Being independent for federal aid on the fafsa will not automatically make you independent for institutional aid.
You will have to ask each school about their process.
You are still involved with your parents which will make it much harder. Are you seeing your therapist using their health insurance? Do they know where you are living? Also remember you must apply for aid every year.
Your parents refusing to pay especially because you don’t live in their home will not net you any aid. Your best bet would be to include some schools where you can get full merit (this way your parents are no way involved in the process).
You have wonderful potential to get a full merit award as listed above. This would get you completely out of the parent loop in terms of college financing if you get a full ride.
While a lot of the elite LACs meet full need, many require the Profile…and there is a possibility that you would need to provide parent info.
It sounds like you are over 18 now…or close to it…so the whole guardianship thing really is a moot point.
It seems that under federal law he or she would be considered an unaccompanied minor which provides the status regardless of contact. This is different than a parent who refuses to pay. His local school can deem this as a neutral third party. I knew a student who had turned 18 in high school who was thrown out and was deemed independent for financial aid while they couch surfed. The social worker at the hs made this determination. Only thing they could do was suggest a homeless shelter as I sat in the meeting to my horror.
Thank you so much everyone for the suggestions (especially @kalons for that extremely detailed list)! I seriously appreciate it. @DiotimaDM Bama was already on my list, but I’ll be sure to add the rest. And I’m female, so I can do women’s colleges.
@mom2collegekids CPS got involved, but they said the physical abuse wasn’t serious enough. For emotional abuse, they needed two medical professionals to certify that my parents had irreparably abused me, but since I had seen some therapists who chose not to report what happened to CPS, emotional abuse couldn’t be proven. (I think only 2 of my 6 therapists over the past 3 years ever reported anything to CPS.) The social worker was also charmed by my parents, who can be very charismatic when they need to be.
@sybbie719 I know that being independent on the FAFSA is often different than being independent for each institution’s financial aid considerations, which is why I’m trying to figure out which LACs have more generous financial aid policies that I might be considered independent under. I see my therapist under my own insurance plan, although it comes from my mom’s employer. They know where I’m living, and I’ll actually be moving back in with them for a few weeks in August, but other than that, I rarely see them.
@thumper1 I have my parents’ latest tax return, so I can fill out all my parents’ financial info for the Profile. It’s just that if any college takes their finances into account when calculating my financial aid package, I won’t be able to pay the tuition they ask of me. I also won’t be over 18 by the time I apply to college (turning 17 in November).
@scubadive I actually am not an unacompannied minor because it’s practically impossible to go through that whole process in Maryland. Your parents have to be willing to give up their guardianship, and mine absolutely will not.
It doesn’t sound like your situation will easily lead to being able to simply check off the homeless box to be considered independent. You will need to provide proof of your situation even if you check that box, and you will most likely need to receive a dependency override from each school you are considering. That will require some paperwork and letters from professionals, depending on the school’s requirements. Get started on the process early in the admissions season.
@kelsmom yep, I plan on emailing financial aid offices soon. I just wanted to get a sense of which LACs were more generous with financial aid so that I’ll only be slightly swamped with emails instead of completely swamped.
Since your mother’s employer continues to pay for your medical needs and you will be moving back in with your parents in August for several weeks, I doubt you have grounds for a dependency override. You also mention that you have access to your parents’ tax returns but you will need their permission to submit it and CSS Profile schools will take their finances into account when calculating FA.
OP wrote: “and I’ll actually be moving back in with them for a few weeks in August” --may defeat your whole case as presented in this thread.
I’m only moving back with them for August 1st - 25th because I got into an amazing production up at Baltimore Theater Project, but they rehearse every day in August, and my parents happen to have an apartment in Baltimore. I usually live in Silver Spring, which is around the DC area. I’m not going to turn down the production just to make my case for a dependency override easier, but how much does it hurt my case? And does it make the case impossible altogether? I’m perfectly content with my LAC-free college list as it is, if getting appropriate financial aid from a LAC would be that hard.
OP, I don’t know that you can legally fill out FAFSA for your parents, even with their info in hand. Plus, you would need the new info every year. (I’m not going to ask how you got their tax return, but I’m guessing they may not have just handed it over… your posts do raise some concerns for me).
I think you are going to struggle to get and keep need based aid for 4 years. I’d focus on the automatic NMF schools.
OP: If I understand correctly, you will not be living with your parents in August, but will be living in an apartment that they maintain in a different city than their primary residence.
If accurate, then it doesn’t destroy your credibility with respect to claims of physical & emotional abuse as would voluntarily moving back in to the same home occupied by your parents.
Regardless, the safest path for you is to consider accepting a NMF full ride or full tuition & fees scholarship–as suggested above by @intparent.
@intparent they actually did just hand it over. They’ve always made me fill out forms for them, including financial aid calculators, so they just handed me their tax returns and let me do everything. And I technically don’t need to fill out their info on the FAFSA, since I can prove that my school classified me as homeless and that’s all the FAFSA needs. The Profile is a different issue, but I’m still going to fill out their info for them because if I didn’t, it would never get done.
But anyway, after everyone’s replies, I agree that it would be hard to get LACs to give me the financial aid I need, and I’ll stick with my current college list. Thanks again to everyone!
There is more to it than taxes - bank account balances, investments, real estate owned (including a second apartment in Baltimore), and all other assets. And you can’t sign for them, either the FAFSA or CSS (that would be fraud). You are looking for LACs that cover 100% and most of those require the CSS/Profile.
You haven’t convinced the parents here that you are homeless or independent of your parents. You are still dependent on them for insurance and housing when you want to be. You have not severed all ties to them, and you haven’t convinced a number of social workers or counselors that no contact with them is necessary. When you need them (to avoid missing out on an opportunity to be in a play) you take their help and support. Somehow you have their tax paperwork. If you were truly independent and homeless, you wouldn’t have access to their tax returns and wouldn’t use your mother’s insurance. The only way you can use insurance from an employer of hers is if you are on her family (group) plan.
You can attempt to file as independent but as soon as you provide information about their financials, the schools will deem you dependent and require the financial support of your family for college expenses. Either cut all ties, including insurance and using their apartment, become emancipated through the courts where you’ll have to show you support yourself through a job, or accept that your aren’t independent. You can’t have it both ways.
Check out Hendrix College. It’s not a meets full need LAC, but it has four competitive full ride scholarships per year. Here is the link:
https://www.hendrix.edu/admission/scholarship/hays.aspx
Washington & Lee is a meets full need LAC that also offers competitive full ride scholarships:
https://www.wlu.edu/johnson-program/the-johnson-scholarship
Agree with @twoinanddone that accepting housing from your parents when you deem it advantageous to your interests and coverage under their health insurance policy,destroys your credibility with respect to claims of being homeless & not a dependent of your parents.
@twoinanddone I’m not sure what you would have me do. If I completely cut them off, my parents would be incredibly hurt, and I would never be able to build the loving relationship I eventually want to have with them. When I attempted to bring up emancipation, they told me I was making them depressed. Thus, I attempt to connect with them as much as I can, which causes me more depression and anxiety than you can know. Also, for future reference, I would recommend that you rephrase any future comments you make because even if you can’t understand why, this is an incredibly sensitive topic for me, and the way you phrased what you said hurt me a lot.
OP: Don’t assume that everyone will view situations the same as you do. An old saying: There are three sides to every story–yours, mine & the truth.
@Publisher I’m accepting housing from them because I want to be loved by someone for once in my life. And if that invalidates my claim that I was abused for you or some colleges, well, I don’t really care. It’s my life, and I’ll live it how I want to. Also, I’m not asking you to see this whole situation like I do. I’m just asking you guys to respect the fact that the way you said what you said has hurt me a lot, and I’d appreciate if you could refrain from saying things like you have been.
OP- big hug to you.
I don’t think anyone here is trying to be hurtful.
We are trying to be helpful- and by explaining that the protocol for emancipating, being declared independent, etc. has both rules AND sometimes offers a little bit of leeway on the part of a financial aid officer. Nobody here can help you with your situation with your parents, depression, social workers, etc-- that’s your real life, and you will handle that as best you can.
But there are some very experienced posters here who understand how to manage the REST of the stuff- dealing with the College Board for fee waivers, dealing with admissions for fee waivers, financial aid in order to have your situation looked at as favorably as possible. But if you react to every suggestion as though someone is out to get you- you will miss the advice which-- in some cases- could prove to be very valuable, both academically and financially.
Big hug- I’m sure your situation is quite painful and you are dealing with it as best you can. But you might want to listen to some of the advice given here with an open mind. You may not qualify for the technical definition of “homeless” as it is defined by a college admissions officer, and you may not qualify for the technical definition of “independent” as it is defined by a financial aid officer. But folks here can guide you towards getting a college education you can afford… or guide you towards how to qualify for benefits you may not know about.
Sorry, I was just overreacting. I’ve been in a weird emotional state today, and I interpreted some of what was said by Publisher and twoinanddone as “you’re just being a selfish brat,” and I’ve gotten that too many times from my parents as it is. I truly appreciate you all putting in the time to reply to me and giving me all these helpful suggestions.