<p>I am a single mother of three children. My son attended a Community College for two years which I paid for. He is now ready to go to a University and I am unable to help him. My questions are:</p>
<p>Will he be able to get better financial aid if he moves out of my home?
How many months does he have to show residence somewhere else to be able to qualify?
He will have to get an apartment by campus since it is several hours away.
We live in MD and he will attend a MD university.
I applied for FASFA last year and I make to much money for him to qualify for any financial aid.
He is working part time and will continue to work part time while away at college.
Someone told him that he could still live in my home and apply for financial aid while in college if I don't claim him as a dependant?</p>
<p>Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>How to determine if your son will be considered independent for FAFSA.
[Will</a> I need my parents information?](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1213/help/fftoc02k.htm]Will”>http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1213/help/fftoc02k.htm)</p>
<p>If your son is under age 24, then moving out won’t change anything.</p>
<p>Is there a university that he can commute to from home? can he work over the summer?</p>
<p>It would seem to me that “moving out and paying for an apartment” somewhere is far more costly than paying instate tuition and commuting to a state school.</p>
<p>How would he pay for such an apartment, cell phone, food, car, gas, utilities, etc, etc?</p>
<p>Someone told him that he could still live in my home and apply for financial aid while in college if I don’t claim him as a dependant?</p>
<p>Ha! No. If that were true, every parent would do that. The loss of a tax deduction and getting aid instead would be a windfall if that were true. The person that told you that should apply some common sense to his advice.</p>
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<p>His place of residence really will have little impact on his financial aid application. PLUS he will have to PAY for an additional residence…money he probably should use for college costs.</p>
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<p>Are you talking about independent status or instate tuition status? Regardless…as long as he is an undergrad under 24 years of age, it is very likely that YOUR information will still be required and his state of residency for tuition purposes would be yours.</p>
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<p>College students who do not live within commuting distance of home ALL have to find lodging in their college location. This is NOT something that will garner more need based aid for him…while he won’t be a computer (with the cost of attendance of a commuter) he WILL have housing/board costs.</p>
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<p>You submitted the FAFSA…the FAFSA doesn’t give you anything. The colleges do. What will your income be for the year prior to requesting aid? That is the amount that will be used to HELP determine your son’s need based aid. BUT beware that MOST COLLEGES do not meet full need.</p>
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<p>Many college students do this to help with college costs.</p>
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<p>How you claim your son on your taxes has NO BEARING on financial aid applications. YOUR (the parent) information will be REQUIRED unless he is over age 24, a veteran, married, has a dependent child he supports, is an orphan or ward of the state, or has a bachelors degree already.</p>
<p>Your son should go and discuss his transfer to a four year school with an advisor at the Community College. Some community colleges have articulation agreements with four year schools whereby your credits are accepted AND you are accepted for admission with satisfactory completion of your community college courses. At SOME four year schools,there are specific scholarships for students who are transfers from Community Colleges. </p>
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<p>Has anything changed?</p>
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Even if you make quite a bit of money your son will be eligible for a Stafford loan which qualifies as financial aid. Being low income only adds on some small grants like Pell (worth ~$5.5K). There is no magic money tree supplying funds to poor students.</p>