We are just trying to prepare you for how schools will view your situation. You are very lucky that you’ll probably be MF and will have a lot of options for full tuition/full ride schools without your parents’ financials playing a part. Those will probably not be at the LACs as many of those give generous need based aid but not full merit aid. Same with the Ivies.
You are just learning all the terms and where you stand. Six years ago I thought the same things you do, that if the high school determined you are homeless, that you took no money from your parents, that you were financially independent, the colleges would all look at your applications that way too. File taxes as an independent person and the schools would look at you that way too. Then I started going through all the FAFSAs and scholarship applications for my kids and learned the college world had changed and it is VERY difficult for a student under age 24 to be independent for financial aid purposes. From what you have posted, it is unlikely you’d be granted emancipated status because you don’t support yourself and your parents would fight it. It is an extremely hard status to prove unless you have a source of income (child actor, musician, graduated from high school at 10 and can work full time to support yourself). For financial aid purposes, it doesn’t work for your parents to just grant guardianship to the people you live with either. It has to be a court appointed guardianship, not just an agreement between private parties.
You seem to have negotiated a truce that works for you and your parents, and that’s worth a lot to your mental health but unfortunately the colleges don’t accept it as a reason not to have your parents complete the financial aid applications and pay their portion of your college. Many students are in your position and find concentrating on merit aid to be the better path. You wouldn’t have to rely on your parents to fill out the forms or pay the bill, and you are more independent…
Do not underestimate the support you do have in your area or can get from your grandparents. Grinnell, Kenyon, Oberlin are very rural, hard to get to, hard to get out of for holidays and breaks. And travel is expensive.
And the FAFSA?
Do you plan to apply for a FSA ID so that you can, yourself, sign the forms? You do understand that is fraud. Your parents need to apply for their own FSA ID. You can’t sign for them…without them knowing.
If you will be living with your parents, I can’t see how the “homeless”designation applies to you. It seems that when it’s convenient, you live with them. Truly homeless folks don’t have that option.
If you really aren’t homeless, you will need to complete a FAFSA form as well as the Profile for need based aid.
Be honest. If you are not, you WILL be found out.
In your situation, merit aid is the way to go. This gets your parents pout of your college financial loop. But you will need to find and get accepted to a school with a full ride. If you actually get NMF status, this might be possible.
If you reported abuse to any counselor or teacher and they did not do a report, that is a HUGE issue as all of these folks are mandatory reporters in every state.
And lastly…my opinion…if you have really been the subject of abuse to the level of CPS being called, and you moving out…I can’t think of ANY reason why you would move back in with your parents. Mention this to the mental health professional you are seeing now.
@Publisher I interpreted this as she IS moving back in with the parents in an apartment in Baltimore…but had been living in Silver Springs otherwise.
Perhaps OP can clarify.
Oberlin isn’t “very rural” and hard to get to. It is in the Cleveland metro area, 10 miles from interstate 80 and 32 minutes from an international airport.
Based on the way Op has explained hi/her situation, s/he is not a unaccompanied minor. It seems like more of an arrangement where Op is living with extended family/friends. The parents know where she is and have not problem with her being there. They have not reported her as a runaway or reported the family to the police. While she may have began a case with child protective services, it seems that they found no evidence of child being in danger, the need to remove child from the home or continue working with the family.
The relationship with her parents have not been irreparably broken because she is still on their health insurance and plans on living back with them over the summer. She will not be an independent student on the FAFSA or the profile and will have to supply her parents financial information.
As I stated earlier, being independent for federal aid, does not automatically make you independent for institutional aid. Many schools have policies in place where you will not be independent for institutional aid until you are 24-26 years old. Op’s best bet is to also look up each school’s policy for what constitutes an independent student.
@IsaboeOfLumatere hugs Regardless of your status as homeless, I want to say that you weren’t overreacting. People can be and are insensitive on the internet, but particularly on this board. But judging from the information you gave, and based off your stats, I would try for the need blind + full need schools because you have a shot and it would make it much cheaper, unless by “apartment at xxx” you mean your parents own a house and an apartment somewhere which would be bad for financial aid. Best wishes
@traindude1 , we have no idea how much her parent earn or have in assets. The OP thinks she will not have to disclose their income or that she can do it using their tax return information (which she has).
We were just warning that if schools do not see her independence as she does (or if she uses their information) it might be difficult for her to get that need based aid. There are lots of kids in the situation that their parents can’t/won’t pay for college. The advice is usually to search for merit aid. The OP has great stats and can qualify for merit aid at a lot of schools.
OP, given what all of the very experienced posters have pointed out, you will be unlikely to get need based aid because of you status living apart from your parents. I’m not sure if anyone has pointed this out, but even if they are willing to do the paperwork to apply for financial aid, the fact that they own a second home/apartment will be factored into their ability to pay. Plus, if there is the emotional drama going on, they may very well refuse to complete the forms every year for each of your 4 years in college and then you’d be stuck.
I know from your perspective it stinks, but as a matter of public policy and basic fairness expensive private colleges should not be giving aid to students whose parents can pay but just don’t want to.
I commend you for your maturity in dealing with the situation and doing a lot of research on schools. I would strongly urge you to focus on merit scholarships and not need-based aid. It may mean looking below the Grinnells and Swarthmores of the LAC world to get to schools where your excellent stats would truly set you apart. As you will likely find out, the best merit scholarships are given to freshmen, so they won’t be available later should you start out at one school with your parents’ help and they withdraw it, leaving you with no way to pay for the rest of your education.
Those of us who have been on CC for years have seen posters come on in April, devastated because their parents either cannot or refuse to pay for schools to which they’ve been admitted. You are very smart to be thinking all of this through right now.