<p>Child is a junior in 4 year school - just turned 23 years. I have been divorced for several years. Other parent has stopped paying child support for this student. My sole support is alimony which does not meet all of my needs. I am disabled and have substantial medical expenses. Is this child considered an independent student? What about next year when he'll be a senior?</p>
<p>Fir FAFSA, independence has nothing to do with the year the of the student’s undergrad program. It is based on a series of questions in FAFSA, the primary one being the student’s age. Once a student turns 24 he is considered independent. For the 2013-2014 FAFSA, a student must have been born before January 1st 1990 to be independent (in other words will turn 24 before the end of 2013). </p>
<p>However, if your income is very low, I would have thought your students EFC, on which FA is based, would already be pretty low. If so, becoming independent for FAFSA may not make a huge difference financial aid wise.</p>
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No this year, yes next year.
See [Will</a> I need my parents’ information?](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/help/fftoc02k.htm]Will”>http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/help/fftoc02k.htm)
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<p>Well, it depends on when the “*just *turned 23” happened. Just now as in this month, or just as in December? If the student is 23 right now but turns 24 *before *the end of 2013, he will be independent for the 2013-2014 FAFSA. If he turns 24 early in 2014, he will not be independent for this year’s FAFSA, but will for the 2014-2015 FAFSA.</p>
<p>^A better question per FAFSA on the web would be
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<p>Birthday is January 11th…(Too bad it wasn’t 12 days earlier…)</p>
<p>Have you done FAFSA using your income? If so, what was the EFC?</p>
<p>How much does your son earn? Does he have any assets?</p>
<p>If he won’t have a low enough EFC at this point, why not just delay attendance a bit?</p>
<p>How has he been paying for college so far?</p>
<p>Mom2, I agree, he may have to take a year off.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, even if your son takes a year off, even if he becomes independent for federal aid, at many schools that give institutional aid, he will not be considered independent. </p>
<p>Most have policies that if you start as a dependent student, you finish as a dependent student (even if you get married, turn 24). Some school will require that your son has not been “dependent” on you for a number of years.</p>
<p>Sybbie is right. Even students who leave school and return some years later are still considered dependent. Schools can and do make their own rules when it comes to their own money, so you need to ask the school how they would handle something like this.</p>