Am I considered "independent" or "dependent?" + "need-blind"

Paying for College
1

<p>Is being married enough to be considered an independent student? I'm 23, married, and a community college student trying to transfer to USC. They require the CSS Profile & FAFSA for financial aid (which I intend to apply for). On their application they state that I need to send them my parents tax returns. Is this true for independent students as well? I don't live with my parents since I'm married. Is my joint tax return, and not my parents', enough for the financial aid office? Also, I used some kind of financial aid calculator that determined my EFC (family contribution). Because I'm married and don't earn too much money, my contribution was VERY low. Will this hurt my chances at admission (since I won't be paying too much tuition), or are schools (specifically USC) truly need-blind and not take this into account. Thanks in advance for the help. </p>

<p>P.S. How does admissions look at marital status. Does it help, hurt, or do they not really care.</p>

2

<p>For the most accurate answers to your dependency and admisisons questions contact USC's financial aid office, not a board of anonymous strangers.</p>

<p>I doubt that universities care about students' marital status.</p>

3

<p>Married = independant, if you took a look at the fafsa, it's one of the first questions</p>

4

<p>If you are married, you are considered an independent student. This means you do not have to report your parents' income(s). However, I believe you DO need to report your spouses income.</p>

5

<p>Correct-- being married generally makes you independent, so parents' finances aren't usually considered. But some private schools have more stringent requirements-- some consider married but still under 22 to be dependent unless both parents are dead. These schools will require the student to complete the parent's information sections on the FAFSA and Profile. The info you get from USC will let you know if married applicants have to submit parents' info as well.</p>

<p>Marital status shouldn't have any impact on admission, as far as I know.</p>

6

<p>The FAFSA form is very clear...if you are married you do NOT need to include the parent information.</p>

7

<p>Yeah-- but individual schools, like USC, have requirements that go beyond the basic FAFSA requirements.</p>

<p>For example:</p>

<p>"The USC Financial Aid Office requests that all students provide parents' income and asset information on the FAFSA and submit copies of the parents' IRS 1040s to be considered for all available funds. Independent students are REQUIRED to submit the parents' information to be considered for the Scholarship for Disadvantaged Students, Loan for Disadvantaged Students and the Health Professions Student Loan."</p>

<p><a href="http://www.usc.edu/schools/pharmacy/pharmd/fa/need.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usc.edu/schools/pharmacy/pharmd/fa/need.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

8

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<p>It looks like the USC requires this parent information ONLY for the listed loans and scholarships....not for all finaid.</p>

9

<p>Right-- and it requests it for all applicants.</p>