Families come in many different configurations. When you're filling out your financial aid application, you may be confused about how to submit your information if your parents aren't in the same household. Since we are evaluating your parents' ability to pay, we need to have information about each parent in order to determine your financial need.

Harvard College has a basic expectation that each biological or adoptive parent is a participant in the financial aid process and that parents contribute to the extent that we determine that they are financially able. Your parents have an obligation to help finance your college education and we base our financial aid decisions on ability, and not willingness, to pay.

We know, however, that every family is different, and there are situations where it may not be appropriate for a parent to participate in the financial aid process. In these cases, students should detail their circumstances by submitting a Parent Waiver Request. 

A parent’s unwillingness to provide financial support to their child, or unwillingness to pay for college, would not be a basis upon which we can waive a parent’s participation in the financial aid process. To be fair to all our students, we can base our financial aid decisions only on ability and not willingness to pay.

If you need to request that your parent(s) be waived from participation in the financial aid process, you need to include a Parent Waiver Request as part of your financial aid application.

1. Fill out the Parent Information Sheet.
2. Gather a letter from a third party and any other appropriate documentation.
3. Upload your Parent Information Sheet and supporting documentation to IDOC along with your other application materials. (You can't submit anything through IDOC until you first submit your CSS Profile, so start there). 

At Harvard, we do not review your financial aid application until a positive admissions decision has been made, and so we cannot make a judgment call on your request until that point. This means that your parent’s information will continue to show up as missing on IDOC, even if you have submitted a Parent Waiver Request. 

If you are admitted to Harvard and we find we cannot grant your waiver, or we need additional information from you, we will be in touch with you directly at that time. Rest assured that our financial aid deadlines are flexible on this point, and needing to answer questions later will not affect your eligibility for financial aid.