I’m 35 years old. My college education began late. My issue right now is that the colleges I’m applying to want my parents financial information. My father is unknown. He’s not on my birth certificate. My mother isn’t willing to pay anything at this point in my life for school. I own my own house, although it isn’t worth much and is falling apart. If I can’t get my mother to fill out a CSS profile, I’m screwed? Is it normal to ask for this? All I can do is ask her to.
What schools? You’ve told them you are 35 years old, right?
Contact the school and ask, but schools can ask for what they like for thier own institutional money. It might just be a specific school’s reqs, you are going to have to call and ask.
agree with @Sybylla to call and ask. Duke had an incomplete item under my financial aid tab “Parent 2 Household”. I’m 26, clearly been independent for years and no other universities asked for this. Financial Aid office waived the requirement and had it checked off during the call.
edit: financial aid office, not admissions.
Call the financial aid office first thing Monday morning. It sounds like this is not correct…but you never know.
You say “colleges” plural…which makes me wonder if you might have mistyped your date of birth on the form, or otherwise indicated you were younger. So…go back and check each and every line of the demographics section to be sure.
Did you enter that you are a dependent student? Just check all the entries and make sure you have the age correct, the independent student box, and anything else that might trigger a request for parent info.
Check to see that you put your info in correctly. Sounds like they think you’re younger than you are.
I do recall that some “needs met” schools are asking for parent info up to about age 30.
Wanted to come back and provide additional info that may help you and other non-traditional students.
apologies, mixed up universities requesting info/requirements
University of Richmond - first to request parental information. This was cleared up with a call to the financial aid office, representative reviewed my file and waived the requirement.
Duke University - noticed a request for parental information 03/09/20. Had to fill out and submit an independent status request form plus attach utility bills and tax return.
Vanderbilt University - as of 03/10/20 has not requested any additional information under FinAid tab
Stanford - as of 03/10/20 has not requested any additional information
UNC CH - as of 03/10/20 has not requested any additional information
All information was filled out correctly and identical for FAFSA and CSS so its not necessarily something you did. Colleges seem to have different requirements and processes regarding independent status. Glad I routinely check portals because none of the requests came via email. Or maybe I caught them before the notices would have been sent, not sure. Just glad I got it all corrected asap. Hope everything worked out ok for you.