form opens. FAFSA opens Oct 1 (for the next school year) at fafsa.gov. The FSA ID takes 1–3 business days to verify. Both you and your kid need one. Doing this in September means you can file the day it opens — state aid is often first-come-first-served. See our FAFSA guide for the deadline list by state.
- Talk to your kid's school counselor this week. Not a paid consultant. The free one assigned to your family. Ask three questions: what's our school's Naviance/SCOIR scattergram for the colleges on the list, when's the next financial aid night, and what are the in-state automatic-merit programs (most state flagships publish a GPA + test score grid that triggers automatic aid).
If you're filing alone
The one FAFSA thing every single-earner parent should know.
FAFSA asks for the "custodial parent" — defined as the parent the student lived with most in the prior 12 months. If you're a single parent, divorced and custodial, widowed, or the sole earner: you are the only parent on the form. The non-custodial parent's income is NOT reported on the federal FAFSA. (Some private colleges use the CSS Profile, which asks differently — that's a separate fight, and the CSS Profile has a non-custodial parent waiver process.)
This single rule reshapes the aid math for hundreds of thousands of families every year. Walk through it in the FAFSA guide.
Mixed-status family — H-1B, F-2, DACA, undocumented
If your visa status changes what your kid qualifies for.
Your kid's eligibility for federal aid depends on their status, not yours. A U.S. citizen child of H-1B/F-2 parents files FAFSA normally and gets full consideration. A child on F-2 (dependent of an H-1B parent) can't file FAFSA but IS often considered for institutional aid at private colleges that practice need-blind admissions for international applicants (about a dozen schools — MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst, Dartmouth among them).
DACA recipients can't file FAFSA but ARE eligible for many state aid programs (California Dream Act, Texas TASFA, NY DREAM Act, etc.) and a growing list of need-met institutional policies. Same for undocumented students. Don't skip the application — many private colleges meet 100% of demonstrated need regardless of citizenship.
Start at the non-citizen scholarship filter for awards explicitly open to DACA, undocumented, and visa-dependent students. Search each prospective college's financial aid site for the phrase "international students" or "undocumented students" — the schools that fund you will say so plainly.
Where to go next
Four pages built for parents.
Family Plan →
Work alongside your kid without surveilling them. Shared list, separate accounts.
The money playbook →
SAI math, the 2-year lookback, scholarship displacement, the aid pillars.
How we make money →
No, we're not selling you anything. The honest version.
Net price calculator →
Estimate the real cost at any college that takes federal aid.
The core tools are free — no paid tier on them. If you're stuck, email hello@kidtocollege.com.