<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I am a transfer student.</p>
<p>I am considering becoming financially independent of my parents solely for college aid purposes.
Will the colleges get angry?
Will I still be able to live with my parents and commute to college?
Will my parents be able to aid me in paying for college still?</p>
<p>I tried searching for this online, but was unsuccessful. I didn't know where else to ask.</p>
<p>You are an independent student if you can answer yes to any of the questions found here: [Independent</a> Students](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/help/fftoc03k.htm]Independent”>http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/help/fftoc03k.htm)</p>
<p>You can’t “claim independence” for FA purposes. It does not matter whether you are financially independent or not. To be considered independent on FAFSA you must be able to answer YES to at least one of the dependency questions (not one of which asks about financial independence). The main one is age - if you are turning 24 this year then you are automatically independent. The other ones are being a veteran, being married, both parents being dead, having a dependent of your own that you provide >50% support for etc. (not being claimed as a dependent on your parents does not make you independent for FA purposes.</p>
<p>If every student could just declare independence to get a lower EFC and to collect financial aid, then every student would. Many students have families that can’t afford to contribute money towards their college costs, but even they still can’t just claim independence. </p>
<p>You’re lucky that your parents can provide a place for you to live and perhaps contribute some towards your college costs. Some kids don’t even have that advantage.</p>
<p>On another thread, you mentioned that your dad recently lost his job. Is your concern is that your EFC will still be high? That can happen if your parents still had a decent income from wages, and possibly a severance package. Schools also don’t always consider a recent loss of job as “permenent.” Schools consider a recently lost job as a temporary situation. In the case of your dad, he’s probably actively looking for a job, right?</p>
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<p>You’ve gotten good answers from the folks who have responded. You can’t “just decide” to become an independent student because you need financial aid. Undergrad students are dependent students in the very vast majority of cases.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your responses. They do help.</p>
<p>I do not qualify as independent according to the link college_ruled posted.
As swimcatsmom pointed out, a lot of people would do this if they could… but they can’t :0</p>
<p>if me and wife combined make 90k a year and own home in n.y. but have no savings besides retirement plan thru state jobs do we have any chance of getting any f.a. at all ?thanks</p>
<p>It depends on the school you want to attend. I think 90K for a traditional student will have an EFC of around 30K. I’m not sure how that would change with a non-traditional student such as yourself. Have you tried to get an EFC estimate using the online calculators? If that is less than the COA for your school of interest you might get some FA.</p>
<p>^^^^^</p>
<p>I think MMP is asking about FA for his child. In another thread, he’s asking about schools for his child.</p>