please help, i don't know how to pay for college?

<p>my parents legally divorced last year. i submitted the fafsa last april.</p>

<p>fafsa guidelines for divorced parents is whoever you live with the most in the last 12 months from the time you file it is the tax returns you use. if it is equal, use the parent who supported you the most financially.</p>

<p>i spend time with both my parents about equally. i have lived with friends too. my dad and mom both pay for my groceries, and i support myself in every other way. my dad is my custodial parent on the tax returns too.</p>

<p>i first filed it using my dad’s tax returns. i had to verify it, and it went through. i checked my fafsa online one day and it said it was incomplete, so i panicked and thought i did something wrong. i went to the financial aid office to explain that i lived with my mom more, not my dad. the only problem is that i found out that i won’t get a pel grant with my mom tax information and i need it to afford college, but honestly, it was about equal and i’m really not sure. i was really paranoid for some reason but i should of just not of said anything. should i go back and try to change it again? i just got the pel grant in the mail for my dads tax returns but they want me to return it.</p>

<p>my main question though is how do i approach this now? sorry i wasn’t clear.</p>

<p>Well now you know who to live with more for next year. It doesn’t matter if you support yourself in every other way because you are a dependent for financial aid purposes. It doesn’t matter which one claims you as a dependent.</p>

<p>If it is equal and you aren’t sure, why did you say your mom? It will be awkward to keep flip flopping but if you can prove that you were with your Dad more OR maybe your Dad can show that he supported you more, you can try. I don’t know if someone may be able to make a suggestion for you, stand by.</p>

<p>I’m not sure that you are aware but there are a lot of great private schools that will give you great fin aid based on your grades and scores. I’ll bet your efc - expected family contribution would be small based on your situation. Check out these great schools that are overlooked often but will give you a great education ctcl.org also if liberal arts is not what you want but want go for engineering, business. etc again look at schools that offer top notch program but also generous aid - lookup 63 schools that give generous financial aid by Lynn oshaugnessy</p>