<p>Jahaba, the way you worded your original question implied that joining the military was insanely irresponsible. "Is getting married solely to become independent more or less insanely irresponsible than joining the military just to get an advantage on the FAFSA? "</p>
<p>ROTC gives you no FAFSA advantage. Going active duty military gets you independent status, but there is the small matter of the multiple year military contract.</p>
<p>To answer your question getting married to get independent status is crazy. And it may not work. I know of a married couple in their 3rd year of college that get substantial financial help from one set of parents. The school did not change their status to independent.</p>
<p>Enlisting in the military for independent status and the GI Bill is not crazy, but if the military is not what you want to do with your life you will be beyond miserable for a minimum of 2 years. If you can hack it then fine. Note that this is way different than joining ROTC and becoming an officer at graduation. ROTC has zero impact on FAFSA dependency status.</p>
<p>Many, many people do well in the military without making it a career. It can be a bridge where one earns a paycheck, has a challenging job, gets training, sees some of the world and learns to function as part of a unit. It can also be 3 or 4 years of total hell for someone who is bright and not given to following orders. </p>
<p>OP has to choose between some brutal paths. 1) Deal with parents enough to get paperwork in 2) postpone college until age 24 or 3) Find some half measures such as work and night school. </p>
<p>We have a young friend who blew off senior spring and totally dissed his parents. He ended up not graduating and not going to college. He has finished his GED. He has applied to over 100 jobs but he keeps finding that employers are hiring older, more experienced people (lots to choose from in this economy). </p>
<p>He is one of the brightest kids I know. He has a mouth and an opinion on everything. This winter has been very humbling for him. He knows he is smart – but he’s unemployed, has no skills, and he’s back to dealing with his parents because he has no other means of support. </p>
<p>Things may be grim for Antonio, but they can get worse. Please choose carefully.</p>
<p>I don’t remember saying that joining the military was insanely irresponsible, but I’ll give you that if that’s the way you interpreted my sentence. Anyway, that’s beside the point. You keep bringing up the ROTC but I don’t remember even mentioning that program either. People mention the ROTC as a source of scholarships, but I know that it doesn’t count as making you independent for the FAFSA (I would know, I’ve filled the damn things out 4 times for myself and countless times for other people). </p>
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<p>That’s my point. If you’re enlisting in the military just to get one over on the FAFSA, you’re probably making a mistake. People don’t understand the commitment; they think they can just join for a couple of months and resign and get veterans benefits and they’ll have to be told differently when they actually try to sign up. It’s the better of the two alternatives but if there’s anyway to work things out with the parents so you can keep using their financial information then I would strongly advise the OP to stick with that rather than making a huge commitment (either a lifetime to a spouse or a fixed period with the government) just to get independent status.</p>
<p>I believe BC and USC meet full need…don’t know about loans…I think they do have them. I’m not sure about U Chicago.
Of course, this fellow has to get accepted too.</p>
<p>At least one is. But, with the OP’s GPA, I think admittance is unlikely at these schools. </p>
<p>The OP has another issue. He probably didn’t fill out his FAFSA correctly. He lives equally with both parents in the same house, but only used his dad’s very low income - even though the mom pays all the house bills, etc. I don’t think you can just include dad’s low income, when mom is providing so much for the son and the dad.</p>
<p>All three of those schools use the Profile to award institutional aid as well. BOTH parents (regardless of marital status or where they live) will need to report income/assets on the Profile for these schools…</p>
<p>Actually U Chi might not use the Profile, but they DO have their own form.</p>
<p>But, the OP qualifies for Pell and such based on an inaccurate FAFSA. Right now, his FAFSA shows a 0 EFC. In reality, he probably doesn’t have a 0 EFC.</p>
<p>The above schools will look at the FAFSA AND Profile when processing the financial aid application. When they see a discrepancy between the two forms (mom and dad living in the same household…but dad’s income reported on FAFSA even though mom’s is more) it will likely raise some questions. The reality too…is that the maximum federally funded need based aid will NOT fund the costs of attending ANY of the schools listed.</p>
<p>A $0 EFC per FAFSA might net this poster the maximum federal need based aid but that will leave him VERY short of the full cost of attending these schools.</p>
<p>The institutional monies will be awarded using the Profile AND school based forms (I believe UChi has their own finaid form). BOTH parent’s income will need to be reported for these. </p>
<p>Was there anything that indicated what mom’s income was? I don’t recall.</p>
<p>ok my EFC is 0 with my father’s info but my mom makes a little less than 50k a year so all things being considered</p>
<p>ie, family of 4, i cant imagine my EFC being any higher even if I did use my mom’s info (which i am going to do as soon as I get a hold of her)</p>
<p>also, this isnt about this year or even "if those schools would accept me)</p>
<p>granted, im not riding my gpa to stardom but I have a few other things going for me…</p>
<p>as for deadlines passing for the current year, well again, it’s not about this year but about whether or not it is possible to become independent within the first few years of undergraduate</p>
<p>it seems to be possible, but unlikely, or otherwise extremely hard to do and therefore improbable</p>
<p>EDIT: well yes, I put both of my parents on the CSS profile because it asked for noncustodial too</p>
<p>the only thing is, I put my mom as the noncustodial parent and I’m not sure if it matters on the CSS becaeuse I dont recall the main CSS being any more comprehensive than the NCP profile</p>
<p>Ok so I was looking through my fafsa and it never asks which parent will be providing the information?</p>
<p>it asks for both parents’ names, DOBs, SSNs, etc.
it also provides space for both parents’ agi’s and wages and what not, am I supposed to leave all questions pertaining to my father blank and only fill in answers regarding my mother?</p>
<p>When you fill out a FAFSA you also indicate if your parents are married/single/divorced. If they are single or divorced…you only enter ONE parent’s information…not both. If your parents are divorced you are supposed to enter your CUSTODIAL parent info only. (Remember…you have indicated your parent is divorced). The custodial parent is the parent with whom you reside 51% of the time…or more. IF you reside equally with both parents (Antonio…that is the case with you because both parents live in the same place…it’s EQUAL)…you are required to put the parent that provides the larger amount of your support (as noted by others in posts above). Again…that is the RULE on the FAFSA. In your case, this should have been your mom…she earns more money. </p>
<p>Now…for the Profile…you will also put your mom as your custodial parent. You need to be consistent from one form to the other…you can’t just ‘decide’ to change who your custodial parent is. Again…your mom will be your custodial parent. You will complete the Profile with HER information…and then your dad will complete the non-custodial parent form.</p>
<p>You are able to make corrections on the Profile. In fact, once your parents complete their taxes you should be making corrections and sending them to the schools. In our experience…we made a photocopy of the Profile (which we printed out when we submitted it…I HOPE you did this) and then we were told to hand write in any corrections. You should call each school and ask them THEIR procedures for doing corrections to the Profile. They will tell you what to do and where to mail the corrections.</p>
<p>If your school(s) use IDOC, you may not have to do corrections. When you submitted the Profile, it should have told you IF any of your schools use IDOC. If so, you will receive very clear instructions on what to send…and when.</p>
<p>*ok my EFC is 0 with my father’s info but my mom makes a little less than 50k a year so all things being considered</p>
<p>ie, family of 4, i cant imagine my EFC being any higher even if I did use my mom’s info (which i am going to do as soon as I get a hold of her)*</p>
<p>I think your EFC will change if your mom’s income is used. BTW…I don’t think you can claim a “family of 4” if that includes your dad. If you have one sibling, then it’s a family of 3.</p>
<p>I don’t think FAFSA let’s you have it both ways…which would be counting the entire family living in the house (mom, dad, kids), but not count one parent’s income. It would seem like it would have to be one way or the other.</p>
<p>^^mom2 Doesn’t FAFSA allow you to count people in the household that are being supported? If the mom is supporting the ex in the basement and deducting him on her taxes then I think he can be counted?</p>
<p>I have to say…if the parents are listed as divorced and then both parents are listed as members of the “household”…I would think somewhere along the way…the finaid folks at the colleges would question the information on the FAFSA. I would think they would want some kind of explanation of this situation.</p>
<p>well in the CSS profile’s explanation of special circumstances</p>
<p>I wrote that a judge allowed my dad to live in the same household
not sure if it was appropriate or even if i was allowed to do it.</p>
<p>and after doing the FAFSA household size worksheet, me, my parent(mother), sibling, other person supported by mother(father)</p>
<p>should equal 4?</p>
<p>P.S. the fafsa says that u cant use the pin(that i just applied for on the behalf of my other) for anything other than signing the FAFSA
until SSA verifies it.</p>
<p>but it doesnt even let me sign it(although, it is a correction)
is that how it’s supposed to work?</p>
<p>Hmmm, so the original FAFSA you used your Dad’s pin and your pin and now you are correcting the FAFSA to reflect your mom as primary and using your pin and a mom pin on a correction? Is that what you are asking about? Just before you type in your pin you might have a question about whether it’s the mom info or the dad info, if you get that prompt make sure you change that to “mom”. But maybe I’m not understanding the question.</p>