<p>I went independent in the early 1980s. </p>
<p>Requirements:
-- file taxes as individual/parents can't claim you
-- do not live at home more than six weeks of the year
-- do not receive more than $750 support (including room, board, food, etc.) from parent per year</p>
<p>It was possible to do this at a state flagship while working 20 hours a week at a minimum wage job, along with Pell (my family's EFC was $0, and believe me, that MEANT zero) and small GSL (now Stafford) loans. I gained independent status the fall of my junior year. I got full Pell, a $450 NDSL (low-interest federal need-based loans), and some Stafford. I wouldn't recommend it, as it was a hard and lonely road -- working students were not part of the lexicon at that school, either among the students or the profs.</p>