<p>We disagree. I read #2 to say that you are an orphan (since you state you lived with your parents I’ll assume that is not the case), you are a ward of the court or you were a ward of the court until age 18.<br>
I’m not sure what you consider emancipation.<br>
For others interested in going this route: let’s be clear…it is very difficult. Not just answering yes to one of the above questions unless the answer to that question truly is yes.</p>
<p>I agree with ebeeeee. Everyone should be aware that Dr Horse seems to be posting untrue or illegal advice here and elsewhere. Just because you are doing these things (like not reporting Work Study income as earned income on your taxes) doesn’t make it right. Stating you are independent because you want to doesn’t make it true. Obviously you are not an orphan if you are living with your parents and if you have been legally deemed at ward of the state, then there should be a legal reason you wouldn’t be able to (or shouldn’t be living with your parents (like abuse).</p>
<p>thanks for the backup jerzgrlmom.</p>
<p>We disagree. Sorry but that is not even the list.</p>
<p>I used that one my first year and my last 3 years I said I contributed more than half of my income to my parents, which made me independent. My income is 0 and 0/2 is 0. It worked, ive even asked financial aid advisers and you have nothing to loose by trying it. Nothing to loose because its not a lie.</p>
<p>Dr. Horse, you and I do not share the same set of ethics and morals. Not sure why you think that isn’t the list because I got it from the FAFSA website. I think it’s tiime for the mods to step in here and take a look at your posting privileges.</p>
<p>well i just went back to my fafsa application and I saw a different set of questions to determine if one is independent.</p>
<p>Dr. Horse, you’d better hope SUNY Buffalo and the feds don’t find out you scammed them…the penalties for FA fraud are quite serious. Goodbye career in IT security! Please go play on another forum where you won’t get in trouble.</p>
<p>Dr. Horse…please post your list of questions if they are different. Here are the questions…copied RIGHT OFF OF THE FAFSA form.</p>
<ol>
<li>For this year…was the student born before January 1, 1986?</li>
<li>Is Student Married?</li>
<li>Is student Working on Masters or Doctorate?</li>
<li>Is Student on Active Duty in the Armed Forces?</li>
<li>Is Student a Veteran?</li>
<li>Does Student have children he/she supports?</li>
<li>Does Student have dependents other than children/spouse?</li>
<li>Parents Deceased?/Student Ward of Court/Foster Care?</li>
<li>Was student an emancipated minor?</li>
<li>Was student in legal guardianship?</li>
<li>Is Student an unaccompanied homeless youth as determined by highschool/homeless liaison?</li>
<li>Is Student unaccompanied Homeless youth as Determined by HUD?</li>
<li>Is student at risk of homelessness?</li>
</ol>
<p>Answer Yes to any of the above and you are considered an independent student. BUT you may be asked to PROVE that what you say is true.</p>
<p>thumper, this guy is a ■■■■■. He’s insisting on another thread that his school’s website says that federal work study income is non-taxable. There’s never anything to back up his claims, just a bunch of nonsense. (I am very familiar with UB"s website and it says no such thing.) He doesn’t belong on the FA forum where innocent kids could take his advice and end up in trouble for it.</p>
<p>Based on clarifications provided by the Department of Education, the following questions require the school to verify the student’s yes answer is legitimate:</p>
<ol>
<li>Parents Deceased?/Student Ward of Court/Foster Care?</li>
<li>Was student an emancipated minor?</li>
<li>Was student in legal guardianship?</li>
<li>Is Student an unaccompanied homeless youth as determined by highschool/homeless liaison?</li>
<li>Is Student unaccompanied Homeless youth as Determined by HUD?</li>
<li>Is student at risk of homelessness?</li>
</ol>
<p>If the student is unable to provide adequate documentation that their yes answer is legitimate, they can be turned in to the DOE and investigated for fraud. If they have committed fraud and can be fined up to $20,000 AND/OR be sentenced to time in prison.</p>
<p>And becoming emancipated is not as simple as just filing the paperwork. You have to document that you have just cause to separate yourself from your parents, and that you have sufficient funding to fully support yourself without any assistance from family, friends or the government.</p>
<p>Deliberately lying on the FAFSA just to qualify for additional aid is FRAUD and ILLEGAL. It can jepordize your entire college education (schools feel this type of behavior is a violation of the honor code and can expel you from school) and can jepordize your freedom as well. It isn’t worth it!!!</p>
<p>Thank you Nikki. My guess is that schools would also want verification that a student is REALLY married, has dependent children, etc. Of course, most of that would be on the income tax returns.</p>
<p>Im not really following, but I never went to Buffalo in fact I went to Fedonia. I do not plan on a career in IT security, as I am a graduate student in computational economics, at another university. I am not even in the suny system, nor have I ever studied at UB. Though I have many friends who went to UB and I hear a lot of stories. </p>
<p>I never broke a law, I was emancipated and qualified under #7 and #9 on the list above.</p>
<ol>
<li>Does Student have dependents other than children/spouse?</li>
<li>Was student an emancipated minor?</li>
</ol>
<p>I could answer yes to both of these when I started school, so I was a independent. My taxes showed and proved #7 and court papers proved #9. I was never asked to prove these, and they may have very well been proven behind the scenes. But I never commited a crime, and am appauled to be accused of such.</p>
<p>Now I have reconciled with my single father, and live with him over the summer. But he provides me nothing financially and I have to pay to live there. I pay half of everything, even the water bill. Since I am forced to give almost all of my workstudy income to help at home and pay for my living, I qualify as a independent. Now since I make only $1300 a year, and give it all away, I dont file income taxes as its not required of me, and thus when the fafsa asks me I give it the correct data. The amount is so low, I don’t even think it takes the $1300 into consideration. </p>
<p>Every year I speak to my schools financial aid advisor 2x a year, and they are the ones who set me up on this plan. I am pretty sure they understand the system, I only worked on there advice.</p>
<p>I appologize if I offended anybody, I was just speaking my experience and knowledge, which seems to be lacking compared to many of you fine folks. I shut up now, and let the experts speak.</p>
<p>Really? I’m sorry if I wrongfully accused you but I got my info from your posts. Specifically, in a 2008 post you said:</p>
<p>“Next June I will graduate with a CS Degree from Suny Buffalo. Not a great school i know, but ive gotten a pretty decent education.”</p>
<p>Btw, your parent was not your dependent for FAFSA or tax purposes unless they derived more than half of their support from you. That’s different than you giving half of your income, or all of it even, to them. I guess I’m just skeptical that anyone could survive in the US on $2600/year.</p>
<p>Dr Horse,</p>
<p>The problem is when you place generalized information out there that makes it appear one way, when the reality if something totally different. Emancipation as a claim to becoming independent is NEW to 09-10…it was not previously a reason, in and of itself, to allow a college to list someone as independent and it was not on prior FAFSA applications. Therefore, your posting is very misleading. You state you have used your emancipated status to gain independent status for FA purposes when that could not have been the case, as FAFSA did not ask that question on prior year FAFSA’s. Also, you state that you had dependents other than children or spouse…count yourself lucky that the school did not require proof of this claim, even though you may have been eligible to claim the person as a dependent on your tax return. Dependents on tax returns do not always qualify as a dependent for FA purposes, especially when ones only source of income is FWS of $1300 per year. I guarantee, your situation never would have gone unnoticed by my office and your independency would have been called into question.</p>
<p>Experience is acceptable to most posters on this message board, but only legitimate information. Omitting facts or details can be detrimental to others who only get a small part of the picture.</p>
<p>well I lied, im sorry. But I am not no criminal. I was embarrassed by the school i went to.</p>
<p>my FAFSA EFC was 18774. i think its because we have two houses (one we live and another we’re renting out. but both arent paid off yet)</p>
<p>also i think i did the work study figure wrong. my bad, its like 800. but either way i have a need of about 20k. sooo… is that because my EFC is bad? do u think i did FAFSA wrong? my aid package from dartmouth is very similar to dukes.</p>