<p>Hi,
My parents won't sign for my FAFSA. However, I'm trying to leave my home and go far away because I'm trying to leave the environment I'm in. Iget verbally abused, meaning my dad and mom always scream at me, curse at me, insult me, say really rude things to me, they don't even support me (in other words, they tell me how I'll never be a doctor in my life), and always scream at me. Also, My father frequently screams and curses at my mother, and I can't focus on schoolwork properly. I believe that this is also the reason why I can't make eye contact with people because I'm always nervous to talk to people because of how my family treated me.
Now my family said they won't sign for my FAFSA because they said I'm not allowed to go to the college of my choice. Is there any hope for me to be eligible for dependency override? I don't take this situation lightly, and it really hurts inside just by typing all this, so please don't give me any rude answers to mess with me. </p>
<p>Am I eligible for dependency override with this situation? I'll be 17 when I Apply for FAFSA and college.
If I am eligible, what are some examples of documents I have to provide?
Please help me guys!</p>
<p>If your home environment is truly abusive, you need to speak with a trusted adult such as your guidance counselor, and find out what your options are for getting out of that environment. If you can be made a ward of the court, you will be independent for FAFSA. However that process is not a simple one, and may permanently destroy your relationships with both parents. It is not to be undertaken lightly.</p>
<p>If you have very good grades and very good test scores and don’t care where you study provided it is far from your parents, check the threads at the top of this forum on merit-based aid. There could be a free ride out there for you. In which case your parents’ financial info will not be necessary at all.</p>
<p>At age 17, are you willing to have ACS, the police and the courts in your life (documentation needed to substantiate your dependency override)?</p>
<p>Now my family said they won’t sign for my FAFSA because they said I’m not allowed to go to the college of my choice</p>
<p>Even if you do get an over-ride, or if your parents will sign FAFSA, that doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to go to the college of your choice. Federal aid (from the FAFSA application) isn’t much money.</p>
<p>You may be thinking that aid that comes from the FAFSA app is a lot of money. No it’s not. If you’re very low income, then you might get a $5600 grant. You’d also get a 5500 student loan. So, you can see that the $11k in aid (if very low income) isn’t going to pay for “the college of your choice.”</p>
<p>Where do your parents want you to go to college? </p>
<p>Since it sounds like you’re a rising senior in high school, I don’t know if you have a lot of options. If you’re “taken away” from your parents for verbal abuse, then you’ll have to live elsewhere…foster home or something. </p>
<p>If you think that you’d get “independent status” for college, but get to live at home for this senior year, I don’t think that would happen because it would contradict your claims.</p>
<h1>*I’m hoping Canisius accepts me. I research their info everyday, call their admissions office everyday, I can’t stop thinking about it. My SAT scores meet their 25th percentile, I’m hoping I can get in. I made a college essay trying my hardest to convince them that I take school seriously now. Ihope they understand and accept me.</h1>
<p>my response on your other thread:</p>
<p>Your question may be moot. Canisius is expensive. How would you pay for it. Your stats will not get you much money nor will it get your a “preferential aid pkg”.
*</p>
<p>Ok…now I remember you.</p>
<p>You need to step back and look at this realistically. Cansius won’t give you a great aid pkg. And fed aid will be very little of the cost.</p>
<p>Your parents may have “done the math” and realized that there’s no way you’re going to afford that school. Why do you think that it would be affordable???</p>
<p>Also, in regards to whether or not you’ll ever become a doctor… First of all, you don’t need to be sharing your career goals with your parents…not now, maybe not ever. </p>
<p>That said, if your stats are at the 25% level for that school (about 1000 M+CR), then that means that your stats are quite modest. That would make anyone question your ability to become a doctor. I’m not saying that you won’t “buckle down” in college and emerge with fab scores, but the odds aren’t in your favor. </p>
<p>My son is starting med school in a week. I know what stats he and his med-school bound friends had when they left high school…they were all tippy top students at their schools…ACT 33+, SATs 2200+, Val and Sals of their classes. </p>
<p>Where can you AFFORD to go to school IF your parents fill out FAFSA? Where do THEY want you to go to school?</p>
<p>If you are being abused and are under age 18 or still in high school, this is something you should report to your counselor at school, who can get the proper authorities to discuss the matter with you. If what is happening constitutes true abuse, you may be removed from your parents and your home, and become a ward of the state. Others have brought this up as well. If the abuse does not fit the definitions of is in our legal system, then, until you are 18, you are still under your parents’ care. At age 18, you can make your own decisions as to whether or not to leave the situaion. If you have nowhere to go , and you have documentation of your situation, and are either at a homeless center or at high risk of having to go there, you may be able to gain independence from your parents for FAFSA purposes. </p>
<p>Some things for you to bear in mind are that being eligible for a lot of financial aid does not mean you are going to get it. Most schools gap, and when the costs are way up there, like at the private schools, they often gap big time. You can have a zero EFC and get NOTHING at all from the school. Just your state entitlements. I don’t know how TAP would work if you are a NY resident–Sybbie might be able to advise you on that, but you may just be entitle to federal money. What is guaranteed at max for an independent student through the federal government is about $5600 in PELL grants and $9500 in Direct student loans with up to $3500 of this interest subsidized. Anything else is up to the school, what they have and what they want to give to you, even if you have a zero EFC. </p>
<p>The maximums are still not going to meet full COA for, say SUNY Buffalo if you are living there, the cost being about $20K a year. </p>
<p>Frankly, when someone your age is going through this kind of turmoil, the time and trouble, the documentation and the organization it takes, to get away from parents, still graduate from high school with decent grades, get a job, become self sufficient; all of these things are more than enough that you probably should take a gap year to do this v-e-r-y carefully and correctly. College is not the main focus when you are being abused and need to go out on your own. Becoming independent is difficult even with parental help, so it’s going to be a big deal thing. NOt something to mix with the college process. Get it in hand first, and then look at college possibilities.</p>