Hi everyone,
I’m 18, I’ve grown up in an abusive household for the duration of my life, and am currently living in a homeless shelter due to fleeing the abuse from my mom. I’ve been in contact with my public high school’s homeless liasion since the beginning of my junior year, and my mother’s abuse and manipulation is very well-documented by multiple professionals. Due to the statute of FAFSA defining homelessness as someone being “homeless or at risk of becoming homeless on or after July 1, 2018”, I am ‘officially’ (for lack of a better term) homeless, and from the evaluation of my school’s homeless liasion and my shelter’s director, I’m classed as a homeless unaccompanied youth. With that clarified, I wanted to ask a question about applying for the Common App. In the questions section, there’s one in specific that asks if the applicant was ever orphaned, in foster care, or made a ward of the court. I know that FAFSA asks the same thing, with the addition of a student being homeless- but the Common App doesn’t, so what should I select for this option? I feel like it’s important to have some sort of designation to communicate to admissions about my housing/poverty status, but I also don’t want to select an incorrect/inaccurate answer choice.
I think that you can just put that you were homeless in the additional information section and you can have our recommenders detail that in their recommendations (if you’re comfortable with that).