<p>Does anyone have any experience with filing FAFSA as an independent?</p>
<p>If so, would you mind describing your situation? Were you legally emancipated before the ago of 18? Did FAFSA make an exception for an extenuating circumstance in order to allow you to declare independently? What was your aid package like? Were you required to take on a work/study program or extensive loans? Grants?</p>
<p>Any all and knowledge on this subject would be very helpful, so please feel free to add even minor contributions to the thread.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Okay, short version:</p>
<p>I was made a ward of the court at the age of sixteen and went into Foster Care where I remained until shortly after my eighteenth birthday. </p>
<p>My financial aid packages have always reflected the fact that only my income is taken into consideration (and then after I married, my spouses as well) and I have never NOT had an EFC of 0. </p>
<p>That doesn’t mean of course, that I haven’t had fantastic aid packages for Community Colleges. All that the EFC of 0 means is that I am eligible for the maximum amount of Pell Grant. Depending on when exactly I filed for financial aid, I have either gotten very close to my entire COA taken care of with Pell/FWS/small school scholarships or just Pell with having to take out loans (this year)</p>
<p>It varies of course…I’m waiting to see what the Financial Aid Packages from the schools that I’m applying to will look like. I know that one school pledges to meet 100% of demonstrated need, but I assume that means having loans as part of the equation. The other one is a mystery…but tuition should be covered by Pell, leaving me to find out how much in grant aid I’ll be offered to cover other expenses (books, fees, transportation, ecetra…)</p>
<p>I filed as an independent due to being over 24. I had been holding down a job with a low-ish salary, so I did have a EFC the first year, but it wasn’t high. At any rate, it was a community college so the tuition was nice and low. I had to quit my full-time job to go to school, after which I got by with part time jobs. So my income dropped, so my EFC was $0 after that.</p>
<p>I got the best FA the year I turned in my FAFSA as soon as possible. (I guess on my tax info, then sent in a correction after my W-2s, etc, arrived.) It was the only year I got Work Study, though I had asked for it on previous FAFSAs. I did get a state grant (need based) and the PELL grant (but not the first year). I wasn’t required to take a lot of loans but, as I said, this was a community college, so the tuition was very low, plus I was working part time which covered a lot of my living expenses. I imagine if I’d needed more money, like if I hadn’t had a job to help make ends meet, I would’ve had to take out more loans to make up the difference. I’m applying to four-year colleges for next fall, so I’m be interested (and a bit apprehensive!) to see what kind of financial aid packages are offered.</p>