What Do I Need To Start My Application?

If you live in a household with two parents - biological, adoptive, custodial and stepparent, and/or legal guardians - regardless of their marital status and regardless of whether they live separately due to military, work, or other obligations, this will be your family and household unit to determine eligibility for Princeton financial aid.

• If your custodial parent is married to a stepparent, submitting both of their information satisfies the requirement for two parents’ information and non-custodial parent information is not required.
• Legal guardianship must be court-appointed, and you may be required to submit supporting documentation.

• If your parents are divorced, separated, or were never married to each other and live in separate households, Princeton still requires information for two parents.
  • The parent with whom you live the majority of the time (in the past twelve months) is your custodial parent for Princeton's financial aid program.
  • Your custodial parent's information will be used on the PFAA. If your custodial parent is currently married, you must report custodial and stepparent information on the PFAA. Please see the "Two-Parent Household" section above for details.
  • Your second parent is your biological/adoptive noncustodial parent for Princeton's financial aid. Your noncustodial parent must submit the noncustodial parent's form. Stepparents no longer married to custodial parents are not considered second parents for financial aid purposes unless they adopted you.

  • Noncustodial forms and tax documents may be uploaded through the secure Financial Aid Document Upload site.

     

• If there are extenuating circumstances preventing you from providing non-custodial parent information, you may submit a non-custodial parent waiver request.
  • A parent’s unwillingness to pay or contribute to educational expenses is not grounds for a waiver. In addition, divorce decrees and custodial arrangements are not considered in the waiver review process.
  • The submission of a waiver request does not guarantee approval.

• If you have only one parent due to death of a second parent, single-parent adoption, or medical donation, and your custodial parent is not currently married, a second parent’s information is not required.
  • If single parent is a result of medical donation or single-parent adoption, you will need to upload supporting documents via the financial aid portal after submitting the application.

  • A birth certificate listing one parent is not sufficient supporting documentation.

     

• If your parent did not go through single-parent adoption or medical donation, or your second parent is not deceased, you will need to submit non-custodial parent information.
  • If there are extenuating circumstances preventing you from doing so, you may submit a non-custodial parent waiver request. Please review the “Parents who are Divorced, Separated, or Never Married” section above for information. 

While it is Princeton's policy to review two parents' financial information for the purposes of determining University financial aid eligibility, some students may qualify to be considered independent students for financial aid purposes. 

Please visit the Family and Household Status page to review the independent student criteria.

• The application includes questions on taxed and untaxed income for 2023.
• Have the applicable tax and income documents ready when completing the application
• Learn more about what documents you will need to submit

• Cash, savings, checking
• Stocks, bonds, money market funds, trusts, cryptocurrency, etc.
• College savings plans
• You will also need to have the current value of all qualified retirement and pension plans (401K, 403B, IRA, KEOGH, RRSP, etc.).
  • Please note qualified retirement plans are not included when calculating your family’s contribution and should not be reported in the investment field. 

Real estate values should be reported for all property wholly or partially owned by the parent(s) including vacation properties, rental real estate, land holdings, inherited properties, etc. regardless of whether they’re income generating.

• Full address of property
• Year of purchase
• Purchase price
• Current Market Value
• Debt on the property
• Percentage of ownership

Please note you will also need to provide the above information for your primary home (if owned) even though the primary residence is excluded when calculating your family’s contribution.

In this section, you’ll be reporting information for business(es) and/or farm(s) in which your parents have ownership or shares. This includes but is not limited to sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, LLCs, etc. regardless of parental percent ownership.
 

For each business and/or farm, you will need to report the following:

• The current market value of business/farm. Report the total market value even if your parents only own a portion of the business/farm. This should also include the value of any properties the business/farm owns.
• The current total debt of the business/farm. Report the total debt even if your parents only own a portion of the business/farm. This should also include the debt of any properties the business/farm owns.
• Percentage of ownership
• If the business/farm owns any real estate, property, land, etc. you will need to provide:
  • Full address of property
  • Year of purchase
  • Purchase price
  • Current market value of the property
  • Debt on the property

Costs paid for siblings who will be enrolled in undergraduate degree programs during the 2025-26 academic year are taken into consideration when determining your aid eligibility.

• Report the estimated cost of attendance (tuition, housing, food, etc.), as well as the estimated out-of-pocket costs for sibling college expenses in the 2024-25 AND 2025-26 academic years.
  • If costs are not finalized when completing the PFAA, use your best estimate. The Financial Aid Office will confirm these costs during the academic year.