<p>I'm 20 yrs. old and living on my own and no contact or anything with my parents. I'm currently going to a community college and plan on transferring in about one year. I tried applying for financial aid, but they told me I needed my parent's info or I would have to be 24 or older to apply independently. Any ideas on ways I could get financial aid?</p>
<p>If you truly are estranged from your parents and can document it, you may be able to get treated as an independent student. This would be done on a case-by-case basis at any college you applied to, and colleges would have the discretion to make their own determination. You definitely will need to document and explain the situation.</p>
<p>What you need is called a "dependency override".</p>
<p>The information at this web site should help you:
<a href="http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/dependencyoverrides.phtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/dependencyoverrides.phtml</a></p>
<p>you're old</p>
<p>Thank you for the response and I went ahead and read that page. It says that if I had no contact with my parents for atleast one year, it can be claimed as Abandonment and thus would be considered an independent. However, it doesn't state any where how I would prove it. So, i'm not quite sure what documents I would need to show abandonment.</p>
<p>Start with a written letter explaining the circumstances, including some details as to why there has been no contact. (Did your parents cut you off? or are you just angry with them? Did they move away? etc.)</p>
<p>For example, if your parents kicked you out when you turned 18 because they disapproved of your lifestyle or sexual orientation or simply because they are jerks, you could state that.</p>
<p>The degree of evidence that the colleges might want after that would vary. You can't prove that your parents have never called or written, but you can document from your checkbook, receipts, & employment records that you have been supporting yourself and living on your own. Banking records will show deposits -- and that can be compared with your employment records to show that your sole source of income has been employment. </p>
<p>Again, this is a case-by-case issue. You might have friends or other adults in your life who can back you up -- people who are close to you and could write something like "BarleyMob told me in 2005 that his parents had kicked him out of their home and refused to talk to him or accept his phone calls. I remember because he was so upset at that time, and I tried to help him out by lending him a small amount of money to help him find a place to live on his own." </p>
<p>But you don't need to gather up all the evidence to start -- a letter will do. Just be thinking about what else you might have available if a particular college asks for more documentation or support of your statements.</p>
<p>You will also need to check with each college. The criteria for being emancipated from your parents is very stringent, but does vary from place to place. In most cases you must have NO (that means NONE) contact with your family. They can provide you with no income, gifts, visits, or anything else. If you have contact with your family, but you are living on your own and are self supporting, that will not qualify you as an independent student in most places. However, it may in some. And as noted above, you would need to be able to verify that all of your living expenses were being covered by your income and no one elses.</p>