Parental Confusion (Help Please!!)

[shamon1289]

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania

I am curious as to what the legal status of the situatio I'm in is. I hope people respond to this. For background, please read the following:

I'm seventeen years old. My mother had me by herself with a man who she was not married to. Though she's convinced she is sure that a certain person is my father, he has never taken any responsibility for me and my mother raised me by herself. My mother married someone else when I was about five years old, but he never legally adopted me. My legal last name is still my mother's maiden name, even though the rest of my "family" has the last name of my "father", whom my mother has married and has given birth to two more children with. I call him my father, but he is not my real father, though he does support me financially as I live with him and my mother. He collects social security checks from this situation. He states that he did not adopt me because he thought I would be able to get financial aid for college if he wasn't my legal guardian. My question is: is he my legal guardian? What is the legal status of this situation? I am applying to colleges now, and I have been told that I wont receive financial aid because he does support me and has a fairly large income. I am also confused as to what he is considered. A legal guardian? Father? Who is my legal "father"? Also, I moved to Pennsylvania from New York a few years ago and while I was there my last name "was" the same as his. This is in quatations because it was still legally my mother's maiden name, but my last name was considered his everywhere except legally. But when I moved to Pennsylvania, my high school said that since my social security card showed my last name as my mother's maiden name, that had to be considered my last name. Since then I have went by that, my legal last name.

It's a very long explanation and I'm sorry, but I really want to know the facts, the legal status behind the situation that I'm in. My parents are of little or no help.