<p>I will get in touch with my counselor as soon as possible. I am considering running away, explaining why I am here. I am doing my due diligence to make sure I can run away successfully and not become a thug.</p>
<p>What about dependency override on the grounds of physical abandonment/running away/homeless?</p>
<p>Is your counselor really going to jeopardize his her her license by stating that you came to him or her about abuse in your home and they did not report it up the chain?</p>
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<p>Not if it did not happen before you turned 18. At 18, you would not be considered a runaway as you are perfectly free to leave your parent’s home. </p>
<p>As far as physical abandonment is concerned, it would have had to happen while you are still a minor, meaning that your parents abandoned your home and you do not know where they are (again, as a minor, this would have to be corroborated by the school). It is a moot point, because you live with your parents.</p>
<p>I agree with kela10, that there is nothing forcing you to go home during breaks, summer. Find a job or a paid summer position on campus, where you can be self sufficient.</p>
<p>Listen to what people are saying. For a dependency override you will need documentation from third parties who know about the abuse. What are you doing living at home? It’s summer, do you have a job? Are you capable of living on your own? At your age, it’s not really “running away from home” it’s more leaving the family nest. You want your college to fund more of your education so you aren’t dependent on your parents and you are saying you don’t want to be dependent on your parents because they are abusing you. Well allegations of abuse is grounds for legal actions yet you don’t want to do that. I think you should talk this through with a counselor or someone who can advise you, someone who can evaluate what type of harm you are really in and can perhaps give you some adult advice about how you can move on with your life separate from your parents. Only YOU can decide where this particular college fits into that equation. It won’t be an easy path so you need to decide what the most important issues are.</p>
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<p>Yes but this also means your life will be different…not the same…so there may come a point where you have to make choices. </p>
<p>Finally you say in your original post that they refuse to pay for college? Apparently they did for your freshman year as you say you got a good GPA freshman year. </p>
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<p>What happened between last summer and this summer that changed the family situation? These are the types of questions that you need to be able to document and share.</p>
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<p>Princeton’s policy regarding financial aid is as follows:</p>
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<p>Even on the very off, chance you should be granted a Federal dependency override, you will be considered a dependent for for institutional aid at Princeton and they will not give you increased financial aid to make up for your parent’s portion of the package.</p>
<p>If you and your parents are not getting along and as a result, you feel that you need to transfer some place where you can get a full ride, please be advised that “full rides” are extremely rare, if available at all for transfer students.</p>
<p>the loss to both parties, will not be tremendous because Princeton is not at a loss for bright achieving students, and they will not feel your loss do to the plain and simple fact that they do not accept transfer students and with a single digit admit rate, there are plenty of candidates who would love to take your place. You would not be the first nor will you be the last student to leave Princeton because of money.</p>
<p>^^that’s good that you posted that Sybbie, it might help the OP sift through what the real priorities need to be.</p>
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<p>You are CHOOSING to run away, and be homeless. That will not get you a dependency override. You are currently living in your parents’ home and it doesn’t sound like that has ever been different. Choosing to be “homeless” by running away is NOT physical abandonment.</p>
<p>Plus if this student is a rising sophomore chances are that the age is 18…not really “running away” many kids break from their parents at 18 and head out on their own.</p>
<p>I am still considered a financial dependent on parents. </p>
<p>Thank you guys for help. I will get legal counsel to see what my options are and whether an Assault charge will change anything.</p>
<p>Documentation from medical professionals regarding your injuries should help your case.</p>
<p>Again, the abuse is one matter. The dependency is another. It would be hard for you to demonstrate that you are not a dependent of your parents if you are living with them. I do think getting some legal advice would be wise. I can’t see how a signed statement from your father or any other of the “evidence” you speak of (I put it in quotation marks because it may not be evidence in a legal sense) would be useful to establish that you are independent.</p>
<p>Regardless, Princeton still states, unless the reason is financial, they will not be giving the student any of their own funds.</p>
<p>The only thing that an override is going to get the student is $5500 in Pell and a stafford Loan. The school will not give any financial aid with out the parent information and they will not replace the parent’s contribution due to refusal to pay.</p>
<p>Getting legal counsel is not going to do anything unless Op is willing to have parents arrested and charged with assault.</p>
<p>As Sybbie has stated…the OP has two separate issues here.</p>
<p>My free advice…OP…if you really have been assaulted you need to address that issue. This is serious and would require a police report. </p>
<p>If you are only hoping that an assault issue will generate more financial aid…please think again.</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification, sybbie719.</p>
<p>I would advise Op to think very long and very hard about what he wants to do.<br>
Because if he goes forward with charging his parents with assault as an adult, even in a domestic violence capacity there will be no turning back. </p>
<p>It is one thing if there is genuine abuse going on and you have been assaulted (which is a crime) and you have the right to bring charges and have your attackers prosecuted to the full extent of the law. However, if you are using the courts as a mechanism to get a dependency override, there is no guarantee that Princeton will give you the aid you need. </p>
<p>The one thing you will accomplish, is that the fall out you your family will most likely be irreparable and possibly alienating you from your extended family.</p>
<p>One or both of his parents will be arrested</p>
<p>They will have an arrest record</p>
<p>They will have to spend major money on a defense attorney to defend these charges, in addition to taking time off from work.</p>
<p>Depending on the capacity in which your parents, work you could be jeopardizing their employment</p>
<p>It will be public record and probably reported in your city/town’s police blotter</p>
<p>You will have to testify in court that the incidents that you are charging are true (or being charged with perjury if you are lying).</p>
<p>Be absolutely, 100% positive that this is the road that you want to take.</p>
<p>Which is why I think the OP would be smart to talk within a counseling session rather than consulting an attorney. A counselor should be able to help the op sort out the issues and think through the consequences. If there is criminal abuse occurring it seems to me that a counselor would be able to suss that situation also and make suggestions regarding paths to follow and then the OP can consult an attorney. The fact that the OP at the presumed age the OP is at, used the terms ‘running away’ as opposed to leaving home needs exploring in my opinion. That is a term that a 16 yr old or younger would use in my opinion. There are bigger issues here than what princeton might or might now do. The OP could have stayed in the college town, found someone that needed a roommate and could probably have stayed for the summer and not returned home which would have bolstered the story alittle. My boys didn’t come home every summer not because they hate us, but because they are feeling like they don’t want or need to live with mom and dad.</p>
<p>The link to the dependency override info includes:
• has no contact with the parents and does not know where they are (and the student has not been adopted by someone else); or
• has left home due to an abusive situation.</p>
<p>Neither hold in this case.</p>
<p>the discretion to do so is completely at the Financial Aid Office</p>
<p>When any resource states this is the college’s decision to make, they refer to the fact that there are no federal or other regulatory policies that tell the college what to do. That does not mean a finaid offcer will just make some nice, simple, on-the-spot decision. It will depend on Princeton’s internal policies for DO’s and Special Circumstances. One reg they must follow is to treat all students in a category or classification equally- ie, no preferences. Ie, if they have denied other students for insufficient info or documentation, or if they require legal documentation, they’ll stick with policy rather than view your case as individual.</p>
<p>This is sort of shutting the barn door after the cows left. Forgive me, but it seems that now that you’re at P and the parents won’t pay, you’re willing to raise an issue you previously did not pursue. There has to be a record- not just your say-so. There has to be the third party knowledge, during the time this occured. It’s not a matter of collecting a few letters now.</p>
<p>There may be some genuinely bad stuff going on or went on in the past and i give the OP the benefit of the doubt. Regardless it’s July and what is the OP going to do in the fall? Someone, and not us, need to help the OP think the situation through, help the OP figure out the steps that need to be taken because the tuition bill is going to arrive very soon. OP search kelsmom’s threads, she is a former finaid officer and helped several people work through similar stories. Everyone here has given similar information, but it might help you to read those threads. Here’s a particularly long one that went into some detail about what might be needed. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/849654-how-do-i-file-independent-student-through-fafsa.html?highlight=dependency+override[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/849654-how-do-i-file-independent-student-through-fafsa.html?highlight=dependency+override</a></p>
<p>As someone who reviewed dependency override paperwork, I would seriously question OP’s situation as being one that would merit a dependency override. Sybbie has laid out the facts of the matter extremely well.</p>
<p>If you leave home due to an abusive situation, that might be something solid for a dependency override. If you are living at home, collecting signed statements from your parents admitting they were abusive to you and building up a case for the past, and yet refusing to file charged, doing this just on a financial aid basis, I think this would be met with a lot of skepticism.</p>
<p>I think meeting with an attorney is a good idea. You can go over the dependency override for and also contact Princeton’s financial aid office on what their own institutionally policies are in this sort of situation. </p>
<p>Personally, I would require some form of public record, such as a police report, arrest, charges, conviction. before making an official declaration of abuse. That is a very serious accusation, and in this country, those so accused have their rights.</p>
<p>Just simply moving out will NOT give this student (or any other student) a dependency override. There has to be something more substantial to document this. A student who is over 18 can CHOOSE to move out of his/her parents’ home at any time. This is also not cause for a dependency override. If the student moves out by choice…that is not going to count as “homeless” because again…it was a choice.</p>
<p>If this student truly is being abused, this is serious business and should be dealt with accordingly.</p>
<p>If this student is hoping that saying he/she is being abused, moving out will create more financial aid from Princeton, I think they are barking up the wrong tree.</p>