Parental Information?

Applying to College
1

There are so many people trying to find a loophole to qualify for independent status I am having a hard time trying to find information for genuine independent students.

I was married and am over 24 so I am definitely an independent student. While filling out the fafsa I noticed that it says I should only fill out parental information if the school requires it. Does anyone know how common it is for the school to require parental information from independents? I really don’t want to fill out parental information, not just for financial reasons but for the difficulty of obtaining such information. I haven’t spoken to my father in over a decade and my mom is retired and we just don’t usually talk about finances.

I am going to just not put the parental information but am I making a mistaking in doing so? I am applying to transfer to several schools and calling them all about this just seems annoying.

Any opinions?(I am also posting this in the financial aid forum)

2

Some schools consider a student dependent at a later age than the fed. Dig deep into their websites. Also, if you enter dependent you may stay dependent your entire time there, which means you would have to get this information every year.

3

Yeah I tried, a bit half heartedly, to find some school specific info about this and decided to just go with the ignore it and hopes it goes away method. :slight_smile:

I have not had any indication that any of the schools I’m applying at have an usual need for my parents’ info so I think it’ll be ok. If worse came to worse(worst?) I would have to give my retired mother’s pension info and get some kind of exception for my father since I don’t even know where exactly he lives anymore. I doubt either one’s income would have too big of an impact on my FA.