<p>Waffle. This is discussion you need to have with your parents. If your parents are in the process of divorcing, perhaps your mom’s lawyer can get something about college costs for you and your sister into the divorce settlement. I know that won’t help you right now, but it might for the future.</p>
<p>Because Cornell requires the Profile (I believe that is accurate), the income and assets of non-custodial parents is taken into consideration.</p>
<p>I would say there is NO chance that you can declare yourself as an independent student. But you could stop going to school and you could work until after your 24th birthday at which time you would be independent.</p>
<p>The thing that is difficult to understand or believe is that NO parent has a mandate to pay for college. Even parents who are married (with significant assets and income) can say they won’t pay the bill. That does not factor into the financial aid equation (nor should it, in my opinion).</p>
<p>Sadly, the reality in the OP’s situation is that if Dad was earning THAT much money, there would be an expectation that some of it would have been put into savings for college purposes (and truthfully, a fully funded 529 might have been possible with good financial planning since $400K is nine times the annual family income in this country). </p>
<p>The only option I can see for affordability would be to transfer to a FAFSA only school where only your mom’s income (and assets) would be considered.</p>