Parents Do Not Share the Same Household

Students applying for Boston University financial aid are expected, by University policy, to provide applicant information and financial support from both biological/adoptive parents even if they are divorced, separated, and/or do not share the same household.

  • Income, asset, and other information of the student and the parent (and stepparent, if applicable) that provides the majority of your financial support is required on both the CSS Profile™ and the FAFSA.

    Complete the CSS Profile™ and FAFSA with student information and information from the household of the parent that provided the majority of your financial support during the 12 months prior to applying for aid. If the student received an equal amount of financial support from each parent, provide information from the parent with the higher income and assets. It does not matter which parent claims the student as an exemption for tax purposes.

    Parents who live in the same household, regardless of legal status, or who reside separately for employment purposes only, are not considered “separated”, and information for both parents must be reported on your CSS Profile™ and FAFSA.

  • The income, asset, and other information of the other “noncustodial” parent (and stepparent, if applicable) is entered on their CSS Profile™ using a separate log-in. This “noncustodial” parent information will be appended to the student’s CSS Profile™ later. Their “noncustodial parent” information is not required or reported on the FAFSA.

    Submit a CSS Profile Waiver Request for the Noncustodial Parent form if getting a CSS Profile™ from the other (noncustodial) parent will be impossible.
Parents will not be able to view each other’s CSS Profile™ information because they will have created separate log-in accounts. Boston University will not disclose, electronically or otherwise, the income and asset information of a divorced/separated parent to the other parent. When a divorced or separated parent contacts us on a student’s behalf, we ask for clarification regarding their status as either the custodial or noncustodial parent so we can ensure the confidentiality of each party’s personal information.

Questions

The College Board provides more information for students with parents who do not share the same household.