Am I an independent student?

You’re right. I’m at a point where I can not afford to fail anymore classes and my GPA can not handle another F. It’s just that graduating in 4 years means so much to me and I want to make it happen. I guess I’ll take another attempt at 15 credits and take classes in the summer or winter again next year

You know, my daughter has a scholarship that is only good for 8 semesters. We may have to pay for an extra semester or a summer class, but that’s better than her not doing well on the classes she takes. Last fall she took 14 and it was a good number for her. This spring she was on a semester abroad program and they only take 12 credits. It’s fine.

How old are you?

How much did your mom earn in 2016? It is very possible she was not required to file a return if she earned less than a certain amount.

You have to meet certain criteria to be independent for FAFSA purposes…you can’t “just file as independent”.

Your tax filing status has no bearing on FAFSA completion at all.

You asked a similar question in May. The answer hasn’t changed. You don’t meet the criteria for filing as an independent.

I’m concerned that dorming at the NJ public you’re attending just isn’t affordable for your family. Your parents are low income and can’t pay. You’re on academic probation which means any federal or state grants you got last year may not be available next year, and you’re already down $7500 because two of the grants you did get were for only the first year.

You live 15 minutes from this college, so if you can’t scrape together the money for room and board, you may have to commute. Getting a job to pay for room and board when you’ve only passed half of the classes you’ve taken probably isn’t the best strategy for repairing your GPA.

@blossom 19

@thumper1 I honestly have no idea. Probably less than $5,000

@austinmshauri Commuting is not an option. The little space my family had for me is not taken by another family member. I literally have no where else to go. My academic probabtion has not affected my financial aid and I’m actually scheduled to be released off probabtion this semester. I only had to appeal for an additional $2,000 for the whole year. My aid awarded covered everything else. So I’m not worried about not having enough aid, I’m worried about not having all the info I need to complete FAFSA and actually receive aid. My posts in the past were based on different situations. At this moment I’m only looking for advise for my current situation.

The answer to your question is 100% no.

Find out how much your mom earned in 2016, then look at the filing requirements for 2016. If she wasn’t required to file, you can rest easy (although she should file, because she most likely would get a refund). If a person doesn’t have to file, they don’t have to file in order to get financial aid.

@kelsmom thank you for your response! My mom made around $5000 the whole year or less so I believe she’s exempt from filing. How would I go about filling out fafsa without a tax return then?

You fill out FAFSA the same, fill in her income (don’t guess), and then check the box ‘did not file’ for tax return (remember you are talking about 2016 taxes). Expect to be selected for verification, where you might be expected to provide a statement of non filer (you get this from the IRS).

For the tax question concerning your mom-You will check off will not file on the FASA

Then your mom has to get a non-filers statement. If she only made $5,000 you will probably have to go through a low income verification

Even if your mom wasn’t required to file…she should have w2 forms from her employers.

You will indicate “will not file” as your mom’s tax filing status. You will then enter the amount that your mom earned from her jobs anyway…and the amount of taxes withheld would, i believe, be the amount paid since she got no refund.

You will need to have her complete a non-filers statement. This is what she needs to complete and send to your college…because she did not file taxes. It is required for her.

You already asked this.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1991819-am-i-an-independent-student.html#latest

Do you have younger siblings living at home, if there is no room for you?

Your mom should go to a free volunteer tax preparation place (=VITA, search online where there is one nearby) with her W2s from 2016 (and soon 2017) and see if it would be beneficial for her to file a 2016 and 2017 tax return. She might qualify for child credit or EITC, or even AOTC (if your college tuition, fees and books wasn’t all covered by grants and scholarships, like if you took out student loans).

Did you get a 1098T from the college for 2016? She can bring that to help the volunteers determine if she can claim the AOTC education credit.

In your other thread you said your parents were “toxic” and you didn’t want to live with them. The point of the thread seemed to be that you needed more financial aid so you could stay on campus.

How are you making up the $7500 one time grants? If your mom turns in her forms and you get enough aid, great. But you won’t be declared independent, so don’t plan on extra money for that.

So I will be a junior in college next year (18-19). I used my mothers tax information for the past 2 years on fafsa because they both needed 2015’s info. Well 2016 was rough year for my mom. She barely worked. And when she did land a job she would only work for a few days or weeks. Because of this my mom figured she didn’t need to file her taxes. I keep telling her to do so because the 18-19 school year fafsa recently opened and I can’t complete it without her info. She isn’t listening to me and knowing her she will most likely not do because she’s extremely unreliable. Can I just file as independent? Neither of my parents contribute anything to my education anyway and I’ve been filing my own taxes since 16 years old. Any suggestions or advice?

If your mom files a late 2016 return she may get some earned income credit and partial American Opportunity Tax credit.

Your EFC will most likely be 0 if you file your FAFSA as a dependent, so you quite possibly are better off that way, anyway. Do what others have suggested, and make sure you enter the info correctly. If your mom isn’t going to file, have her order a non-filer statement; that way, you will be ready if asked for it. You may or may not be selected for verification, but it is best to be prepared.