It is really irrelevant if they can afford it or not. They have no obligation to pay for your college. The relevant factor is whether one of them WILL.

"I do not know the truth is regarding their finances" - why? I mean, seriously. " claims due to court rulings he pays a lot of money to the other parent " - have him sent a copy of the court ruling and there you go. It may well be - my mother pulled that stunt, getting hugh payments from my father but not using them on me. Well, happens that court documents can be COPIED and then you KNOW. And payments according to court ruling also leave traces (i.e. can be prooven).

I don't know how this works in the US but at least in Germany you would be eligible to receive the money from child support directly once you turn 18 and do not live at home. In this case both parents would need to pay you based on their income.

@JohnFx I thought parents actually do have obligation to support their kids, especially if they are getting any tax discount on them.

Where are you in your college career? Are you starting this fall? Are you an only child?

College age is around the time where the view of children as dependants starts to fade and they are instead seen as independent adults. That can be a bit of knife edge in some cases. Although these people are your parents, it is your college education and you will need to pay for it somehow (with a gift from your parents or through other fiance options).

@AaronF In germany child support is paid until the "child" either turns 26, or has finished their education, whichever comes first.

@AaronF And they want to avoid the absurd situation that kids of poor children can go to university, kids of generous rich parents can, and kids of tight-ass rich parents can’t.

In USA, there is no law that forces a person to go to college nor any forcing a person to go to college.

@Aaron F: in many countries a child stays a child in this regard even after 18 if they are enrolled in full-time education. There are different rules of how and when this ends but basically, for the usual and base case, through college education.

@JohnFx "They have no obligation to pay for your college" This is not true. If the parents were still married then it would be. But since they are divorced, divorce laws and rulings passed down by courts have effectively made it a requirement for divorced parents (or any parent under a support agreement) to pay for their child's college education in situations where that would be an expectation (i.e. the parents have the means and the child has a satisfactory academic record). This may not be true of every state, but it is at least for some.

@JohnFx Having parents who can afford to pay your tuition but will not pay is worse than having parents who cannot afford your tuition for the purposes of financial aid.

To extend my previous comment, the term for this obligation is called "Post Minority Support". So, at this point, one of your options would be to find a lawyer to determine whether this is applicable in your state, and if so, you could sue your parents for Post Minority Support.

Possible duplicate of How will I pay for college?

How old are you? What's the custody arrangement? Who claims you as a dependent on their taxes?

See thisweb page from the US Department of Education. Assuming that your mother is your custodial parent, your fathers income won’t count against you in calculating your financial aid studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa/filling-out/parent-info.

Here's an honest question I thought about: When you leave home, is P$ obligated to keep paying PB or can that monthly check be "redirected" since that money is SUPPOSED to be for "the kid"?

I'm abstaining from a duplicate close vote because I have the gold badge mod privilege. I'm inclined to think this is a duplicate, but I'm willing to listen to counter-arguments before I shut down a HNQ.

This is not a duplicate of How will I pay for college? because the asker is in the more difficult situation where a parent may have the means to pay but is not willing. To a financial aid office, it looks like the asker has money, whereas in the proposed duplicate, the asker does not look like they have money. In this case, the asker is less likely to receive aid.

There are a lot of comments here, some of which are really answers. If you have an answer, please post it as one!

Thank you @mattm, this is exactly it.

Is this true in MD? @GlenYates

Maryland

I do not know about Maryland, this is why you would need to ask an attorney in your state.